Becoming, Solo Traveling Exhibition 2018-2022

Becoming is a solo travelling exhibition which debuted at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, in Fredericton, New Brunswick, in 2018. It was then shown at Sunbury Shores Arts and Nature Centre, in Saint Andrews, in 2019 and at the Saint John Arts Centre in 2021. The series was shown a fourth time in Eaton's retrospective exhibition, Everything in Between, at the Owens Art Gallery, Mount Allison University, 2021, and most recently at the Hooked Rug Museum of North America in 2022.

"Eaton and her dog Elvis lead me to a small room near the kitchen where a jubilant heap of yarn towers over a stack of burlap squares. On the squares, Eaton has sketched her designs for the rugs. These designs tell the story of her grandmother through images and text. Like her 'Busy Woman' series, Eaton's rugs celebrate the strength of women using simplified contours, intensely saturated colours, and energetic compositions. Eaton's insistent theme of a buyoant life force represented through flowers and feminine identity re-emerges in the hooked rugs that are piling up between sheets of protective paper. Eaton's project is very close to her heart. Her designs are distilled by writing and drawing about her grandmother's life." ~ Christina Thomson, curator

"Women and flowers thrive in Alexandrya Eaton's paintings. For over 25 years, this Sackville-based artist has worked with vibrant imagery that brings her both joy and strength while expressing feminine power. Her work addresses cultural and personal experiences of gender identity and gender expression. 

Becoming references Simone de Beauvoir's statement that 'One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman.' Eaton's work explores the phases of womanhood as shaped by cultural pressures and personal choices through the story of her late grandmother, with whom she was very close. Eaton chose the soft and sturdy traditional medium of rug hooking for the portrayal of her role model, and relished the slow and gentle transformation of memories into images.

She creates iconic Pop-art figures that actively move through fear and sorrow with resilient courage and love. Her paintings and rugs are a memorial, yet also provide motivation to embody qualities that lead to fulfillment and strive for transcendance."

~ Christina Thomson, curator