A Head Full of Colors!

For today's edition of Noodlings, I'm going back to my archive of articles written for Rug Hooking Magazine. Here, I wrote about Lynn Goegan's amazing rugs. Back then, I didn't keep track of when my articles were published, but given the dates that Lynn finished these rugs, I'm guessing the article ran in 2016. I don't have a print copy and the magazine no longer comes out in print, so I put together this issue of Noodlings, lest Lynn's dazzling colors fade from our minds. Take a gander! 

Mr. Dog, 12.5” X  14.5”, #4-cut wool on linen, adapted from a painting by Bev Whalen, designed and hooked by Lynn Goegan, Sturgeon Falls, Ontario, 2016.  “This dog was so handsome, I had to hook him,” Bev said.  “I loved hooking his plaid collar.  I dyed the wool for the border, painting it with a paintbrush so that colors fade in and out of each other.”

Way up north in Sturgeon Falls, Ontario, north of Lake Nippising, where the winter is long and ice-fishing rules, the amazingly prolific Lynn Goegan hooks.  Lynn channels every emotion into her fiber art through vivid colors, symbolic meaning, and mice.  She lives with her husband, three little dogs, and two aged and vocal parrots named Herbie and Coco.  She carries on a rich correspondence with her internet friend, artist Bev Whalen.  And she hooks.  Every day, she hooks.  

The King, 13.5” X  15”, #4-cut wool on linen, adapted from a painting by Bev Whalen, designed and hooked by Lynn Goegan, Sturgeon Falls, Ontario, 2016.  “I chose to adapt this painting because it was different for Bev,” Lynn said, “not a dog or a cat, but really off the wall.  The wide border was my own addition to her painting, and it was hooked without any drawing on the linen, totally freehand, something like a wilderness, I suppose.”

“When I was a kid,” Lynn said, “I prayed for a box of crayons with 64 colors.  I only got 8.  Since I was a child, my head has been full of colors.”  For a while, Lynn devoted her creative energy and her love of color to stained glass art, an obvious influence on her rug-hooking designs with the strong dark outline present in nearly everything she hooks.  She worked in a stained glass store, too, and sold art.  She still does some fine crocheting, but she now commits her days to hooking wool rugs.  In this medium, she can dye her wool any color she likes.

Innocent, 12” X  12”, #4-cut wool on linen, adapted from a painting by Bev Whalen, designed and hooked by Lynn Goegan, Sturgeon Falls, Ontario, 2015.  “I chose only one of two cats from Bev’s painting,” Lynn said, “because of his sweet facial expression.” 

Lynn’s rug hooking took a turn a couple of years ago, when one of her two sons became ill.  He recovered, but during that period, Lynn put all of her emotions into her hooking, opening up the subject matter in her designs and using the hooking as a way to process old feelings, fears, and even anger.  She sees rug hooking as her therapy, and also as a way to release the rebel inside her.  Lynn once sent me a photo of a rug-in-progress, the peaceful image of a glorious peacock with tail-feathers fanned out in serene symmetry.  “This is my stress rug,” she wrote.  Looking at the rugs featured here, one would never detect that the source of her inspiration can sometimes be negative emotions:  “Beautiful rugs can come out of bad experience,” she said.  “Hooking keeps me sane.  It’s a feeling of emptying out, and it helps me run out ahead of things that bother me.”  She may use a symbol, like a crack in a heart, but for the most part, the images she hooks don’t betray a trace of the emotional voltage that fueled the hooking.

Celtic Fun, 13” X  15”, #4-cut wool on linen, designed and hooked by Lynn Goegan, Sturgeon Falls, Ontario, 2016.  “I started with a classic Celtic design and changed it,” Lynn said.  “I took pieces of material that were just the right length, and I painted the wool dark to light in order to get this effect.  The mouse is really my signature.”

One or more mice usually find their way into most of Lynn’s designs; she loves them and they might turn up anywhere, even on a basket-weave design!  “Don’t let your hooking be guided by rules,” Lynn advises.  “Stop.  Reject the rules and let your hooking come from the heart and soul.” 

Lynn joins a hooking group on occasion, but usually she hooks at home alone.  She has hooked room sized rugs (5’ X 7’), but nowadays most of her pieces are relatively small, hooked in a #4-cut using a 10-inch hoop, a $7 hook, and bolt wool or “second-hand wool” from recycled kilts.  She dyes wool using a paintbrush.  And she hooks and hooks, sometimes all the hours of the day.  Over a period of 11 years, Lynn has hooked more than 250 rugs, many of them adaptations of Bev’s art.  “Right now, I have thirty of Bev’s paintings in my living room alone,” Lynn said. “I buy from her regularly, and she ships the paintings to me.  Obviously her animals with sad eyes are some of my favorite images to hook.  They speak to me.  The adapted paintings are Bev’s, but the borders are mine.” Bev and Lynn have never met in person.  Their long-distance friendship is conducted over the phone and based on their common love of art.

The Rose, 12.5” X 13”, #4-cut wool on linen, adapted from a Dutch delft-blue tile, designed and hooked by Lynn Goegan, Sturgeon Falls, Ontario, 2015.  Sometimes Lynn consults her husband about her designs: “This rug has a funny story. After I finished the flower in the middle, I asked my husband what I should do with the border.  He said try some stonework, and I did.  But he was surprised when I made it pink.”

“People talk about ‘color planning,’” Lynn said.  “I don’t do that. I don’t follow any rules.  People say you can’t use so many colors, but I just do it intuitively, I guess.  I just follow my own quirky way of using color.”

Naturally, we can include only a fraction of Lynn’s work here, and for this time, we’ve chosen many of her Bev Whalen adaptations and works that mimic the look of stained glass.  There’s more, Dear Readers, and we’re already planning to publish Lynn’s self-portraits and perhaps other series in the not-so-distant future.  

As it turns out, the child who yearned for those 64 crayons has developed an even broader color spectrum in her imagination and in her works of art.  

Friends, you'll notice that I didn't crop these photos very well. I have a lot of technology to learn as I pursue this passion project called Indigo Hookery! Thank you for reading my Noodlings, today. A few more photos below--and until next time, Happy Hooking!

English Cottage, 19” X  19”, #4-cut wool on linen, adapted with permission from Alida Akers. Designed and hooked by Lynn Goegan, Sturgeon Falls, Ontario, 2016.  “This design came from an artist who lives in Glasgow, Scotland, and is more of a water-color design,” Lynn said. “The artist responded very positively to my email.  I sent her a photo of the rug, and she loved it.”

Rose Window, 17.5” X  22.5”, #4-cut wool on linen, adapted from a stained glass window, designed and hooked by Lynn Goegan, Sturgeon Falls, Ontario, 2015.  “I was into stained glass windows,” Lynn said, “and this one really struck me.  I adapted the stained glass image, but the border is all mine.  I don’t go by any color rules. I put any color I like into an image.”

Painted Wool: Lynn dyes her wool with a paintbrush and hangs her rainbow out to dry.