tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-51448045854069186102024-03-06T00:21:19.579-05:00Art on the Edge ARTICLES FOR THE COLUMN, "ART ON THE EDGE" OF THE DAILY NEWSPAPER, THE CHRONICLE JOURNAL OF THUNDER BAYDuncan Wellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18154643396802535581noreply@blogger.comBlogger168125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5144804585406918610.post-63757246444727765572019-02-06T20:52:00.001-05:002019-10-04T21:28:52.561-04:0037 Year Old Crime: Stolen Paintings Recently Discovered Yet To Be Returned to Confederation College<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
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<span style="background-color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt;">On the left is an image of 1970s artwork by Norval Morrisseau, </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt;">stolen from Confederation College in 1981. On the right is a </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt;">similarly styled Morrisseau painting from 1965</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"> “Four valuable paintings on display at Confederation College were stolen Thursday night and college officials are hoping that the community will assist in helping recover them.” So read the article in the Chronicle Journal of February 27, 1981. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"> In 1981 it was two young people that the police were hoping to identify. The two had “left the impression with staff they were working and removing the paintings from one part of the building to another – not unusual procedure in the college,” states an article in the Chronicle Journal of March 5, 1981.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"> Two of those paintings were stolen from the wall behind the College’s front desk; paintings titled Demi-God Figure 1 and Demi-God Figure 2. These painting by Norval Morrisseau were donated to the College in the 1970s. At the time they were valued at $3,500.00 each. The other two paintings are Carl Ray works. Purchased by the College in the 1970s they were hung on the second floor. Not appraised at the time, the Ray works were of similar value. Today all four paintings could be worth nearly half a million dollars. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"> 37 years later, the two Morrisseau paintings have turned up along with one of the stolen Carl Ray’s. According to sources the person who has them lives in Montreal. Although this private collector did not steal the paintings this collector has hired a lawyer in an attempt to retain the art works. At first however, this collector was looking to sell the paintings. The agent hired to assist was knowledgeable enough to recognize the stolen works. She dutifully called the police. Both the Surete du Quebec and the Thunder Bay Police are investigating. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"> Mike Rozic, the Senior Manager of Public Safety and Risk Management at the College states, “Confederation College is aware of the ongoing investigation into the paintings that were stolen in 1981. We are working with the police and are hopeful that the paintings will be returned after more than 35 years.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"> Before purchasing a painting it’s a good idea to know its provenance, especially works by nationally recognized artists. Private collectors are usually keen to loan pieces of their collection to a public gallery for, let’s say a retrospective; it’s of public benefit and helps to increase the work’s value. Every collector would love for the value of a work they own to increase, in spite of claiming a predominating sentimental value.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"> Certainly Confederation College and this city has sentimental value for such works. Had the College been in possession of the Morrisseau’s and Ray’s they would have loaned them out numerous times over 37 years. Our Thunder Bay Art Gallery, with one of the biggest collections of indigenous art in the country would be keenly interested in the return of these paintings to the College and would likely put on a show to celebrate such an event. The TBAG as we know is uniquely located just behind the College. Sharing is not a problem. Staff could walk the paintings over.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;"> That is if the paintings are returned soon enough. The Thunder Bay Art Gallery is getting a 33 million dollar new home at Prince Arthur’s landing in the North Core. An added feature of the opening ceremonies with ribbon cutting and popping corks might be the prominent display of missing artworks returned.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 11pt;">Duncan Weller <a href="http://www.duncanweller.com/">www.duncanweller.com</a></span></div>
Duncan Wellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18154643396802535581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5144804585406918610.post-47881907256271259452019-02-06T16:39:00.001-05:002019-10-04T21:30:12.550-04:00The Art of Cheryl Wilson-Smith<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 11pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 11pt;">If</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 11pt;"> </span><b style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11pt;">21 Pillows </b><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 11pt;">was a film feature you could imagine a parade of B-list actors hopping in and out of each other’s beds. But the movie that came to mind when I took a closer look at Cheryl Wilson-Smith’s amazing glasswork splayed across burlap pillows was the animated film by Brad Bird, Ratatouille.</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 11pt;"> </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 11pt;"> In the film the harsh food critic Anton Ego, when first tasting this modest French dish has his taste buds set alight. And then his mind. He recalls a sad day decades ago, turned better by the hot meal his mother made for him. Mr. Ego becomes a child again, momentarily removed from his adult burdens, but his day has changed for the better and he skips away from the restaurant eager to return. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 11pt;"> Similarly I was sent back in time when I began taking photographs of Cheryl’s work for this article. Careful and patient work went into creating thousands of glass pieces that mimic rocks of various kinds. Cheryl received financial support from the Ontario Arts Council and laborious support from her husband and son. They all spent days and nights in Cheryl’s studio in the basement of a dance hall in Red Lake. Each piece is made of layers of coloured glass and fired together. When you see the work up close you’re likely to be in awe on that front alone. Placed on pillow-shaped sacks that mimic landscapes the glass-rocks look like topographies that you might find all over the world, but in miniature.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 11pt;"> The glass-rocks are not arranged by the artist. That’s your job if you head down to the gallery. So in the photos for this article are the contributions of those who placed and arranged the stones. This democratization of art, the sharing between artist and viewer is a lovely feature of Cheryl’s work. I first thought of the enjoyment and challenge of scrambling up and down, in and around disorganized boulders in different parts of the country. Chippewa’s rock pier came to mind.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My 65 Million year old friend from Mexico.</td></tr>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 11pt;"> Another memory jogged by the show was when I travelled with Mexican friends to a small town in the mountains near Guanajuato. A modern road cut into the side of a mountaintop revealed layers of multi-coloured sediment. Curious, I approached the sediment and to my amazement there were thousands of small fossilized sea creatures embedded into one layer. I pulled out a fossilized cretaceous ammonite shell, the size of my palm. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 11pt;"> It hit me like a speeding bulldozer. I suddenly realized that the mountain I was standing upon was in the middle of a continent, in a desert! And formed from what was once the sea bed of an ocean! My heart skipped a beat and my mind leaped into a bizarre kind of overdrive. The closest poets get to describing this feeling is by relating it to a religious experience, but it was greater than that because it connected to something incredibly real. I was holding a sea creature that was at least sixty five million years old. In a desert. At the top of a mountain. I had a nature-numinous moment, understanding intuitively how short and humble our lives are in comparison to how vast nature is. God. Art. Politics. Human history. All of it, just a blip.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 11pt;"> So like Anton Ego, I was transported to other times and places, not with food, but a sculptural installation in a gallery. And my day was bettered for it.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-family: cambria;">Duncan Weller </span><a href="http://www.duncanweller.com/" style="font-family: cambria;">www.duncanweller.com</a></span></div>
Duncan Wellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18154643396802535581noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5144804585406918610.post-87985878863678466402018-05-31T23:42:00.002-04:002020-03-03T11:41:19.688-05:00We Want More Canadian Books! <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Melody (Lyu) Chang at Waverly Park on Saturday getting a free book.<br />
(Cover slightly altered) </td></tr>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"> In Canada the cost of putting a Canadian children’s book author’s work into the hands of a Canadian child is anywhere between fifty to seventy dollars per book. This is the result of a bizarre situation that has developed over the years creating a reality that few know exist or seem willing to deal with. It would cost us much less to simply give Canadian children books away for free.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"> Regarding books, the two most important groups of people are the readers and the creators of the books. Everyone else is a middleman who are either helping us to connect or getting in our way. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"> Publishers and funding agencies will argue that they are doing their best with the current situation, but it is a situation that continues to pay their salaries regardless of detrimental effects elsewhere. If their primary job is to aid both the creative people and their audience they would be open to what needs to be changed. They are not.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"> Last October I spoke on the phone with Gail Winskill of Pajama Press. Gail had written an email to me apologizing on behalf of Canadian publishers for the treatment of many authors and illustrators after she had read my blog post about the troubles I had with my former publisher. Gail was sick in bed when I called and we had a conversation about the reality of the industry in Canada. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"> Pajama Press used to regularly sell in Canada seven thousand copies of a new book. Today they sell only about seven hundred in Canada and typically five thousand copies in the U.S. “If it weren’t for the Americans,” said Gail, “I’d be sunk.”</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"> In other words, our funding agencies are subsidizing Canadian books sold to Americans, which increases the cost of producing a book for every book a Canadian child receives. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"> Fifteen years ago a Canadian publisher could be guaranteed to sell a few thousand books to school libraries across the country. Librarians were instrumental in ordering Canadian children’s books for their schools. Conservative governments over time have gutted school librarians and consolidated other libraries across the country with the argument that digital technology was changing everything. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"> Sadly, Doug Ford has already talked about closing more libraries. This despite books making a huge comeback with sales for YA novels specifically, skyrocketing. The love of e-readers and the zeal in digitizing everything has waned dramatically. Turns out that print is still a superior technology in many ways.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"> Canadian money also vacates the country when books are printed in China or the United States. The paper for a book printed in Canada often comes from elsewhere, primarily the United States, and the cost jumps due to the exchange rate.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"> Cost of shipping in Canada is prohibitive. Books make a grand circuitous route from the printer in China to a warehouse in Canada. Books are then shipped to Indigo across the country and back again to the warehouse for books that don’t sell. Publishers pay for their books’ return adding up to thirty-five percent of the retail cost of a book. Storage fees are paid and an incredible number of books that don’t sell are simply destroyed. There’s a cost for that too. </span><br />
