Carolyn Christenson-Qualle

BiographyCarolyn Christenson-Qualle graduated from the Alberta College of Art and Design with a Diploma in Textiles (1978) and studied Printmaking at the University of Calgary (1980, 1984). As a printmaker and book artist, she has an intimate relationship with paper: its colour, texture, and sculptural adaptability, which provide endless possibilities for creating and containing narrative. Through these media, she seeks to balance text and image, structure and material. She continues to develop her skills in bookbinding, print media, and paper making through independent study in Kyoto and Kurotani, Japan; London, England; New York, Chicago, Minneapolis, and San Francisco, USA; and Vancouver and Calgary, Canada; and through group study with the International Hand Papermaking Conference.

Christenson-Qualle’s work has been exhibited in Canada, United States, England, Australia, Japan and Korea, and is held in the collections of the National Library of Canada (Ottawa), York University (Toronto) the University of Calgary and the University of Calgary’s Nickle Galleries, the University of Alberta (Edmonton), and the Alberta Foundation for the Arts (Edmonton). She has taught book art, paper making and print workshops for over twenty years in North America for institutions such as The Center for the Book in New York City, the Japanese Paper Place in Toronto, and most recently The Esker Foundation in Calgary. Since 2002, she has served as an instructor and faculty member at the Alberta College of Art and Design in Calgary. Her teaching facilitates the development and linking of papermaking and fibre practice with her students’ own personal explorations.