Alexandrya Eaton

Becoming: The Stories We Tell

  • May 1 - October 1, 2022
  • Hooked Rug Museum of North America
  • Hubbards, Nova Scotia

Becoming, a series of thirty paintings and hooked rugs, debuted in a solo exhibition at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, in Fredericton, New Brunswick, in 2018. It then travelled to Sunbury Shores Arts & Nature Centre, in Saint Andrews, New Brunswick, in 2019. In 2021, Becoming: The Stories We Tell was on view at the Saint John Arts Centre in the spring, and also inlcuded in Eaton's retrospective exhibition at the Owens Art Gallery throughout the summer.

In 2022, the entire series of hooked rugs from the Becoming series was on display at the Hooked Rug Museum of North America in Hubbards, Nova Scotia, from May to October. Eaton was honoured to be named Canadian Rug Hooking Artist of the Year.

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