Ralph Simpson
Nationally acclaimed Canadian plant fibre artist, Ralph Simpson has developed an innovative method of weaving, bending and sculpting plant fibre into sculptural forms.
Ralph is an award-winning artist with grants from artsnb and Canada Council for the Arts, short-listed for the Salt Springs National Art Prize (2021) and his work has been accessioned into collectionArtNB, New Brunswick’s permanent art collection (2023). Ralph holds an MSc. from UNB in Forest Research Biology, and a Diploma in Fine Craft from NBCCD. Informed by the sciences and his acquired technical expertise, his intricately woven pieces reflect the fields and forests around him.
He was born in Hillsborough, New Brunswick, and currently resides in Fredericton, New Brunswick. He works full time in his studio, exhibiting his work locally and internationally, attending residencies and giving workshops. Ralph chooses to work with locally sourced, sustainable materials, and he forages his own plant fibres using environmentally sustainable methods.
The flora of New Brunswick informs his work and his creative process. His designs arise from his interpretations of nature and have evolved from traditional basketry, to vessels, and botanically themed sculptures. His process results in a contemporary manifestation of his connection with plants in their natural habitat. His work varies in form and style, but what resonates in all his work is an underlying investigation into ways that plant materials can be used to spark interest and insight into the natural world.
His motivation arises from a deep connection with nature and a reciprocal need to promote environmental sustainability.
What led you to become an artist?
I have been an artist all my life, so you might say that I was born an artist. My earliest, favourite memories are of making things with my father and my mother, who were both makers. My father taught me to make things with wood and bark, and my mother taught me to make things with textiles. I was drawn to art and artists, sought them out, conversed with them, and expressed my interest in their work. And of course, I enjoyed perusing all the art books in our library.
What led you to the basket-making technique?
I have always loved boxes and baskets and have made many from many different materials, paper, bark, fabric, string, wire, metal, and plant fibre. I learned to sew and weave materials into baskets at home using paper and fabric, but my love of plants brought me to weaving outdoors with grasses, leaves, and bark.
How did your training and experience help you to create and innovate in your artistic practice?
My artistic practice was driven by my desire to learn and to associate with other artists, especially basket makers, and strangely, I was not a bit shy about seeking them out. I sought out teachers that could help me to learn weaving techniques, and I traveled far and wide to find people willing to teach me. My practice and my desire to learn took me to artist residencies, mentorships, and workshops across Canada and the US, as well as Poland, Spain, Thailand, Bhutan, and Peru in search of knowledge.
What I found was a welcoming and acceptance into the world of plant fiber weaving of the highest caliber. It was the acceptance and recognition from established, world-class basket makers that have helped me to build a sound foundation for my artistic practice.
What stimulates you most about your practice?
My practice is stimulated by my desire to create. I love to make things, I love to work, and I am very prolific in my practice. I also like to exhibit my art, and I find peer recognition energizing. I like challenges found in artist’s residencies and exhibitions, and I am forever searching for these types of opportunities and writing proposals and applications for artistic challenges and competitions.
What motivates your creativity?
I am always in search of inspiration, always looking for shapes and materials to inform my practice, and I find it in the natural world around me. I spend time every day out in nature, fields, forests, and rivers are my natural habitat, always looking for plant fibre and other objects like rocks and branches that stimulate new ideas that can be used in my work.
How has living and working in New Brunswick helped and/or inspired you on your journey?
I live in New Brunswick because I love it here. Artistic opportunities and support are better elsewhere but this is where I choose to live. I have traveled extensively in New Brunswick and know the ecosystems and what plants grow where, and that has been helpful in my plant fibre foraging. Sometimes I feel like I am working alone in my chosen field, and I guess that challenges me to follow my own lead, but I sometimes wish there were more basket makers in this area. My artistic journey has been greatly inspired by the flora of New Brunswick and the diversity of plant life that we enjoy here.
How does your creative process unfold as you create an artwork?
Oh, so now I have to really think about what to say. First off, it varies, but usually starts outdoors in nature. It may just be a recollection of something I saw, or it may be being in the presence of a plant that sparks creativity. Sometimes it's the plant fibres themselves i.e. the actual strength, length, texture, or colour of the fibre, or it may be the form or shape of a plant part that is the inspiration. I will try to either make a note in my journal or a sketch of my thoughts. It is the interpretation of what I saw that I try to mimic. The challenge is in how to render the observation into reality using plant fibre. This challenge may take a while to resolve itself in my mind’s eye and may take a process I think of as ‘deliberate dreaming’, and as esoteric as this may seem to you, I attempt to enter into the object to see and understand its structure from the inside.
Why do you think it's important to make art and pursue an artistic career?
I think it is important because it is such an integral part of me, and to deny making art would be to deny myself. For many years, I denied the artist in myself for the sake of a better life for me and my family, and enjoyable as that was, it meant denying my art, there wasn’t time for both. I chose procreation and dedicated myself to that for as long as necessary. Don’t get me wrong, I would do it again, but making art is who I am, and it is very fulfilling to me, and I now feel that I am living the life that I am meant to live. What could be more important than that?
What have you learned about yourself and the artistic community through your work?
The most important thing, and that which I find most gratifying, is that my art is appreciated, realizing that I can produce work that is meaningful to others. My artistic objective is to produce art that is meaningful to me, art that satisfies me, and makes me feel good. I get a lot of satisfaction from foraging and processing the plant fibre that I use in my art, and furthermore, I enjoy the meditative process of weaving my art, but those are things that the public do not see and might only imagine. People see the final product, and when I hear that they like it for the peace that it enfolds and the calm that it brings to them, then I know that I have been successful.
It is fulfilling and encouraging to know that the artistic community also values my work.
What do you think is the impact of artists' work on communities and the province as a whole?
Art enriches people's lives by providing a glimpse into the artist’s imagination. Art can have an elevating effect on people, an escape from the mundane, perhaps. Art provides a new dimension, a new way of thinking or expressing yourself, and can liberate people’s thoughts by illustrating new elements, new ways of seeing life, new ideas, and sometimes illustrates acceptance of different ways of living. Oh, it's very good, art is.
Describe what you are most proud of in your career.
I am most proud of my various initiatives, my ambition, and my constant drive to advance my artistic career. I am proud of all the friendships that I have made in the artistic community.
In the past 5 years, I have taught over 40 workshops demonstrating and teaching plant fibre weaving to more than 300 individuals, and I have heard so many good things about the effect that it has had, and I find it so rewarding.
What advice would you give to emerging artists?
Emerging artists should look for opportunities to advance their practice, knowing that the opportunities presented are invitations to places where they will be welcomed and encouraged.
That the organizations that create opportunities need people to respond to their calls.
Keep presenting yourself through your art to distinguish yourself one step at a time.
