Marjolein Dallinga

Biography

Marjolein Dallinga is a manual artist, her creativity appeared at an early age established on the foundations of her love for living beings, horses and riding, movement and colors.

She trained in graphic arts and painting at the Minerva Academy, a renowned Fine Arts Institute in Groningen, Holland, her hometown.

She then spent several years painting and drawing before coming to live in Canada in 1989, getting married and raising a family of three boys.

Marjolein, tell us about yourself:

“As a child, I loved building things and I loved building cabins, creating spaces and clothes for my dolls, decorating my room and even my bikes. I always loved colors and was drawn to the beauty around me. My parents sent me to a craft school at a very young age. I loved going there and I have very clear memories of it. School wasn’t easy for me, I was a dreamer and I only liked animals, art and music. When it came time to go to school, all I really wanted was to make art, but I was very hesitant and didn’t even try to apply for art school after high school. I studied art history instead. Thanks to art therapy, I realized that all I really wanted was to be an artist and that I should at least give it a shot. I worked for a year, then applied to an art school where I eventually studied fine arts. Then, in 1989, I moved to Canada. Immigration was a lonely and difficult experience that I expressed by creating art books and papier-mâché jewelry.

My painting and drawings were quite dramatic and intimate, and I liked to balance this work with more artisanal creations, for which I used papier-mâché, textiles and all kinds of threads.

When my children came into my life, my work adapted to their world and I began making wool toys. That's when I discovered felting, an art that changed my life. I've never left this medium since.

From toys to accessories like scarves, hats and rugs, I discovered more and more ways to use this magical wool.

I love the physical, material aspect of making felt with my own hands.

Coincidentally, I was asked to teach this art, which was previously unknown to the general public.

I discovered that I truly loved teaching and sharing, and it has never left me since.

Thanks to my workshops, I discovered Cirque du Soleil, which was a real surprise. I had never created costumes before, but I felt very comfortable and happy in this environment.

Working for Cirque du Soleil has greatly stimulated my creativity and possibilities. Seeing my creations worn has been very inspiring and has propelled my felt art to new heights.

Marjolein, in what environment do you design your creations?

“I had taken over the entire basement of our old house to create my studio. Thanks to the costumes I created for the Cirque and other companies, my work gained notoriety in the world of felt and textile arts, and so I began teaching internationally. Gradually, my work evolved from costumes to large, fairly voluminous sculptural pieces, and I felt myself moving from applied arts to fine arts. I received several grants to study the possibilities of felt and to carry out artistic projects in this medium.

Ten years ago, we moved to a new property, a former dairy farm that had burned down and been abandoned for many years. We built a new house here and a spacious studio where I now work every day and where I can teach and welcome visitors who come for workshops.

The farmhouse was built by early Irish settlers. This family cleared several acres of the property and lived there for two generations.

Having my own studio is a great blessing and a dream come true. I created a room for myself.

The solitude and peaceful atmosphere are a true gift for which I am extremely grateful.

I also love teaching and sharing this space with others.

Since the pandemic and the time when the whole world stopped, I have been delving into my old work: paintings, drawings and embroidery.

In recent years, I have combined my felted sculptures with paintings and have started to embroider a lot on my felted pieces.

I am very happy that painting is back in my life and I am looking for and experimenting with new ways to combine all of this. 

My workshop, Bloomfelt, is a colorful and spacious studio located in Gore, in the Lower Laurentians, Quebec, about an hour from Montreal. Peaceful and tranquil, it is surrounded by meadows and forests.

Je ne sais pas vraiment pourquoi je crée quelque chose, mais je sais que je veux le faire. En art, je suis libre : tout est possible. Ici, je peux être ouverte, susceptible, facilement accommodante, au bord du ravissement. »

Citations et poèmes

“I felt my life in both hands”

Emily Dickinson

“The life of this world is the wind

We come and we go, carried by the wind.

Everything we look at is just a godsend.

All we remember is the wind."

C. Wright

“Courage is fear in motion.”

Fluent

"I would like to live

Like a flowing river,

Carried by surprise

Of its own course.

John Donohue

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