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5144804585406918610#editor/target=post;postID=1254387280233256591;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=62;src=postname" target="_blank">Related Article: Con-Artists in the Canadian Publishing World</a></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"> The list of troubles goes on. Here’s one solution: cut out the publisher. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"> Select through a jury process an author, like me (of course!) and give me one hundred and thirty thousand dollars, all to print ten hardcover books, three thousand copies of each. This could be done over a five year period. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"> Of those ten books I will give a thousand copies of each to children for free. The rest of the books I will sell wherever I like to earn my money. That’s a total of ten thousand books given away to children for free costing the funding agency, or private company, only thirteen dollars per hardcover book. Find a way to get Canadian printing companies to compete for this money and the printing costs will drop and the money will be spent in Canada.</span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">With a little imagination we could get hundreds of thousands of Canadian children reading books by thousands of Canadian writers and illustrators and save ton of money in the process. And this is but one idea. </span><br />
<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"><span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 14.666666984558105px;">Duncan Weller </span><a href="http://www.duncanweller.com/" style="font-family: cambria; font-size: 14.666666984558105px;">www.duncanweller.com</a></span></div>
Duncan Wellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18154643396802535581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5144804585406918610.post-13646270291158358702018-05-23T23:25:00.001-04:002019-10-04T21:32:33.982-04:00Espresso Nojoya: 88 Comical Ways to Laugh at the Haters<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Thomas White, Neo Nazi and Alt-Right Trump supporter.<br />
White is spreading hate speech nationally. He uses funds<br />
from the sale of his coffee to support hate groups in the<br />
United States. Currently he works at the Resolute Mill<br />
(Resolute Forest Products) in Thunder Bay. Hopefully<br />
not for long as he bragged on his podcast about his<br />
ability to convert his co-workers into committing hateful<br />
acts against First Nations people. Locally, rumours are that<br />
he is associated with the murderers of First Nations youths. </td></tr>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: cambria; font-size: 14.666666984558105px;">Duncan Weller </span><a href="http://www.duncanweller.com/" style="font-family: cambria; font-size: 14.666666984558105px;">www.duncanweller.com</a></span><br />
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"> Thunder Bay, specifically our arts community, suffered a particular nasty shock last week leaving some horrified, some visibly upset, many dumbfounded and a few of us bursting into laughter. We are not laughing because the situation isn’t serious, but because humour is often defensive and generated by a surprise incongruence, that is, two events slammed together so out of whack that we find it funny. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"> Last week an in-depth article of investigative journalism by the online media company, Vice, in collaboration with the Canadian Anti-Hate Network, pieced together a plethora of patterns and clues to accuse Thunder Bay resident, Thomas White (right), former owner of Espresso Joya, of spreading hate speech, primarily through a podcast titled, This Hour Has 88 Minutes. 88 is a numeration of HH, meaning Heil Hitler for those in the know. The Vice article <a href="https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/59qb93/the-racist-podcaster-who-started-a-neo-nazi-coffee-company-to-fund-white-nationalism?utm_campaign=global&utm_source=vicefbca" target="_blank">(Linked Here)</a> quotes horrific racist comments and support for violence against leftists and brown people of all kinds. </span><br />
<span style="font-kerning: none;"> <span style="color: #a64d79;">Vice also featured this nut (below), a collaborator with Thomas White. <a href="https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/zm8ky4/this-is-the-man-who-ran-canadas-biggest-neo-nazi-podcast" target="_blank">Neo-Nazi Recruitment.</a> </span></span><span style="color: #a64d79;">Welcome to the new world of Trump inspired Neo-Nazi Nerds. </span> </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Clayton Sanford, Cosplayer and Neo Nazi</td></tr>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"> The actress, Renee Zellweger had enough dramatic facial reconstruction that for the public she may as well have passed on. The actress we knew vanished to become someone else, nothing horrific, just so different looking and unrecognizable that she may as well have just walked away from Hollywood. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"> A similar transformative vanishing act took place when a friend of the Thunder Bay community disappeared by becoming something unrecognizable and truly disgusting. Espresso Joya was a welcome addition to the North Core, bringing in musicians and artists with events and art shows. Thomas held figure drawing sessions at the Baggage Building and held regular little chess tournaments, introducing a chess board allowing four players to battle against each other simultaneously.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"> That the owner of such a hub of leftist artsy and intellectual activity would be a Neo-Nazi is right out of a Monty Python skit, specifically where Mr and Mrs Johnson visiting a small boarding house in Somerset, England encounter Adolf Hitler, von Ribbentrop, and Heinrich Himmler trying to blend in and restart their Nazi movement.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"> Or imagine the situ in reverse. Let’s say I moved to Harrison, Arkansas to open a steak shop or to Charlotte, North Carolina to run a NASCAR rally, all in order to raise money so I could purchase First Nations art and send 5 percent of my earnings to the NDP and feminist organizations in Ontario. In my spare time I would organize redneck gatherings featuring yoga and vegetarian dinners. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"> It’s funny while being totally insane. </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The ultimate Nazi and Cosplayer, Adolf Hitler - fashioned his own military uniforms. </td></tr>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"> One could imagine Magnus or Cambrian Theatre putting on a musical comedy, like Mel Brooks’, The Producers, where a coffee shop owner, dressed in black sporting a high-and-tight alt-right haircut sings and dances in dramatic soliloquies about his frustration with putting up with all his leftist, women, black, Indigenous and LBGTQ patrons. He hates them all, but is forced to smile and serve them “the best coffee in Thunder Bay,” occasionally seeming to forget who his enemies were.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"> His theme song would be of his plot to destroy his coffee making competitors, especially his arch nemesis, the owner of the coffee shop at the Country Market. He would rail against the “mainstream media,” while his lefty employees advising White to spend less time reading Reddit on his laptop. And when he closes his doors for the night, he pulls the curtains, strips off his clothes to reveal his untanned body in order to dance naked to alt-right heavy metal music.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">I swear there’s a ton of money to be made in taking down the racists and haters. Not only can’t they think hard enough to see the obvious error of their ways and thoughts, they can’t see themselves for what they really are: a big joke.</span></div>
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Duncan Wellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18154643396802535581noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5144804585406918610.post-34632916124548511882018-05-23T23:14:00.005-04:002019-10-04T21:33:18.494-04:00Art Without God<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: cambria; font-size: 14.666666984558105px;">Duncan Weller </span><a href="http://www.duncanweller.com/" style="font-family: cambria; font-size: 14.666666984558105px;">www.duncanweller.com</a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyIt0RBAL4VduTbY-mASBS9cwKcMAtDYM6rHS-uwMFSb3Td8Dzj2aZKK7r0XcOH9zjX5TVWhF3EwuPCyobMPQhKgppqkZ1Qe4B2D-NR0mrSMbuVIx3K01Mo8wL9NhXchxMzzL7rwU7138/s1600/1200px-Creacio%25CC%2581n_de_Ada%25CC%2581n_%2528Miguel_A%25CC%2581ngel%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="289" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyIt0RBAL4VduTbY-mASBS9cwKcMAtDYM6rHS-uwMFSb3Td8Dzj2aZKK7r0XcOH9zjX5TVWhF3EwuPCyobMPQhKgppqkZ1Qe4B2D-NR0mrSMbuVIx3K01Mo8wL9NhXchxMzzL7rwU7138/s640/1200px-Creacio%25CC%2581n_de_Ada%25CC%2581n_%2528Miguel_A%25CC%2581ngel%2529.jpg" width="640" /></a> </span><br />
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Most artists I know have no religious beliefs whatsoever, but that wouldn’t stop us from getting married in a church or attending a funeral. Most artists appreciate the cultural aspects of religion, but don’t need religion as a guide for life. Some contemporary artists will reflect their concerns for others using their own stories as social or political statements but most often they are geared towards an aesthetic or emotional approach that is without any moral code. Contemporary art is more often about art than about life, to the point where art can become its own ideology with little interest in making moral statements and little room for a competing ideology like a religion. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"> I consider myself a progressive classicist, meaning I do have my own moral code, but it is designed from an idea that art is integral in performing basic social functions that we can’t live without, and that these functions combined with a progressive viewpoint can be a guide for life. My progressive classicism is a blending of classical art functions with popular art and fine art. Many artists take the same approach without thinking about it much or putting a name to it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"> What is fascinating about contemporary art however, is that I’ve known three people who gave up religion for a strong ideological artistic belief. A formerly Christian friend of mine, I’ll call her Liz, in Victoria, British Columbia, has a son who overdosed years ago. At the age of fourteen with only one hit of crystal meth he went from being a shy teenage boy to a raging proselytizing miniature priest, with great lapses in memory and total loss of social intelligence. At the time I knew her, Liz had suffered through divorce, near poverty, health issues, and deaths in the family. Liz was a regular church goer and maintained her faith. Her church provided help and solace throughout her trials. But with her son’s total transformation for the worse Liz completely lost faith. She couldn’t understand how God could allow such a thing to happen to her son after she had already suffered so much while committing her life to God.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"> Her interest in art, which brought us together as good friends suddenly became a passion that eventually broke our friendship. Liz returned to becoming a full time student in the University of Victoria Fine Arts program. Only a few months into the program she became a die hard post-modernist. Nothing wrong with that, but her belief and faith in art also came with the sudden zeal to admonish other artists who didn’t believe what she believed. My illustration work suddenly made me beneath contempt. I put up with her hard core opinions for years until we finally drifted apart. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"> I have a vague understanding of what happened, but I never delved into thinking about it much until recently when reading a book called Society Without God: What the Least Religious Nations Can Tell Us About Contentment, written by Phil Zuckerman. It is a fascinating study revealing that the most content people live in countries with the fewest number who are religious, and those countries that are often the most religious have the most trouble with poverty, violence, health issues or massive inequality, as in the United States, which strangely claims to be a religious nation.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"> We are fortunate enough to live in a country to be able to think and talk openly about such things, to question our beliefs, religious, artistic or otherwise. There were times among Western nations where questioning such authorities was extremely dangerous. Artists like Michelangelo could only hint of their lack of faith in their art, as seen in the Sistine Chapel. It has been thought that Michelangelo hinted at such with his painting of God creating Adam. The strange shape the robe takes, complete with a “stem,” looks amazingly like that of the human brain. The suggestion is that man made God. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">We may be able to live without God, and although man made art too I believe strongly that art is something we can’t live without. Yet what art is and what it does and how it best works for us is an ongoing discussion as deep and lasting and contentious as any discussion of religion.</span></div>
