Cindy Hoppe
Cindy Hoppe was born and raised on a farm west of Saskatoon. She attended the University of Saskatchewan and worked for 3 years on a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree that focused on painting. Hoppe was also learning crafts by helping her mother attend craft shows as a teenager in the beginning years of the Saskatchewan Crafts Council organization. Hoppe married a farmer north of Biggar, Saskatchewan and continued exploring craft mediums. As her mother’s interest in pottery changed into fibre, she moved from making pottery jewelry into transforming her mother’s weaving into jackets with hand knitting. When Hoppe's mother changed gears again and left weaving to become a felter, their paths diverged and she remained with woven materials.
Cindy Hoppe has a deep appreciation of the beauty and durability of wool and silk and restrict herself to these materials for fibre art. Her and her mother supported each other artistically, technically and emotionally in their exploration of this medium. She is self taught and would describe what she does as painting with a sewing machine.
Hoppe is focusing more on wall hangings and liturgical art these days. Her material is hand dyed, machine embroidered and quilted. Much of it is re-purposed, recycled fabric from second hand stores, although these days she is also purchasing new material in order to get the width of skies or yardage for large projects. Fibre as a medium has an earth and air quality to it because it absorbs light rather than reflecting it like paint and photography, and that is part of what inspires Hoppe every day.
