Pirkko Karvonen

b. 1935, Forssa, Finland

Pirkko Karvonen was taught to weave by her stepmother in Finland in response to the postwar shortage of utilitarian objects like rugs, towels, and tablecloths.

After coming to Canada in 1951, she established a studio practice in Edmonton where she taught weaving to scores of students across the province through the Edmonton School Board’s Extension Services and Alberta Culture. Rapeseed Fields, 1974, offers an abstracted rendering of a canola field and illustrates her masterly combination of design, technique, and dyeing skills. It also recalls the significant efforts of prairie agricultural researchers in the 1970s to create canola (formerly known as rapeseed), an oilseed crop whose brilliant yellow flowers illuminate the prairie landscape in July and August.