Duncan Wellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18154643396802535581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5144804585406918610.post-73311923788222992018-05-23T23:10:00.002-04:002019-10-04T21:34:23.507-04:00Susan Ross at the Thunder Bay Art Gallery<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; color: #212121; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"> Canada’s Rembrandt of the North is represented well at the Thunder Bay Museum in the show, Susan Ross: From the Lakehead to the Arctic. Accompanying Ross’ works are paintings and drawings by other artists she knew well and had influence upon, including her active nephew, Patrick Doyle. Available in the Museum’s shop is a wonderful book in hard and soft cover by the prolific James R. Stevens, titled, Ten Generations, Then an Artist: The Susan A Ross Story. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUATK6siPqfK0yFzoQ2GmH36jugKZV55j16t47h-TGVNntQZ_SQbamJJW-wexXNxsD95NhP9o3BV6BwhXtzchW9Rzz_UP-wVXEyRTJtQqohixbAC0cceSceo0wtu3HJitTdEo515vaio0/s1600/00+Susan+Ross+copy+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="352" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUATK6siPqfK0yFzoQ2GmH36jugKZV55j16t47h-TGVNntQZ_SQbamJJW-wexXNxsD95NhP9o3BV6BwhXtzchW9Rzz_UP-wVXEyRTJtQqohixbAC0cceSceo0wtu3HJitTdEo515vaio0/s640/00+Susan+Ross+copy+2.jpg" width="640" /></a><span style="font-kerning: none;"> With loving attention to detail Ross had the ability to capture those emblematic and small moments of humanity where words go unspoken. The ability to do this has always made for great art. It includes the ability to draw and paint, but paramount to begin with is the interest, the moral and empathic ability to see the value in what people share between each other, even in quiet repose. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"> Although often sad and sentimental, the beauty of her subjects are captured with a deft handling of various tools. Whether with a stylus for her etchings, a piece of charcoal or graphite for her drawings, or a brush for her paintings, Ross’ approach was to use a certain degree of spontaneity to capture the detail without getting caught up in it. She trusted in her abilities and allowed what was before her to speak. The subject is what she focused on, not herself or commitment to artistic ideology, but the people she clearly loved and respected. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"> Ross’ etchings are exceptional. And comparing her works to that of Rembrandt’s or the 19th Century French artist, Honoré Daumier is not done lightly. Rembrandt captured some famous sentimental moments, but Daumier’s is a little closer to home. Daumier’s love of the poor and hatred of the rich got him into trouble quite often, even kicked out of the country, but when he wasn’t skewering politicians or lawyers he could do the most amazing sentimental works. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"> Third Class Carriage by Daumier is more like a sketch with some paint than it is a full blown painting. This is one of his most brilliant works featuring working class people enduring the numbness of long distance travel on a cramped and crowded train. The mother feeds her child while the older woman sits in quiet contemplation, deep in thought, hands clasped as if in prayer while a boy sleeps against her bulky frame. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"> The painting has the perennial quality of applying to all kinds of people all over the world, no matter their culture. It’s something we can all identify with. It something we wish we could avoid, but know that life will always throw situations like this at us no matter what we do. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"> The same is true for many of Ross’ depictions of people. Here there is no fine art formalism concerned with style, but the functional effectiveness of bringing people alive, in their world in a way in which we can easily identify and identify with. What is here is not just the indigenous people she met on her extensive travels, but everyone, all of us. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8aqgnV032_x0U_OTqe6PGxhyphenhyphenTK0Ur4niVut84Q9oUjLEz7qUrxUr4u23T2cvG8c54wHP50hw1Ywi2He-6OXvl2iwS2WLZVbRfbClxURXCozowIwCbz5nMiXh5-ApwUHrWhfRwkh9_Tlc/s1600/00+Honore%25CC%2581_Daumier%252C_The_Third-Class_Carriage_-_The_Metropolitan_Museum_of_Art+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="136" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8aqgnV032_x0U_OTqe6PGxhyphenhyphenTK0Ur4niVut84Q9oUjLEz7qUrxUr4u23T2cvG8c54wHP50hw1Ywi2He-6OXvl2iwS2WLZVbRfbClxURXCozowIwCbz5nMiXh5-ApwUHrWhfRwkh9_Tlc/s200/00+Honore%25CC%2581_Daumier%252C_The_Third-Class_Carriage_-_The_Metropolitan_Museum_of_Art+copy.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-kerning: none;"> Stories are told in this show for us with the use of foreground and background, with faces and hands, with clothes and blankets and canvas and gripped pillows. People gaze at each other, beyond one another and they look away from another’s attention, staring off into space, every one of them each telling a story of love and hardship, of wanting and relief. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"> Loneliness is here, loss, separation, anxiety, and the thankfulness that comes from living closely with family and a community that shares the basics. As small as this show might seem at first, the expanse of it is a wonderful introduction to the world captured by Susan Ross.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"> Susan Ross: From the Lakehead to the Arctic is on display at the Thunder Bay Museum till June 17. </span><br />
<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: cambria; font-size: 14.666666984558105px;">Duncan Weller </span><a href="http://www.duncanweller.com/" style="font-family: cambria; font-size: 14.666666984558105px;">www.duncanweller.com</a></span></div>
Duncan Wellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18154643396802535581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5144804585406918610.post-26258632821786385412018-05-23T23:02:00.001-04:002019-10-04T21:34:44.827-04:00By Request: Collective Curation of the Permanent Collection<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoe5o6IxEEcEVGcmCVF4LF8qrRpBunDSrmXdxylKNaEev6R3erRf6JsYJYsyLa4Xpqj2JlJ5WHdrC7pKFKzwPv0hQYu-BVp60ZQxtMUiw1Rg2oooae1V4n46hZyYOGqOLGSRQXASBCoSk/s1600/Blake+Debassige+copy.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoe5o6IxEEcEVGcmCVF4LF8qrRpBunDSrmXdxylKNaEev6R3erRf6JsYJYsyLa4Xpqj2JlJ5WHdrC7pKFKzwPv0hQYu-BVp60ZQxtMUiw1Rg2oooae1V4n46hZyYOGqOLGSRQXASBCoSk/s320/Blake+Debassige+copy.JPG" width="294" /></a><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">First Nations art from the Thunder Bay Gallery’s permanent collection graces the walls in a large show titled, by Request, one of the best collective exhibitions of visual art in recent years. Guaranteed to be a popular the works exhibit both quality and variety, representing decades worth of great work by established local and internationally known artists. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3d_VAGhW_lEGbI8JCTJTWfudAEGDCGBAq-lH5Kuj5DFTvpUaBTbmXuV7SZ9ufFlNPt1ujueCrkCaoCXrdy8TrgltHMwTcaLcZmZL39-7tDJreErkdZinPZ1jsx9moKzj9OxMfMBQhfDE/s1600/Edna+Davis+Jackson+copy.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3d_VAGhW_lEGbI8JCTJTWfudAEGDCGBAq-lH5Kuj5DFTvpUaBTbmXuV7SZ9ufFlNPt1ujueCrkCaoCXrdy8TrgltHMwTcaLcZmZL39-7tDJreErkdZinPZ1jsx9moKzj9OxMfMBQhfDE/s320/Edna+Davis+Jackson+copy.JPG" width="199" /></a><span style="font-kerning: none;"> Described as a “dynamic approach to choosing artworks for exhibition” various individuals and groups involved in the region’s arts community had a say in choosing the work. This democratic process involved a survey employing nine batches of twenty works from the collection, five works to be chosen from each. The individuals and groups are listed in the show.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"> Within all the works are references to the land, from the micro to the macro, from catgut to outer space. Nature infuses itself into the works, revitalizing the imagery revealing how nature supersedes manmade creations. Nature has a style all its own that survives artistic movements where style and ideology meld into artistic periods that can end up living in the history books and less so in our hearts, becoming more distant as the years pass. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6ut7Vs_SYNJk3B8_sf8HDvib2YadpR5ESfzxAYmKSfLl2qMxiSHa2qXt-jmALF37tdly0laUNq2fPLog1-XaROGtWDuhxdX1YBAKfjXDh8rO5cHFogoUVn5IUrr1dAqyJf6R71oERg50/s1600/Daphne+Odjig+copy.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6ut7Vs_SYNJk3B8_sf8HDvib2YadpR5ESfzxAYmKSfLl2qMxiSHa2qXt-jmALF37tdly0laUNq2fPLog1-XaROGtWDuhxdX1YBAKfjXDh8rO5cHFogoUVn5IUrr1dAqyJf6R71oERg50/s320/Daphne+Odjig+copy.JPG" width="262" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJpUV84Uf_k88OkGCCE_QtZ94l4kDBAzFUnJd9FiJ2WLgsu-1uWYZvW76ygViqKNTtCT7Sj2G9Kr5Dfg0HH869cvFilOlAmTyDTUnBbiKOKh7pf5v3_7lkDopEHyvV6lQwBg6fh7o32yI/s1600/Linus+Woods+copy.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJpUV84Uf_k88OkGCCE_QtZ94l4kDBAzFUnJd9FiJ2WLgsu-1uWYZvW76ygViqKNTtCT7Sj2G9Kr5Dfg0HH869cvFilOlAmTyDTUnBbiKOKh7pf5v3_7lkDopEHyvV6lQwBg6fh7o32yI/s320/Linus+Woods+copy.JPG" width="240" /></a><span style="font-kerning: none;"> Which is why so much of this work feels alive, fresh again, brought into the light for us to see. Having so much great art stored away for great lengths of time can feel like a disservice to the artists who create the work, and to the public who would love to see it. On the other hand the works are made special, reawakened for us to see again, a practice which happens naturally in other cultures, such as African tribes who bring stools, sculptures, weapons and clothing into view only during ceremonies, some taking place decades apart. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"> </span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">With so many wonderful artworks to choose from, I’ll pick a few favourites.</span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"> </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTpG_QFXfD12HWjZ28Tz2EnmhaIlfYF_5QdVWCrgG7JU72Xukjaj0SULxlqAazhP3CV2x3Olk_KDazVpK_4V8RZrlFBGYgRJKfM-OJx7AaUyFVQHK0n-G39ePk8CgkWCKACq2JqiX5NKk/s1600/Valerie+Palmer+copy.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTpG_QFXfD12HWjZ28Tz2EnmhaIlfYF_5QdVWCrgG7JU72Xukjaj0SULxlqAazhP3CV2x3Olk_KDazVpK_4V8RZrlFBGYgRJKfM-OJx7AaUyFVQHK0n-G39ePk8CgkWCKACq2JqiX5NKk/s400/Valerie+Palmer+copy.JPG" width="400" /></a><span style="font-kerning: none;"> Ahmoo Angeconeb’s “The Gifts” is a lovely linocut on textured paper featuring a fish, bear and loon. With only minimal personal than most, especially for imagery that is minimal and stylized. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"> Daphne Odjig’s “The Grand Entrance” has wonderful movement created with a combination of bright colours and swirling lines. Many of the faces are smiling and bubbling up from the surface of the painting, swirling before the viewer as if exploding through a wall or swarming at you in a dream. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"> “Eunice”, by Valerie Palmer is a beautiful oil painting with a spiritual serenity encompassing both the woman and the beautiful seascape. Connected by mood with somber tones there is an emblematic contemplation as seen in works by Frederick Varley, but with a more controlled use of paint. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"> A painting with one of the best titles, “Head Kicked In By Buffalo,” by Linus Woods, is painted with a more expressionist method employing colours and a style similar to that of Mexican artist Fernando de Szyszlo. A mixed media picture the painting employs characters of both foreground and background that are comic like in depiction, but abstract in execution. The trees make for little background cartoons. The painting is a fun image open to interpretation.</span><br />
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: cambria; font-size: 14.666666984558105px;">Duncan Weller </span><a href="http://www.duncanweller.com/" style="font-family: cambria; font-size: 14.666666984558105px;">www.duncanweller.com</a></span></div>
Duncan Wellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18154643396802535581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5144804585406918610.post-16060032199683968622018-05-23T22:48:00.001-04:002018-05-23T22:48:39.860-04:00Urban Infill 2018<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsUmzyYvD11fEv7l5mjDplDK4Dr9k_b3JUtZjw0rEj6p6PCw5zCK5UTOU8vfo6MOVCJcNI1DLTv8tn49vj-9wYmIctXYg31PTeLR5BuD7rDOiydUV3Sv8MPhC60Q2aScGN-TpDK5t-6GY/s1600/P1014112+copy.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsUmzyYvD11fEv7l5mjDplDK4Dr9k_b3JUtZjw0rEj6p6PCw5zCK5UTOU8vfo6MOVCJcNI1DLTv8tn49vj-9wYmIctXYg31PTeLR5BuD7rDOiydUV3Sv8MPhC60Q2aScGN-TpDK5t-6GY/s200/P1014112+copy.JPG" width="200" /></a><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">The irony of hosting a major arts project like Urban Infill: Art in the Core, with the goal and theme of revitalizing the downtown core requiring lots of space is that should the project become successful the space required becomes limited year after year. And this year they almost lost out with empty spaces rented out last minute. Fortunately this didn’t stop a resourceful crew from finding alternates, which in the end provided Urban Infill with even more space giving this year’s show a completely new feel. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipG_8F6essFjsQGevza1B9xZ0Ay0OtZlB1Zfv9pPxGp97-2LwdON33MrD-RjG0YcPeKjSEK3sgLkum31847pxOHBxJhXYEGLPXmBtZlSpihmvliI3173NsSbd-karvX_h2NS7Mz2LqDDY/s1600/P1014013.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="143" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipG_8F6essFjsQGevza1B9xZ0Ay0OtZlB1Zfv9pPxGp97-2LwdON33MrD-RjG0YcPeKjSEK3sgLkum31847pxOHBxJhXYEGLPXmBtZlSpihmvliI3173NsSbd-karvX_h2NS7Mz2LqDDY/s200/P1014013.JPG" width="200" /></a><span style="font-kerning: none;"> The big events are held this Saturday night where the public will be able to see work in a variety of locations with the help of a map and guides during the walking tour, but two main spaces have opened up that will be the primary draws: the 10,000 square feet of the lower level in the Eaton’s building, entrance on Park Avenue, and another 1,500 square feet on the main level. Combine this and other transformed spaces and it adds up to a total of about 13,000 square feet to host this extravaganza. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMPXi5XcGGGYKuQcx0gNaKoE6V7jcsX2awxu2Mv-NibyWrJnp7UhqXaEJwHoSU1ANANqxxvaTOaoHI4uNbl5BCQuwSk96W0kSXl12LlwOWi9APHDoAYOZCYLFyQi__2IPK7JBZCzRIvKo/s1600/P1013919+copy.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="184" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMPXi5XcGGGYKuQcx0gNaKoE6V7jcsX2awxu2Mv-NibyWrJnp7UhqXaEJwHoSU1ANANqxxvaTOaoHI4uNbl5BCQuwSk96W0kSXl12LlwOWi9APHDoAYOZCYLFyQi__2IPK7JBZCzRIvKo/s320/P1013919+copy.JPG" width="320" /></a><span style="font-kerning: none;"> The variety of art, performance, installations are too long to list, which is good thing. To see the list you can go online: <a href="http://www.definitleysuperior.com/"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">www.definitleysuperior.com</span></a>. