Arts and Entertainment

‘Creativity is important’: Dufferin artist weaves magazines into unique pieces of art

September 18, 2025   ·   0 Comments

By Constance Scrafield

As an artist and teacher of many aspects of art, Fabienne Good believes that the importance of creativity cannot be overstated. Everyone is creative on some level, she will state plainly, adding with confidence that whatever a person does, as work or a hobby, they are being creative. Good is based in Dufferin County.

She defines herself as “an interdisciplinary artist whose work spans various mediums, including drawing, photography, textiles, and sculpture. Grounded in the idea that the medium is the message, her practice begins with a concept.”

As one of the artists at the Headwaters Arts Fall Festival Art Show and Sale, opening this evening (Sept. 18) and running to Oct. 5 at the Alton Mill Ats Centre, Good is both contributing a paper woven sculpture to the collection of the 70-plus fine art pieces assembled in the Fall Festival and giving an interactive talk at the Mill later in the two week span of the Festival.

Her submission is a paper Sculpture 28” tall, and 12” by 12” square, titled Traces of an Altered Landscape. It is an intensely woven spin of white paper. Dashes of colour within reflect in a mostly white landscape. At its depth, the sculpture is truly an environmental statement: the earth was pristine, but people have stained it.

As Good put it in her artist’s statement, “Traces of an Altered Landscape explores the tension between the natural and the constructed… the human impulse to mimic, intervene, and reshape the land.”

Her approach to art was influenced early on by her teachers at OCAD University.

“I make a point that OCAD drilled into us.” Good said. “The medium is the voice, something open that makes people think and understand the importance of the work.”

Following the beginning of her education here, Good went on to do a course in Switzerland, leading her to do much more.

“I did a Master’s in Art and Education in Switzerland,” she related. “My parents are from there. So, it was an opportunity not to need a visa.”

Her time in Switzerland lasted 10 years, during which she actually started to teach more than two-dimensional art.

She shared what she learned, “You have to teach recyclables. It took a lot of time to learn and it was hard to be of interest to the students, who were between nine to 14 years old.”

Good explained that a fine arts program came back in Switzerland, which included hands-on crafts, and they told her to put it together.

It turned out to be an exciting time all round.

“This art is visual but applied art that is fine craft. We brought back book binding and other hand crafts. It was a lot of fun, but the grades didn’t matter. With the weaving, they all wanted to finish their projects. It was a contrast for the students between the two-dimensional and three-dimensional,” said Good.

Whatever they were doing, it was about how “art teaches. My goal is to invoke the importance of creativity; to start a dialogue.”

Good said, “I feel like the pristine land.” Reflectively and keeping with her statue’s theme, “It’s interesting to question what remains untouched; what we build and what we leave behind.”

A soul connected to nature and a passionate gardener, Good has three large gardens to care for during the growing season. While her base is in Dufferin, she sees herself as actually peripatetic and offered another example of her inclination to travel.

Ten years in Switzerland, and then after her Bachelor’s, wanting something to challenge her, she went to Singapore for two years to study. She enjoyed the hot weather and is aware that the coming Canadian winter will be a hard contrast.

She talked about her membership with Headwaters Arts, noting that she had been a member as a student; then she moved away, but “when I came back I reconnected and recognized that the community is very open, approachable. I found the people here are very friendly. It’s nice to be here as part of the fall festival.”

Harkening back to some of her beginnings, she discussed the weaving of magazines that she learned about. She spins the pages into thin, stiff “sticks” and weaves them as one might another medium like straw, into beautiful plates and baskets.

“It really began with repurposing things,” Good recalled. “I started with plastic bags making little wallets. The wallets are very durable, the way plastic bags are. A friend of mine stills has her wallet after a long time. She said she is going to keep using it until it finally wears out. It was good weaving, in particular, of something that is durable. I don’t do the plastic ones much any more as the bags aren’t available.”

It is teaching that really matters. It’s all about creativity. It’s just a matter of whether you practice.

Good’s own practice begins with a concept that is generally based on metaphor, contrast, or cultural observations from her many and very diverse travels. Then, it can unfold through choosing which materials are best suited to express the concept. Often, drawing and photography can serve as tools of research and reflection, while the basis of her art is influenced by her background in fine arts and conceptual thinking. At all times, however, Good maintains that her works focus on how her meaning emerges through the interplay of medium, context, and content.

These days, Good finds herself teaching a lot. She and a friend are making inks from nature, berries, and other sources of colour to emphasize the importance of nature, with a workshop coming up in Hillsburgh.

Like a passion, like a mission, Good wants to spread the notion: “Creativity is so important,” she says.

You can learn more at www.fabiennegood.com

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