DESIGNER IN HER PRIME
Artist Martha Sturdy’s new collection boasts pieces that are both functional and bold, Rebecca Keillor writes.
Getting older can be incredibly freeing, says Vancouver artist and designer Martha Sturdy, known internationally for her furniture, tabletop ware, sculptures and wall art. Her latest collection, PRIME, supports this sentiment.
The collection, which debuts at leading home-decor fair Maison et Objet Paris this month, includes pieces that are both functional — a club chair, dining table, coffee table, stools, shelving and a screen — and bold pieces of art. Made from resin in strong, primary colours (red, yellow and blue) along with Sturdy’s signature charcoal black and white, the collection is carnivallike in the way it conveys fun and positivity, and encourages us to lighten up a little.
“I can make stuff that looks elegant and simple and clean, and everything, but for this I go, ‘I don’t care,’” says Sturdy. “I’m just going to throw it up in the air and do crazy.”
As always, Sturdy says, she takes her cues from nature.
“When I started doing red pieces,” she says, “I was looking at petunias and the amazing colour that you get from flowers. The daffodil yellow: it’s real, and it’s beautiful and strong, and vibrant and important, and it’s right there, for free, in our gardens. In B.C., we have fabulous gardens, and fabulous natural environments with the trees and the ocean. And we are so busy being busy, in a big rush, I being guilty of all of the above, I look at it and kind of go, this is so pure and fresh and dynamic. Colour is fabulous, so enjoy it.”
Sturdy’s choice of resin makes this collection incredibly hardwearing, she says.
“You can have your grandchildren, your children or whoever, do their poster paints on it. With resin, how you clean it is you just take a Brillo pad, or sandpaper, and clean it. Whereas, if it’s brass or steel or painted wood or wood or veneer, all those things self destruct or get tired.”
The collection is named PRIME because all the pieces come in primary shapes (rectangles, circles and squares), prime colours and because the designer feels, at 75, she’s in the prime of her life.
“Just because a person gets to be a certain age, that doesn’t mean the game’s over,” she says. “Well, it can be if you choose it to be, or you free yourself, you don’t care anymore.”
The design of her new collection is completely modern, and suited to our changing living environments, with people living in smaller spaces and moving away from oversized pieces. Her cube shelving can be stacked into any sort of configuration, and the cube stools are the perfect height for sitting, but can be shoved under the dining room table to create more room. A lot of thought and intention has gone into every piece, says Sturdy, but it’s subtle, as she wants people to feel unrestricted when using them.
The dining table is a vibrant “bluebell blue” and there’s something of the Japanese esthetic in her coffee table (white, with charcoal circles and squares) and her screen.
“The coffee table is very low because I find that low makes you calm, and there’s a sense of peace and elegance and simplicity,” she says. “And, of course, with a coffee table like that then you should put your feet on it, and I don’t care because you’re not going to wreck it. The screen is very large, each section is 24 inches by 10 feet, and the reason I do that scale is that I love the scale. There is a history of Japanese influence, so when you look at the screen, one side is a piece of art that is in a frame, in that it’s charcoal and white, and then the other side will have a different story. It’s the same colours, but it’s like sky and land.”
Her club chair, which she designed with small spaces in mind, is “very comfortable, but doesn’t eat up much room,” and is available in a few colour choices, including primary red.
“Do you really need a red club chair?” she says. “Well, actually, yes you do.”
In her experience, says Sturdy, women will often go for more neutral colours in the home, and it’s men who will opt for strong colours.
“Men love colour,” she says. “They don’t want purple, I don’t think. But you can certainly see a man choosing a red sweater.”