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"> “We adapt every year,” states gallery co-director David Karasiewicz. “Every year locations change and there’s new places with new performances appealing to a broader audience. More and more people are exposed to contemporary art.” </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfN9cSWT28DrB6yKm394l9BleV-yNlLzsqGdqHw419ps3b-2LZzWbeqnMzLcNCYYhFU-mZITYOJd7_wgJpGh93y9YSTITgSFtjvNmVTufdLJH6yr2VqD-BzZ_H3BDS5JjzOp6e32b0spg/s1600/P1013954+copy.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfN9cSWT28DrB6yKm394l9BleV-yNlLzsqGdqHw419ps3b-2LZzWbeqnMzLcNCYYhFU-mZITYOJd7_wgJpGh93y9YSTITgSFtjvNmVTufdLJH6yr2VqD-BzZ_H3BDS5JjzOp6e32b0spg/s200/P1013954+copy.JPG" width="161" /></a></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggo-MIp5dzRd83mK9IWHSLDeGu2rRnWoeFfy5cPFYUfUd4GJoD23qZi2h53KF1R-Szr2_YN-rm6UbZctBfDDDXY13jsEh5_eQGp8S71zW0kLtKMv0zMLXUHeSaseuUwDDG-OiaQodfm7g/s1600/P1013935+copy.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggo-MIp5dzRd83mK9IWHSLDeGu2rRnWoeFfy5cPFYUfUd4GJoD23qZi2h53KF1R-Szr2_YN-rm6UbZctBfDDDXY13jsEh5_eQGp8S71zW0kLtKMv0zMLXUHeSaseuUwDDG-OiaQodfm7g/s200/P1013935+copy.JPG" width="200" /></a><span style="font-kerning: none;"> Co-director Renee Terpstra is equally enthusiastic about the twelfth anniversary of Urban Infill and describes how they have to adapt every year, but that adaptation is an integral part of what makes Urban Infill exciting. “None of us would have imagined what this would like like twelve years ago,” Renee states. </span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"> Definitely Superior Art Gallery and the many artists under its umbrella can take credit for that revitalization, along with the savvy restauranteurs opening businesses that have drawn both young and old. A long list of sponsors includes the local BIA, Canada Council, Ontario Arts Council, Walleye and a number of local businesses and other sponsors.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"> This year there are 400 regional, national and international artist represented in 25 locations including live bands, dance theatre, fashion performance, fire performances, “activated window spaces”, body suspension, a 360 film immersion installation, video projections, karaoke, fringe performance, catered food and refreshments, and more! </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv2UmMTNZd2HE4b4twjvbVlmzH0YQPkjHk-c9Wl87HetUQ7EHFDqTWGvOnZD1U9rtLhlpZlvZFqv0ZOVgNIbWIUpU3fOs_ncUNhyphenhyphenwKhMRcP5LnKCYN1aje8zbuxsuIKLXuoGjkOZTHAXA/s1600/P1014110+copy.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv2UmMTNZd2HE4b4twjvbVlmzH0YQPkjHk-c9Wl87HetUQ7EHFDqTWGvOnZD1U9rtLhlpZlvZFqv0ZOVgNIbWIUpU3fOs_ncUNhyphenhyphenwKhMRcP5LnKCYN1aje8zbuxsuIKLXuoGjkOZTHAXA/s200/P1014110+copy.JPG" width="200" /></a><span style="font-kerning: none;"> If it’s possible to narrow it down, there are nine shows/categories of art to see. The Defsup gallery features three shows, a video installation, a member’s show and recent acquisitions of art by Dr. Bob Chaudhuri. Window performances and installations will be on the map and tour. Film installations include visiting works/artists along with our filmmakers from our own Confederation College film and multimedia departments. Lakehead University art students are having a graduates show. The Die Active New Generation Neechee Studio is a youth group will span a number of locations with 24 different projects. Downtown commercial galleries and business are contributing with their own cadre of local and international artists. The number of local artists involved is thought to be over four hundred.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"> If you think that’s an exaggeration you’re welcome to come to the show and count. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"> The big event begins Saturday night at 7pm. Come early and get a map. The after party location is decided that night by a group of die-hards. All welcome to join.</span></div>
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Duncan Wellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18154643396802535581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5144804585406918610.post-9429350647178454602018-05-23T22:38:00.000-04:002018-05-23T22:38:39.424-04:00The Baggage Building Arts Centre in Prince Arthur’s Landing<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1MNdodYPsUDA_9PBsW3T5B-RtNrdDptPFH0l7MDexC8RnOr65YMM_hfCcS5IFqP55WvlRJOF4EbOYcwL5iZnYxIFXEB9-HxoU9jH34cf1d0GiHRGZqZJz3Nzq9RKjWCoIxwte5cElg4c/s1600/A+Work+of+Fibre+Art+copy.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1MNdodYPsUDA_9PBsW3T5B-RtNrdDptPFH0l7MDexC8RnOr65YMM_hfCcS5IFqP55WvlRJOF4EbOYcwL5iZnYxIFXEB9-HxoU9jH34cf1d0GiHRGZqZJz3Nzq9RKjWCoIxwte5cElg4c/s320/A+Work+of+Fibre+Art+copy.JPG" width="224" /></a><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">The Friends of the Grain Elevators have set up an historical exhibit at the Baggage Building Arts Centre in Prince Arthur’s Landing to tell the story of the grain industry in Canada with an emphasis on railways and the incredible amount of activity in our harbours since 1883 when the railways opened up the west. Thunder Bay was integral in developing the country. We had the the biggest grain port in the world for many years and gave primary aid to feed Europe after two world wars. With over twelve elevators, eight continue to operate, the reason for over five hundred ships passing through our harbours in 2016. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"> Part of the exhibit features a map of the world and twelve glass jars, each containing a different type of grain. Indicators tell the viewer where the grain was distributed throughout the world. All of this information lovingly provided by Rob Paterson while he and other members set up the exhibit. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"> As an analogy we could say that our local artists have been seeding the world with bits of our culture for many years. In operation for five years, a tourist destination is the The Gift Gallery which hosts sixty-five local artists producing paintings, prints, photography, various crafts, pottery, jewelry, candles, stained glass, Ahnisnabae arts of all stripes, locally produced books, CDs, and sundry edible items. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"> Located on the second floor of the arts centre the gift shop is what was once the old Canadian Pacific freight office, an historical site often incorrectly referred to as the Baggage Building, complete with its old tin ceiling. As a commercial and public venture in a city facility it operates as a collective of organizations; All the Days Theatre, the Community Arts and Heritage Program, the Posers Drawing Group, Waterfront Potters, Waterfront Printmaking Group, Connect the Dots: Roots and Branches, and Tango North. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4mvrwRpFKdz9UkxL2eqlxC-T4Ral5Jzx13g1Tw8y2ectF8NdMbUdEhJN5EfZ1X-QyQLP1ohtV7TBmH7Yrys4vkOXDJZs4-YAXgRXzK7GzeI2v9IHIp2hUAcrHrEnSkSPHjdvO-FlOQnA/s1600/02+Carly+and+Angie+Jensen.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="196" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4mvrwRpFKdz9UkxL2eqlxC-T4Ral5Jzx13g1Tw8y2ectF8NdMbUdEhJN5EfZ1X-QyQLP1ohtV7TBmH7Yrys4vkOXDJZs4-YAXgRXzK7GzeI2v9IHIp2hUAcrHrEnSkSPHjdvO-FlOQnA/s320/02+Carly+and+Angie+Jensen.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"> Tango nights are Wednesdays and the drop in drawing sessions are Tuesdays at 7pm. Please call the Gift Shop or Facebook page for details. Exhibitions are featured in the mezzanine and main floor with beautiful tall windows and lovely wood framing.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"> Upon completion of a beginners class in pottery you can take advantage of the open studio to work on your own. The setup includes mechanical wheels, two kick wheels, a slab roller, kiln, with clay and glazes made available. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"> From February 24th to March 25 the third annual Fibre Arts Exhibition is showcasing a selection of works from members from the Spinners and Weavers Guild and other local artists. You will see over sixty works by just over twenty artists, including works of crochet, needlepoint and felting. Birds of the Bay is part of the exhibition. Organized by Betty Carpick this is a community-engaged art project consisting of fibre arts sculpture to encourage people to understand and protect nature.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhP8CO9MFke-VJtckxNQCquv39GRCQv6dIVE_pD0S0fmLL0TlAT6V6EULAQ8ya4mg8RGynVWag7h8IiyZswJDhE2ilU7FPOVNjBMXRExCkEzSw3SICFsIe6kUTuWEfQxrkAShE5tKZM_o/s1600/Baggage+Building.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhP8CO9MFke-VJtckxNQCquv39GRCQv6dIVE_pD0S0fmLL0TlAT6V6EULAQ8ya4mg8RGynVWag7h8IiyZswJDhE2ilU7FPOVNjBMXRExCkEzSw3SICFsIe6kUTuWEfQxrkAShE5tKZM_o/s320/Baggage+Building.JPG" width="320" /></a><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"> Writers and videographers from Canadian Geographic have visited Prince Arthur’s Landing recently to research the history of the area for a potential upcoming extensive article and video. With ongoing construction and ventures both commercial and artistic we can safely assume that the waterfront will yield attractions for the city for many decades to come.</span></div>
Duncan Wellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18154643396802535581noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5144804585406918610.post-85393334891718404002018-05-23T22:32:00.002-04:002018-05-23T22:32:59.924-04:0010th Anniversary Derelicte at Black Pirates Pub<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmwnot69vFq6G-B59jOnQw_sdy9IeYjd_m6A6TLU_yCqd1m_BE9tkE2zdq2N3hrUklVckNY2ctB4_hyphenhyphenm6zsRnIE-asEpxh_tp2VCQtKMokw62N9ID0ICsGLfaPp4Mi7an8ileJN6W1eoM/s1600/P1013493+copy+2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="299" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmwnot69vFq6G-B59jOnQw_sdy9IeYjd_m6A6TLU_yCqd1m_BE9tkE2zdq2N3hrUklVckNY2ctB4_hyphenhyphenm6zsRnIE-asEpxh_tp2VCQtKMokw62N9ID0ICsGLfaPp4Mi7an8ileJN6W1eoM/s320/P1013493+copy+2.JPG" width="320" /></a><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"> Black Pirates Pub will burst its seams this Saturday, January 27, with a major fashion show organized by the Definitely Superior Art Gallery. This is the gallery’s and Lakehead University Radio’s tenth anniversary fundraiser. The catwalk extravaganza called Derelicte features models wearing both wearable art sold locally at various retail outlets and outfits that may never be worn again. These singular works are amazingly creative one-offs fashioned by fifteen local artists to make aesthetic and social statements.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"> One artistic costume designer, a local artist whose presence in Thunder Bay is stretching nationally is Michel Dumont. He is on a tight schedule. He has to get his costume completed before he flies off to a Queer and Peace show at the Warren G Flowers Art Gallery in Montreal where he has a wor<img height="16" id="3olc5tdxudik" src="data:image/gif;base64,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" width="16" />k exhibited with others created by prominent Canadian artists. He returns on the day of Derelicte to organize his costumes and get the models into makeup. It takes Michel about a month to make an outfit. He started his latest dramatic creation back in December. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"> The models Michel is working with will represent two lovers who will spin down the catwalk in a “whirlwind of obsession and break up,” says Michel. “They will be a tornado circling down the catwalk to open up and reveal their inner turmoil, then get back together.” </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"> The dress will be made of packing tape and cellphone crystals to represent the inside of the tornado with an amethyst geode and amethyst heart on the model’s chests. The wigs will employ fibre optics and LED lights to add to the shine. The semi precious pink and purple plastic crystal shapes that mimic semi-precious stones will reflect, refract and project light from the stage. The light will envelop the models and the movement is sure to dazzle. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"> The name “Derelicte” suggests an association with the forgotten, the vagrant and underprivileged undesirables you might find in ghettos of big cities. Yet because of its association to contemporary art and the catwalks of major cities there can be found elements of haute couture simultaneously projecting the rich and elegant. Thunder Bay’s version of such an event might only mimic such a clash of extreme cultural opposites for artistic purposes and for fun, but this event is as close as you will get to the real deal. And the artists who create their wearable art are certainly up to the challenge of creating pieces worthy of any catwalk in the world. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"> Performances are scattered throughout the night with four live bands, eight variety gigs, video mapping projections, a raffle, costume prizes, and catered food. The gigs include acrobatic yoga, flamenco and Bhangra dancing, drag, burlesque, go-go dancer performances, walk-off challenges and a do-it-yourself fashion costume contest. </span></div>
Duncan Wellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18154643396802535581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5144804585406918610.post-11164582048179955742017-12-06T16:17:00.000-05:002017-12-07T11:58:33.744-05:00Converging Lines at the Thunder Bay Art Gallery<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMtWahoIL7N-ACykE-Uq7DN1ViLcypbdpx_rcT9s143b05e1Ux7_KqrvrWthAb2WUnFUemEqLFKkOAD-FPcDIvB3kWeWVuVRDfhKHGdNFNsjhMMmlhhbLAsONDdwVXfwe6lr7OoU8917k/s1600/Fortify+This+One+by+Cree+Stevens+copy.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; font-size: 11px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img height="16" id="t7deyk6sq3fw" src="data:image/gif;base64,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" width="16" /><img border="0" height="628" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMtWahoIL7N-ACykE-Uq7DN1ViLcypbdpx_rcT9s143b05e1Ux7_KqrvrWthAb2WUnFUemEqLFKkOAD-FPcDIvB3kWeWVuVRDfhKHGdNFNsjhMMmlhhbLAsONDdwVXfwe6lr7OoU8917k/s640/Fortify+This+One+by+Cree+Stevens+copy.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cree Steven's mixed media painting, Fortify This One, is made of acrylic paint/pastes/gels, paper, cheesecloth and leather. </td></tr>
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With a variety of indigenous backgrounds, Cree Stevens, Shaun Hedican, Elliot Doxtater-Wynn and Kristy Cameron each have unique personal approaches to express their respect for their ancestors, to pay homage to family and to the artists who inspired them. Their work is on display at the Thunder Bay Art Gallery till February 25 in a show called, Converging Lines: Recent Art from the Northwest.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cree Steven's sculptural work, Wiigwaasaatig.</td></tr>
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Leaves, feathers, bark, tools, jewelry, craftwork, animals or the remnants of animals appear in a variety of forms and in more than one artist’s work where First Nation’s styles are mixed with traditional and contemporary western art approaches. This variety creates a strong show to make an overarching statement on the value of variety and how variety can be achieved through personal expression.</div>
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Many locals already know Cree Steven’s work from craft shows where Steven’s should get an award for having the best vendor’s booth, a “booth” more akin to a miniature professional gallery with displays that are an art in themselves. Steven’s work sells quickly enough that she practically burns herself out, along with her partner Bruce, in a rush to create new work and set up for the next show. Stevens has sold many of her large birch-bark and antler works along with her intricate and beautiful jewelry.</div>
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So it is a delight to see Steven’s larger wall pieces and sculptures at the gallery. Her work exudes mythological power and beauty that seems barely containable within the clean Scandinavian symmetry of design and gorgeous copper accents within the wood, bark and antlers. Copper acts as a binding element in the works as if it represents the blood, energy and power of living things, creating an elegance that refreshes familiar imagery and objects in unexpected ways. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Elliot Doxtater-Wynn's untitled piece.</td></tr>
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Shaun Hedican plays with a familiar spidery Woodland style adding depth with a background out-of-focus imagery and shadows. In other works the style is seemingly tattooed to the bones of animals, potential talismans used in ancient rituals. The spear, titled “Family Staff” is both artful and menacing as it exudes it’s function beyond art and the gallery. It almost seems out of place as if it were either a museum piece or a found object, stolen from a ritual and mistakenly placed in the gallery. It’s gloriously alive and threatening. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Shaun Hedican's<br />work, Family Staff</td></tr>
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Three large untitled paintings by Elliot Doxtater-Wynn command a wall where the leaves that form the clothes belonging to the man or woman in the paintings have fallen to organize as rectangular shapes on the floor. The bold cartoon-like figures are more animated and seem to belong in an otherworldly space, but they are held in place by the leaves made heavy with their shiny coating. A story is forming in the images with it’s meaning kept mysterious and subjective.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kristy Cameron's work, Cattail Legend</td></tr>
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Playful in her approach, Kristy Cameron dives into the netherworld with creatures and characters in settings that are wonderfully suggestive of journeys into the mythical. In the painting, Cattail Legend, a man in space is holding up a planetary sized bulb of cattails that supports a massive tree. Without knowing the legend, what happens next is anyone’s guess, but the painting is ideographic in its presentation suggesting that the little man, thus humans in general, are but a small thing compared to nature, yet important for its survival. The little man has the burden of a world on his shoulders. </div>
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In other works, Christy plays with abstract flows of colour that would be beautiful on their own merit, however with the little woodland style animals, one called, Michi Peshu, the paintings take on other dramatic and fun dimensions. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiemF4RMFCb2h2DvcmMv8HHRWtpldB9ItC4TOEm0qXp7dkTma1s8FMgVN-I-BNWRlVcwNf29H-IAKPqz6CvxVoXMSCMKAV_-YOXuOoXkC8Y2scoSp0T0Hji1kyiQmEQsGdGEK4OIsSwRL0/s1600/P1012832+copy.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiemF4RMFCb2h2DvcmMv8HHRWtpldB9ItC4TOEm0qXp7dkTma1s8FMgVN-I-BNWRlVcwNf29H-IAKPqz6CvxVoXMSCMKAV_-YOXuOoXkC8Y2scoSp0T0Hji1kyiQmEQsGdGEK4OIsSwRL0/s320/P1012832+copy.JPG" width="318" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kristy Cameron's work, Trickster Rabbit</td></tr>
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Where today we are fearful of a revival of populism or tribalism, of people going “back to blood,” this show makes a great nod to the idea that we don’t have to play to group mentality or one standard or style in order to be accepted. We can retain our ancestry and still be part of what brings us all together, to share and help launch ourselves into the future without the loss of our cultures, our past, or the opportunity to shape it the way we like for the future.</div>
Duncan Wellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18154643396802535581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5144804585406918610.post-9092488568486557792017-12-06T14:42:00.003-05:002017-12-06T14:42:22.902-05:00The Nostalgia We Love<div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal;">
The film and television business is making a killing with a trend that returns Generation X and some of Y (Millennials) back to the 1980s, rekindling the spirit and excitement of their youth with television shows like Stranger Things, Glow, The Americans and many other 21st Century programs set in the 1980s. The list of 1980s remake movies from Hollywood is even longer and would fill this column with an ever growing list soon to include rebooted versions of Scarface and Top Gun. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkv4inYX7v1POWvh6NyY5eJJzKOfEW7hsfbs1WJnK0HbFWus8fp0Hs4WlcCux9G-0MsRVacpF5p9sZb5pNMzefUBGuSGBtYPvuxvx4BsipzH5Smfx6QpRi8dL_ZuMB-0Qsk8SE__xKapc/s1600/DSCN4883+copy.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="113" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkv4inYX7v1POWvh6NyY5eJJzKOfEW7hsfbs1WJnK0HbFWus8fp0Hs4WlcCux9G-0MsRVacpF5p9sZb5pNMzefUBGuSGBtYPvuxvx4BsipzH5Smfx6QpRi8dL_ZuMB-0Qsk8SE__xKapc/s320/DSCN4883+copy.JPG" width="320" /></a> The trends are notable and usually obvious. In the 1970s and 80s Baby Boomers watched Happy Days, Laverne and Shirley, Grease, American Graffiti, all set in the1950s and 60s, revealing that trends returning entire generations to the past is nothing new. Not so obvious are the numerous 1980s phrases, songs, fashion styles and suchlike that photo-bomb many shows and movies, shows set not only in our time but in science fiction films as well. These nostalgic nods to the past capitalize on the 1980s reset trend. </div>
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The contemporary art world is quite different as it is not controlled by public taste. The success of any new contemporary works of art is controlled primarily by the taste of the wealthy one percent and by a continuing ideology of disguised modernism taught in most university fine art departments that work hard to avoid a wholesale return to the past. </div>
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Yet nods to the past can be very important in contemporary art circles. They show an adherence to the underlying modernist ideology by paying homage to great modernists. When you see some drips, there’s Jackson Pollack. When you see some dots, there’s George Seurat, or with bigger dots, Roy Lichtenstein. When you see two eyes on the side of portrait profile, there’s Picasso. Anything melting or bending, there’s Salvador Dali. Even when you see flat and colourful collages and patterning in children’s books, there can be Matisse.</div>
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The art field is filled with these nods. However because the general public has virtually no influence in the art world of big galleries and museums many artists are confused about what sells and who they should aim to sell their art work to. Without a big new movement forming in New York City, many artists aren’t sure what art is for or what it is about. Many of us hedge our bets and flail around for a while before settling on a style that either sells or gets praise from an authority, maybe a professor, curator, critic or gallery director. Anyone else, we’ve been taught, isn’t much of an authority. Including our mothers. </div>
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What is rarely taught or understood is how art has a direct influence on the civic world. Art is all around us and if artists took the time to think outside the gallery and not disdain anything that benefits the public as a commercial exercise they would see that not only is there money to be made, but status and the ability to experiment with aesthetics on a larger scale that would benefit all of us. </div>
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The stand alone painting or sculpture is meant to be an obvious work of art, but imagine if you could have your art in plain sight, even hide it and make artistic statements with signage, graffiti, store front window dressing, a contemporary mosaic within sidewalk tiles, or creative use of lamp posts. Opportunities abound for the progressive artist in the civic world which is slow to progress. </div>
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The blend of contemporary art and its use of new materials within the civic and commercial world of the general public could be amazing and could reignite the past trends of artistic movements. A new contemporary art that removes the influence of the wealthy one percent and the oligarchy of the art world could be one that is truly modern and progressive, even with and maybe more so with nostalgic nods to the past. </div>
Duncan Wellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18154643396802535581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5144804585406918610.post-36821646317540387222017-11-10T21:44:00.004-05:002019-10-04T21:38:39.693-04:00Art is Not Therapy<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: cambria; font-size: 14.666666984558105px;">Duncan Weller </span><a href="http://www.duncanweller.com/" style="font-family: cambria; font-size: 14.666666984558105px;">www.duncanweller.com</a></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"> <span style="font-size: large;">T</span>herapy is good. Art is good. Both are good together, and being creative has therapeutic value, but art is not therapy. Imagine a carpenter on a rooftop in the summer, hammering away and someone yells, “Hey, you have a great job! That's great therapy you're getting</span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">! You're getting fresh air, a tan! You're so lucky!” </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"> Yes, he is getting exercise and he’s out in the sun, but likely he never thought his job was therapeutic. He’s focused on the task at hand and bringing home the bacon.</span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"> He might yell back, "Yeah, therapeutic, sure. Can you see I'm BUILDING A HOUSE!"</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"> And a house has a number of functions, including ensuring that rain doesn't get in, the electronics don't kill anyone, the plumbing won't back up amongst dozens of other concerns. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"> If therapy is to be described as anything that improves your mental health then anyone who has a job that keeps them out of poverty is doing something that will bring some form of mental health. </span>Poverty and underemployment suck and one’s mental health can spiral downward as a result. Seems obvious, that is if you take the meaning of the word at its weakest. Therapy is a form of medical treatment, usually performed after a diagnosis by a health professional. The word's meaning may have been distorted humorously to take away the stigma associated with the word. Now we all get therapy by laying in the hot sun on Baia do Sancho beach in Brazil. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbVJOJmhoqRkp8AesFgb6j-GA-dkNmNu2DrxQzYb6AyHdbFFi-_SZDoQaJMnXWDZ9ZoZjL3Gs9HI5t2AK5GAGZU6q8KddVrkI90FsSGGb9uq9TuPN8v3Dn9YCopyPAKPYVM8LPaUntTkg/s1600/_IGP5253+copy.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbVJOJmhoqRkp8AesFgb6j-GA-dkNmNu2DrxQzYb6AyHdbFFi-_SZDoQaJMnXWDZ9ZoZjL3Gs9HI5t2AK5GAGZU6q8KddVrkI90FsSGGb9uq9TuPN8v3Dn9YCopyPAKPYVM8LPaUntTkg/s400/_IGP5253+copy.JPG" width="391" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Apprentice, assistant and an artist in her own right, Claire Douglas-Lee <br />
learns what it takes to be a full time artist. </td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> The drawbacks of a creative job are offset by the benefits of doing a job one at least enjoys and at most loves with the dangling hope that one might become successful at it and earn a professional living. Since creative people generally enjoy the act of using their brains and hands to make something they are generally happier in their jobs, which is why many people dream of the day they can give up their day job to follow their passion. The trouble with following your passion and making your hobby your full time job is that you have to sacrifice what other people need from you with what you love to do. And in order to make a living you have to compete with other creative people doing the same kind of thing, some professional and others pretending to be. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-kerning: none;"> Living as an artist is complicated, requiring about five jobs just to earn a living, along with the hope and expectations beyond what is possible. It’s hard work being an artist, mitigated by its enjoyment and made opaque by the product. If the product is beautiful and everyone loves it they will most likely still have no idea what kind of anxiety and frustrations and effort went into its creation. Nor how long it took to learn, perfect and practice the tools and methods required to get to the point of creating a good work. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-kerning: none;"> Many artists in our egalitarian society like to give the impression that they are cosmically linked to the source of their inspiration and that ideas and creativity just flow through them. And the results often go without criticism because in our society anyone can call themselves an artist. Art is no longer offered as part of the curriculum in many schools. The result is that artists have to battle many stereotypes. We can sadly be misunderstood. Although it does create a mystique about being an artist that can be beneficial, but there is little value otherwise.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-kerning: none;"> The current growing stereotype is that the arts are therapy, one in the same. It’s an argument used by artists themselves to defend the arts, used because it’s assumed that it is easier for the public to relate to, but likely it’s causing more harm than good. It’s certainly not a convincing argument to use when imploring politicians to improve funding for the arts. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"> I prefer the older stereotype where artists lose their minds battling with their souls and spending decades trying to create the one masterpiece, constantly struggling, fighting it out with other artists and their patrons, demanding exposure in the galleries and then dying in poverty, but leaving the world with a bounty of great work that is one day enjoyed by the public worldwide. </span>It’s still a terrible stereotype, but the current feel-good friendly new age version of what it is to be an artist lacks the weight and seriousness that really is part of our lives. </span></div>
Duncan Wellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18154643396802535581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5144804585406918610.post-61043276254315100802017-11-10T20:49:00.004-05:002017-11-10T20:50:50.224-05:00Sam Shahsahabi and Christian Chapman at the Definitely Superior Art Gallery<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs1sulflZNralhhESf4OhYwAqsoiFzbyevy7r7u3Po-WAA_j6ncX_1n_t_RbijXMM_AnH0ljYARMRamgMkNvszPFFPEgNVUKWrm7QRi_WkWoxDy03mv2xwhYfHwgy483ttsagR0YUAkd4/s1600/P1010552.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; color: #212121; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs1sulflZNralhhESf4OhYwAqsoiFzbyevy7r7u3Po-WAA_j6ncX_1n_t_RbijXMM_AnH0ljYARMRamgMkNvszPFFPEgNVUKWrm7QRi_WkWoxDy03mv2xwhYfHwgy483ttsagR0YUAkd4/s200/P1010552.JPG" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7ndAYIbqpBy7GthzsXj-QdZL9ggCtEysK3Ux149f0_LU83trLmd8ARwEZX1h1xsnhSy2pAAh-3Xc2cAEMNdf-2DnuwdtV_LEX5G91i15cSTh2dtMUgSdaVs9oQ-rXCph0gKVjyuuVIwA/s1600/P1010550+copy.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; color: #212121; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7ndAYIbqpBy7GthzsXj-QdZL9ggCtEysK3Ux149f0_LU83trLmd8ARwEZX1h1xsnhSy2pAAh-3Xc2cAEMNdf-2DnuwdtV_LEX5G91i15cSTh2dtMUgSdaVs9oQ-rXCph0gKVjyuuVIwA/s200/P1010550+copy.JPG" width="148" /></a><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #212121;"> </span><span style="color: white;"> <b><span style="font-size: medium;">S</span>am Shahsahabi </b>has created a series of works for his show, Beneath the Reflection, at the Definitely Superior Art Gallery where copper acts as a canvas on which enamel paint and acids are applied to create patinas of varying colours. Inspired by Persian poetry and postcolonial philosophy, Sam states, “I wanted to explore how in my personal life I came to learn about East and West and if there are any windows of opportunities to bridge the two.”</span></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsYpXv8NqADuDDvIzyqN6-eopleLVl0wJXiIaFuGeN8vwXyGPDnTLoQrWz2abgfgDSemqcRZiFVOCwEOoJDQ3zgiPHky4EDjz9LZKrShj4Bi5BPDQEvUovZ4FL3qGexe8KDyaaWdYTx4E/s1600/P1010908+copy.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: white;"><img border="0" height="275" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsYpXv8NqADuDDvIzyqN6-eopleLVl0wJXiIaFuGeN8vwXyGPDnTLoQrWz2abgfgDSemqcRZiFVOCwEOoJDQ3zgiPHky4EDjz9LZKrShj4Bi5BPDQEvUovZ4FL3qGexe8KDyaaWdYTx4E/s320/P1010908+copy.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Sam got his BFA in painting from Azad University in Tehran, his MFA at York University in Toronto and then after several years of working and exhibiting he began teaching in the Visual Arts department of Lakehead University.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> “Most of my work in the past ten years concentrated on the division of mankind and its environment and the fact that these days we mostly learn about distant cultures through media and brief news feeds in social media.” Concerned that meaningful understanding of different cultures is disconnected by cultural stereotypes he also looks for healing. “I try to create positive works, which have literal and conceptual healing powers by employing the power of copper and sacred geometry.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Whether mystical powers actually come into play and influence the viewer of Sam’s work or not, the inspiration has resulted in unusually interesting wall hangings and sculptural pieces with detailed traditional patterning and colouring. What little imagery there is, flowers and oil rigs, contrast some of the beauty and the ugliness, the growth and entropy of our world. This makes for a worthwhile show that has the physical weight of sculpture with details that add to the suggestion of meaning.</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLMnH18YpPoCcczmB4WGOggk0Ta0BqE7T9YxgJD64ps9oY9ZHFuQbI3VETmrLsqMgOV1AznvU8gQ8Lv_yVW1L2nnIUlVjT0Vv8staMuaih1QOQfE9lzpypjSXelj2o1YVWovM9zUdde8I/s1600/Christian+Chapman+copy.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: white;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLMnH18YpPoCcczmB4WGOggk0Ta0BqE7T9YxgJD64ps9oY9ZHFuQbI3VETmrLsqMgOV1AznvU8gQ8Lv_yVW1L2nnIUlVjT0Vv8staMuaih1QOQfE9lzpypjSXelj2o1YVWovM9zUdde8I/s400/Christian+Chapman+copy.JPG" width="400" /></span></a><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> In gallery three are two works by <b><span style="font-size: medium;">C</span>hristian Chapman</b>, a small print that is humorous, yet a bit hard to decipher, and a very large acrylic painting that makes a big statement. Called, The Time is Now, and Yesterday, and Tomorrow…, Christian continues to explore themes mixing the worlds of the indigenous with the colonialist in this show called, Fight For Your Life. Christian employs the Woodland style, often inverting and subverting subjects and styles using humour combined with a critical voice, often allowing for multiple interpretations. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> This new large work is less open to your interpretation. It is whimsical in its use of sea creatures and cartoon-like approach, but like an oversized political cartoon the painting is clearly making a comment on the fate of indigenous people in Thunder Bay; the location given away by our Sleeping Giant resting in the background. </span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7YNdBQVSHeZKGEaTLYMd7EQUQvqLlXyxg85rGtE8VDYhqTHOBnTZe6EH1fMIPr7VDZBG_WaVu1kd1eUgAT44Ic78OSHumXT1kYKJtv_8enbLADIjOiBDeXWGfD_gybiT-O9eY7bZRwU8/s1600/Christian+Chapman2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="color: white;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7YNdBQVSHeZKGEaTLYMd7EQUQvqLlXyxg85rGtE8VDYhqTHOBnTZe6EH1fMIPr7VDZBG_WaVu1kd1eUgAT44Ic78OSHumXT1kYKJtv_8enbLADIjOiBDeXWGfD_gybiT-O9eY7bZRwU8/s200/Christian+Chapman2.JPG" width="142" /></span></a><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> The painting incorporates one of the world’s most famous paintings, The Raft of the Medusa, by Théodore Géricault. In that work an incompetent captain, given the position of captain as a result of nepotism rather than experience, runs his ship on rocks at sea forcing surviving crew members to build a raft from parts of the ship. It was nearly two weeks before they were rescued, but not before some starved to death, some were murdered and others resorted to cannibalism. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Homaged and allegorized for political and social statements by many artists this version by Christian faults the captains of our community for their failures, either through inattention or incompetence that has resulted in increased racism, the four year torture of indigenous man in prison, and an inordinate number of suicides and murders. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> The painting isn’t a master work, but it gets close. It’s missing the specifics to truly hit home with a hard message or multiple messages, but one can’t fault Christian for not getting into the details. For him it must hit home too much. It must hurt. When speaking of the painting during the opening night for his and Sam’s show, in front of a large audience, or when responding to questions for this article, Christian is reluctant to get into details. And he doesn’t need to. The painting speaks for him.</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> <b>Both shows are on display at the Definitely Superior Art Gallery at 250 Park Ave. till November 11</b>.</span></span></div>
Duncan Wellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18154643396802535581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5144804585406918610.post-82692091667049753762017-11-10T20:30:00.001-05:002017-11-10T20:30:21.517-05:00Quinten Maki and Denise Smith at the Thunder Bay Art Gallery<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit3UTUm3g5wTcmDB3PKJJnRsMwv2xNAyxk7J8krbYVqS3A0TwWe_2D7W5wsfE4ADfujgSIRiCe5JFaI8MRBhxemb1OcL7AowGhrTZrsc9xrqU1GEDy2dzXDrMEcW_kIQHSAyAWduJ4rE0/s1600/01+Tango+with+White+copy.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit3UTUm3g5wTcmDB3PKJJnRsMwv2xNAyxk7J8krbYVqS3A0TwWe_2D7W5wsfE4ADfujgSIRiCe5JFaI8MRBhxemb1OcL7AowGhrTZrsc9xrqU1GEDy2dzXDrMEcW_kIQHSAyAWduJ4rE0/s320/01+Tango+with+White+copy.JPG" width="320" /></a><span style="font-kerning: none;">With the task to fill Gallery One of the Thunder Bay Art Gallery, Quinten Maki produced a stunning show called Kohesion. Filled with bold expressionistic works, both intense yet playful, Maki used various mediums, often paper on canvas in order to mimic the worn and weathered age of dilapidated walls, abandoned construction sites and sheets of metal (as if dragged from a site and hung on a gallery wall) and the colourful treading of the wheels of Caterpillar vehicles.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"> The occasional drip or splatter is reminiscent of Jackson Pollack and other expressionist artists of the 1950s and 60s, yet with the combination of stencil, paper, some figurative drawings, various gels and paint mediums, the works are updated and more dynamic. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNSSgEio_wfJPrwkubRkaVU8aIXn-2kbXlVEWHqeYSn7OLglZGHYiksSJbtZylinRNZ4puj8aGfSO7ufPLyudPubnR5_JtsT9jTQvvflSZnJxAntUJbxwHdw97HQPCkeIUt9NH11KH7Tw/s1600/P1011014+copy.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNSSgEio_wfJPrwkubRkaVU8aIXn-2kbXlVEWHqeYSn7OLglZGHYiksSJbtZylinRNZ4puj8aGfSO7ufPLyudPubnR5_JtsT9jTQvvflSZnJxAntUJbxwHdw97HQPCkeIUt9NH11KH7Tw/s200/P1011014+copy.JPG" width="200" /></a><span style="font-kerning: none;"> The constructivist elements are contradicted by a sense of hope, a celebration of returning beauty amongst the decay where glazing gives the stencil and painted layers an extra depth and the gloss varnish coats the reflective and iridescent paint splatters to make sections shine and allow for the impression that sections of the painting are tissue paper thin and could be blown away at any moment by a gust of wind. This creates an unusually delicate and temporal feel. So while the works are simultaneously mimicking the heavy weight of sheets of steel or aluminum they also mimic the beauty and translucence of butterfly wings. This is most obvious in the work “Tango with White.” This combination is a very difficult effect to pull off. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxyDgS5C99HvXY1JXBVIp3rE2I-paVroEp-NY_dHAXU858hLCvvWxTd2lAf7gCst88rVlXHbbKtZgWjddHnEoMZUnyu6zZb4aLhfXcDTahiwIo0BfJ_kU0_QUoxYuiQ8gE23bxDg93hIs/s1600/Denise+Smith+copy.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxyDgS5C99HvXY1JXBVIp3rE2I-paVroEp-NY_dHAXU858hLCvvWxTd2lAf7gCst88rVlXHbbKtZgWjddHnEoMZUnyu6zZb4aLhfXcDTahiwIo0BfJ_kU0_QUoxYuiQ8gE23bxDg93hIs/s320/Denise+Smith+copy.JPG" width="232" /></a><span style="font-kerning: none;"> It’s companion piece on the opposite wall seems to be dominated by electrical tape and has a heavier feel. Similar experiments or playing with mediums are made in works where the additions of charcoal drawings of humans are glued to a variety of pieces. Although these aren’t the most dynamic works in the show they have their own humanist weight and offer the viewer another avenue to ponder.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYfDHygbKmU8yIvjogXBCA6sq988p2EL4tm4296_Al8q_vGOx1LRhm4kwciDwh8u0l59efhOl_6oJvAJ1MPVCSPVW-QoMxwgIiWC9wbXflDw4oyA2lRMG9KRPYxT8KtEZZZCUhOQf1o5Q/s1600/P1011029.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYfDHygbKmU8yIvjogXBCA6sq988p2EL4tm4296_Al8q_vGOx1LRhm4kwciDwh8u0l59efhOl_6oJvAJ1MPVCSPVW-QoMxwgIiWC9wbXflDw4oyA2lRMG9KRPYxT8KtEZZZCUhOQf1o5Q/s200/P1011029.JPG" width="200" /></a><span style="font-kerning: none;"> The world of ceramic cartoon delight in Denise Smith’s works in her show, On The Trail, have just enough hint of the austere and arcane nature of the world to save the art from being legitimate ceramic kitsch, the kind where a porcelain dolphin leaps from the waves, the thing your grandmother might have collected. That isn’t to say the show wouldn’t be fun or worthwhile for adults without a good social statement, but the artist is using a theme to create something deeper and a little disturbing, yet not intrusive enough to alter our impulse to want her little worlds to be wonderful play parks in their own right. The incredible amount of time, skill, talent and patience found in this show are phenomenal and Smith's dedication to the underlying effort to educate her audience about our complicated relationship with nature is commendable. The show's message is better understood this way than presented in an essay or a hundred other ways by artists who could take the same subject and make their work shocking, overly abstruse or coldly analytical and dull. Smith has made this show one worth returning to and talking about because it inhabits a number or worlds, both contemporary and popular, a perfect blend. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"> On the popular art side, this show is a kind of advanced story book for children where some of the arcane reality of nature is exposed, and some of the fakery involved in maintaining a peaceful stereotype of nature is typically hidden in our manicured parks. Our national parks might be free of the indigenous people who once populated the land and the parks may hide the circle of life where death results from animals feeding upon one another, but Denise’s little windows with her hints into reality will only add to your enjoyment. Whether her intended message is truly inculcated in the works is debatable, but there is no reason to </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"> Children will love and appreciate her honesty while adults will read the statement and agree that what is made safe for us, sanitized, is something to worry about. There is, after all, a great loss in not truly understanding nature and appreciating its beauty and potential danger merely as it exists for and with its own right to exist as such. Nature is nothing to be afraid of if you learn from it. </span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span><span style="background-color: white;">Both shows are at the Thunder Bay Art Gallery until November 19.</span></div>
Duncan Wellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18154643396802535581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5144804585406918610.post-10121029976285134052017-10-22T10:36:00.001-04:002017-10-22T10:36:22.059-04:00ThunderCon Hosts New and Experienced Talent<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid66V4jgR82QvliKhERiyhUxkqTIhvF_V0RnjKfDTmGyhyphenhyphenKMcUtwhwAHWUPAVeobV64qq2CFnYrNac0eUuJ6KYfM49YrdM6APuzxfo4FL1uOjfKZYpQVxXaU3jJIfRXqydpGroUIjvwts/s1600/ThunderCon+Talent+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="129" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid66V4jgR82QvliKhERiyhUxkqTIhvF_V0RnjKfDTmGyhyphenhyphenKMcUtwhwAHWUPAVeobV64qq2CFnYrNac0eUuJ6KYfM49YrdM6APuzxfo4FL1uOjfKZYpQVxXaU3jJIfRXqydpGroUIjvwts/s640/ThunderCon+Talent+copy.jpg" width="640" /></a> ThunderCon at the Valhalla Inn last weekend was a great success. Amongst the plethora of activities were young vendors hawking fan art and original designs to comic culture fans. One of the most common ways for young artists get started is to match their skills with professionals in the field and delight in something they love, which can also guide them meaningfully through life. And where imitation is the best form of flattery it’s also a great way to get experience. A few young artist at ThunderCon are already planning excursions into their own original comics and graphic novel creations. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> The following are only a few of the artists at ThunderCon. You can Google their names to find their websites. Most are on Facebook as well.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Freelance artist, <b>Kaisa Eila</b> at 21 years of age began drawing anime at the age of 13. She plans on heading out to Vancouver to take animation courses, preferably classic 2D animation. She played with a variety of styles to settle on her own focusing on strong yet feminine women featured in her original designs and fan art sold as originals, prints and bookmarks. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Only fourteen, <b>Jada Ferris</b> is enjoying her first time at ThunderCon. Inspired by anime, particularly Japanese filmmaker, Makoto Shinkai and San Francisco artist, Happy D, Jada is already creating realistic portrait commissions to earn money. Jada is hoping to have her work juried for the next High School art show at the Thunder Bay Art Gallery.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <b> Hailey Dunn</b> says she’s been drawing forever. She minored in Fine Arts at Lakehead University and is studying recreation therapy at Confederation College. Hailey creates mostly fan art and creating a comic with the amazing cosplay expert and costume prize winner, Emma Cavar. Hailey’s experience came from personal requests and creating artwork for birthday presents. She loves her dark brooding characters and big metal masks. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <b>Kaitlin Lebrun</b> studies psychology at the University of Winnipeg. At 23 Kaitlin has been to a number of comic conventions in Canada. She’s a fan of Japanese manga superhero, My Hero Academia. Her unsupportive father who owns a truck company inadvertently supplied the material that inspired Kaitlin to draw, pick up truck calendars. From drawing trucks at the age of 3 Kaitlin is wanting to move to Japan to work with artist, Kohei Horikoshi. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> With influence from his mother and grandmother who painted in acrylics Sudbury professional artist <b>Josh Coulter</b>, at 25, creates comic book art and album covers. He sells graphic illustrations, some printed on shirts, and other merchandise worldwide online. He is working towards larger projects and bigger sculptures. For the band Desolate State he was happy to produce an image of a giant cyborg mole digging through the earth. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <b>Randy Monteith</b> is the elder statesman of the group. He took up creating images with Photoshop as a hobby which turned into fourteen years worth of experience. Randy is as an electronics technician for Bombardier who was inspired by an image years ago of a hybrid animal. He tried his hand at reworking imagery and was hooked. He works from his own photos, friend’s photos, and stock photos from online image banks. He does not copy from Google. His imagery often sells like hotcakes, and he’s won awards and takes pride that the CEO of Creative Magazine was following his progress, asking him to do the cover of the magazine.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> First time attendee, <b>Gabrielle Cosco</b> began drawing princesses at the age of 8 and her own strip at ten featuring a gang of bank robbing clowns. As a professional artist for the last ten years she studied at Georgian College in Barry and now works for the Kwayaciiwin Education Resource Centre in Sioux Lookout illustrating books for children. Gabrielle was promoting her book, City of Sirens, an ongoing series. Taking her inspiration from Wonder Woman, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and other strong pop-culture female characters Gabrielle is hoping her comic series will be taken up as a television show. </span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Hopefully these artists and a new crop will join the rest of their flock at next year’s ThunderCon. Special thanks to the organizers.</span></span></div>
Duncan Wellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18154643396802535581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5144804585406918610.post-70745641787540903382017-09-17T21:03:00.000-04:002017-09-17T21:03:30.258-04:00Jim Oskineegish, Second Generation Woodland Artist<div style="background-color: white; color: #212121; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"> Back in 2005, Jim Oskineegish made a conscious decision to paint in the woodland style, a move away from his surrealist works, which sold well. Both a nephew of Jim’s and Norval Morrisseau were living in British Columbia at the time so Jim sent his nephew three of his new woodland styled paintings for Morrisseau to see. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisJ3ArgcUMqnbu_OqhUz4Bhy9V7gkxL80n3U64FHq8pBmXM7xIg6J8yHdSYYUZ8TTtu9lXeW7LpGIgDfLL0TWrfy42AuwSuAYeDKYtFpcmu5WpqamZXuFWIgHLyVyKsYCmGUyEQ4nOUCA/s1600/me+again+2017+002.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisJ3ArgcUMqnbu_OqhUz4Bhy9V7gkxL80n3U64FHq8pBmXM7xIg6J8yHdSYYUZ8TTtu9lXeW7LpGIgDfLL0TWrfy42AuwSuAYeDKYtFpcmu5WpqamZXuFWIgHLyVyKsYCmGUyEQ4nOUCA/s200/me+again+2017+002.JPG" width="162" /></a><span style="font-kerning: none;"> Although Jim’s paintings were blessed by Morrisseau and Jim was granted approval to continue painting in the woodland style, Jim was asked by local elders not to depict First Nations stories or to depict imagery and narratives from dreams that might come to him. With a bloodline descending from medicine men, the elders thought it best for Jim to respect imagery as private messages from the spirits.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"> Respecting this request Jim paints primarily animals that intrigue him and is today incorporating the style for a series to celebrate the heroes of his seriously troubled childhood. The likes of Bruce Lee and Freddy Mercury will get the woodland treatment and will be incorporated into a film by local filmmaker, Michelle Derosier some time next year. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSpMRKY7BpgXh5dHp2Wc5FBBy6lK0U2pzUIhhLrAu2u9MGtc4maN6jIFpkqJEO_QRTIIzSYiKJ-pA8t5PcoJ5XrvQp3ydzA57EukiOdBD7ZZIwrIFXqCUXQ-SlJ1p3VQnbPZ1cMF2qTxA/s1600/Humming+Bird+copy.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSpMRKY7BpgXh5dHp2Wc5FBBy6lK0U2pzUIhhLrAu2u9MGtc4maN6jIFpkqJEO_QRTIIzSYiKJ-pA8t5PcoJ5XrvQp3ydzA57EukiOdBD7ZZIwrIFXqCUXQ-SlJ1p3VQnbPZ1cMF2qTxA/s400/Humming+Bird+copy.JPG" width="323" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hummingbird, Acrylic on Canvas</td></tr>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"> Any subject Jim endeavours to paint will have the power, colour, composition and energy that we’ve come to appreciate from the woodland style, not in an inverted critical contemporary fashion, but with the knowledge of an artist who delights in beauty and bold imagery using skills obtained from years of practice since childhood and from a formal education with three years spent in the Lakehead University visual arts program. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"> Although represented by five different galleries, here at the Ahnisnabae gallery and out west, painting for Jim is still a hobby. He is employed full time in Sioux Lookout at the Ahnisnabae Friendship Centre, working with people off reserve from children to seniors. He is also renovating his house but manages to find spare time to paint. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"> Jim was born in Nikina, near Geraldton in 1964 to an Ojibwe mother and Polish father. His mother is of Fort Hope First Nations and his father was an immigrant after World War II. His mother was affected the the 1960’s scoop where the OPP took children and sold them for profit to other families often in other countries. In Poland Jim’s father persevered under German rule and survived a Nazi death camp.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"> This combination of violent history and emotional trauma did not make for a pleasant upbringing for Jim. He was taken from his abusive parents at the age of five to be tormented and nearly murdered in foster care. With three foster placements, each traumatic, but one more than the others, he was beaten, cut with knives, put out in the cold, and often choked. Jim states, “One of the beatings I got was so bad that I eventually got a tumour.” </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4Nc0_hcIz90CABNBnvOvBJMmj-q1nB8_Wb_fCTDb1l414NAOeithEPJNktbdmTaRLWk4mU-IiXvCI_rANX4bsPJi6cui06bb6sz1hbUC4pj-F5tZBSJQDtpaFr4DLZazDMUavleCydA0/s1600/Sleeping+Giant+copy.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4Nc0_hcIz90CABNBnvOvBJMmj-q1nB8_Wb_fCTDb1l414NAOeithEPJNktbdmTaRLWk4mU-IiXvCI_rANX4bsPJi6cui06bb6sz1hbUC4pj-F5tZBSJQDtpaFr4DLZazDMUavleCydA0/s320/Sleeping+Giant+copy.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sleeping Giant</td></tr>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"> After dealing with pain for years the tumour was spotted with a Catscan and Jim was sent to Ottawa to have a kidney removed. Jim sights as an example of one of his beatings a time when he was sent out to get groceries from the corner store. He missed one of the items on the list and he was severely beaten by his foster mother. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"> Jim has children of his own and is proud that they’ve grown up happy and educated. Yet he still deals with issues of his past. He excelled at sports, which gave him strength and physical confidence, but it was his popular culture icons that gave him hope and a way of dealing with his emotional trauma. Being active gave him strength, but Jim took on bullies in Westfort by pretending to be Bruce Lee. “Bruce Lee gave me courage. A gang of bullies were going to beat me up, but I told them I had to get my Bruce Lee socks first. So I ran home, and I could have just stayed home, but I did what I promised, came back with my Bruce Lee socks and beat all five of them up.” </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"> He was able to find meaning and emotional release in lines from Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody and cry for the first time in years. “Freddy Mercury helped me to express myself,” he says.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"> As a child he drew goalies and other hockey players that he admired. “I am currently doing a thirteen part series called My Heroes, paintings of people who were my inspirations, who generated ideas, who helped me to continue to push forth and survive as a child from five years of age to nineteen.” </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"> Keeping the few galleries that represent him stocked is a challenge. On average he does a painting a week. He applies quality Liquitex acrylics with watercolours to get a smooth texture, laying the paint three times or so with bold colours and then twice with black lines. He’s noticed a change in his skill level, improving gradually, and keeps the prices in all the galleries the same. “I do not undersell my work as that would hurt my relationship with my business partners at the galleries.”</span></div>
Duncan Wellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18154643396802535581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5144804585406918610.post-68551739313877368582017-09-02T10:13:00.002-04:002017-09-02T10:13:19.247-04:00Gallery 33 and The Painted Turtle Art Shop in Thunder Bay<div style="font-family: 'helvetica neue'; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal;">
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<span style="color: white; font-kerning: none;">Run separately yet conjoined under the same roof, a young Kristen Wall has run Gallery 33 for two and a half years while her cohorts, Lorraine Cull and Angie Jenson have run the Painted Turtle Art Shop for fourteen. Together they have served Thunder Bay well with art shows, procuring art supplies for individuals and groups, especially schools, and offering classes and contributing to the community extensively. Further progress was made with their move from the downtown North Core to the corner of Balsam and River St. next to George’s Market where they have benefited from free parking and walk by traffic. </span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-kerning: none;"> About forty visual artist and ten authors are represented in the gallery where sections of the wall and displays are rented to new and emerging local and regional talent. The quality and variety vary, but there are enough stunning works to make the gallery a professional space with noteworthy artists. Other items such as soaps, jewelry, books, cards, sculpture, pottery, glasswork and prints are sold throughout along with specialty items like Wolfhead coffee and Chocolate Cow. The chocolate is soon to be restocked as it had a habit of melting in the summer months.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-kerning: none;"> As part of the mission to support artists, the public is offered classes, the most popular being Paint and Wine Nights, occurring multiple times a month. These are public and private parties, a fun way to get together with friends and try out acrylic paints. As Fall hits, classes for children and youth are offered where they can draw and paint using watercolours and oils. </span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-kerning: none;"> At a youthful twenty-seven, Kristen has an Honours Bachelor in Fine Arts and has lived in Thunder Bay her entire life. “I’ve always been into art,” says Kristen, “and always imagined the business would be attached to my house, but this opportunity fell out of the sky and I jumped on it. The work is a lot more commercial than I thought it would be, but I’ve been able to shape it in the image I wanted, which is to give the gallery that homey feel.”</span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-kerning: none;"> With a faux fire place and tan coloured walls Kristen designed the space to be warm and welcoming, unlike a typical white-walled gallery space. “We have CBC Radio on all the time,” she smiles. </span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-kerning: none;"> Kristen has had little time for her own art, earning some of her living by teaching most of the classes. Other income is generated through art commissions, space rentals and the occasional sale of her own art. Artists Linda Dell, Ken Crawford and Betty Nash have been brought in to teach classes. Coming soon is Rene Beerthuizen who will teach oil painting. </span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-kerning: none;"> Bursting from the corner of the gallery is a virtual potpourri candy display for artists. Here is the Painted Turtle Art Shop where you get that magic feeling of opportunity, where you can enter other worlds by creating your own portals. Shelves crammed with gleaming art supplies are offered to professionals and novices alike, the tools of the trade that every artist and wannabe needs in order to play around or get serious. It’s a challenge worth taking.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-kerning: none;"> Formerly owned for many years by artist Ruth Tye-McKenzie, the art supply shop moved around from Red River Road to Cumberland. Co-owners Lorraine and Angie took it over in 2003 before the moves feeling the need to keep Ruth's legacy and the shop running. Angie spends her time managing the books and the waterfront’s “Baggage Building” these days. Lorraine is the constant stalwart of the shop and thus a virtual window to the arts community. Recalling the days of Norval Morrisseau and Roy Thomas, Lorraine offers up stories of wild artists and art crimes that I can’t disclose. Instead I can say Lorraine is a wonderful source of information about the supplies, local talent and events.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-kerning: none;"> The Painted Turtle has also contributed to the city with a long list of membership on boards to improve the arts within the city, with donations to schools, galleries, and to artists with prizes at various high school and University shows. It's been a tradition to give back to the art scene since the shop's inception. </span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-kerning: none;"> On a personal note, the Painted Turtle is where I ordered my first batch of linen to paint large oil portraits when I was eighteen, knowing that the master painters of the past used only the best materials I was determined to emulate them. So I saved my pennies for top quality oil paints and quality linen, thinking my paintings would last for hundreds of years. Time will tell. </span></div>
Duncan Wellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18154643396802535581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5144804585406918610.post-33051224061362692017-08-17T23:05:00.001-04:002017-08-17T23:09:50.860-04:00Welcome to the Ahnisnabae Art Gallery and Framing Shop<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal;">
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">For his next book for which he received a good deal of funding and a sabbatical from his Swiss university, a travelling professor passed through our region recently to interview First Nations people across Canada. Digging into the truth regarding contemporary conditions and the culture of First Nations people he stopped in Thunder Bay where he interviewed several people including Louise Thomas, owner of the Ahnisnabae Gallery at 18 South Court Street. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"> For travelling profs and local writers Louise is a wonderful source of information regarding arts and artists in our region. With over three hundred artists represented and a continual interest to take on new artists and promote the legacy of her late husband and artist, Roy Thomas, the Ahnisnabae Art Gallery is a destination point for tourists and collectors from all over. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"> In business for twelve years this retail shop has an international following. Invested with the spirit of many people, the gallery offers a salon style display of many windows into other realities and approaches revealing talent where so many artists have taken up the challenge of expressing themselves, their communities, their history and their love of place and unique experiences. And what is wonderful about all this imagery and the pouring of soul and effort into these pieces is that you can take it with you, celebrate it and have it blend into the world you have at home. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"> The gallery sells paintings, sculpture, pottery, needlework, jewelry, soap, crafts, scarves, purses, cards and more. New products come in on a regular basis, made by individual artists and companies producing such items as limited edition paddles produced in Grand Marais employing Roy Thomas’ famous image titled, “We Are All In the Same Boat.” </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"> A new line of products are coming where Roy’s images will be embossed on leather handbags, wallets, belts, and other wearable items specially created by a company in Southern Ontario. “Something comes in on a weekly basis,” says Louise, as she takes a breath revealing a bit of exasperation with the amount of work involved. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjISO4QaX2h8f5G3oyaZv7Q5-TYbK-P1AAajA9qNmP4eKUGSLveEWAoPxY7_s9ZpSlBn76wK9t81S9_WJ4fDuKItWn0Vc5VcqsO_xZi_9yQVjBDKfsHMpDYJ0hkZyB13JDRvNNxv2bqPOo/s1600/_IGP4477.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="145" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjISO4QaX2h8f5G3oyaZv7Q5-TYbK-P1AAajA9qNmP4eKUGSLveEWAoPxY7_s9ZpSlBn76wK9t81S9_WJ4fDuKItWn0Vc5VcqsO_xZi_9yQVjBDKfsHMpDYJ0hkZyB13JDRvNNxv2bqPOo/s200/_IGP4477.JPG" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxJ-J2EOEEkUyDr3iHfdwnN2GbE_ayA1MEtELiM0XKEcy1-mpytzv1q1WgHKwcFOtJxrjx6INWv2-xA3GTnyb7eVepNjhJ0-WMhjp7Y-JCdJftDuoBSTiDWEiMnoufztGbKV5QjCUvltQ/s1600/_IGP4462.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="151" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxJ-J2EOEEkUyDr3iHfdwnN2GbE_ayA1MEtELiM0XKEcy1-mpytzv1q1WgHKwcFOtJxrjx6INWv2-xA3GTnyb7eVepNjhJ0-WMhjp7Y-JCdJftDuoBSTiDWEiMnoufztGbKV5QjCUvltQ/s200/_IGP4462.JPG" width="200" /></a><span style="font-kerning: none;"> Working six days a week and doing her best not to come in on Sundays her relaxed manner is partly a result of pacing herself. In remission since November of 2015 Louise is not totally out of the clear from an agonizing bout of cancer and chemotherapy treatments. To help keep her clear Louise will be taking medicine for another five years. “I feel fine, great. Lot’s of energy,” she smiles, thriving in life and with the success she’s having.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"> The North Core has already seen a boon for business and an influx of tourists and locals traipsing around exploring new shops. “Thank goodness for young people having vision and doing things,” says Louise. And when it is suggested that Louise move to a bigger city for bigger and better sales she explains, “Thunder Bay is a great city. It has everything a big city has. I’m known here, I’m established.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"> When moving her business to her current location at 18 Court Street from Westfort Louise declined to use entrepreneurial funds offered to her in order that more money could go to other indigenous businesspeople. “It’s been great being in this business for 12 years and doing it on my own without any funding.” And her business is growing. Last July was Louise’s best month. The picture framing has taken off. Louise’s son, Randy, following in his father’s footsteps is creating his own unique style of art which he sells through the gallery. Randy is also a picture framer fully dedicated to a museum standard quality. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"> Louise receives requests for business ventures through the Internet. She doesn’t buy art, selling work on consignment. She will do some appraising of art and research when necessary to ensure the work is original. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"> After being interviewed Louise welcomes a large group of Mexican students, some with indigenous ancestry who find some of the art and methods familiar to their own culture. Louise gives them a little tour and talk about the art and our indigenous North American community. When the group leaves an elderly gentleman, Michael DePerry, pulls his little tikanagans from a canister. Louise is immediately intrigued and she discussing taking on his work for the gallery.</span></div>
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Duncan Wellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18154643396802535581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5144804585406918610.post-63137789040705656932017-08-03T00:15:00.000-04:002017-08-03T00:16:33.714-04:00The Art of Eugene Lefrancois<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV0WpuifbQVeVydOqk_3IUC6cIIlBJ2MkI0-dpf3KHD7bJawf4sRxygWJU0KEc67eMpToyYNdvJC0FKS67L9YmHu4kewDQ04z2FpDxyNaM7ZeiPf4w1BBX2fBjQZt9O-HLHlNdUbV2uL8/s1600/Eugene+Lafrancois.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV0WpuifbQVeVydOqk_3IUC6cIIlBJ2MkI0-dpf3KHD7bJawf4sRxygWJU0KEc67eMpToyYNdvJC0FKS67L9YmHu4kewDQ04z2FpDxyNaM7ZeiPf4w1BBX2fBjQZt9O-HLHlNdUbV2uL8/s320/Eugene+Lafrancois.jpg" width="221" /></a><span style="font-kerning: none;">Recently, after confronting a couple local artists who have no issue with adding a few swipes of expressionist paint slaps to the imagery taken or stolen from the Internet and projected onto canvas to avoid using their own imagination it’s wonderful to see the work of an artist genuinely lit up by their own. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpHfrEa8_Ej268zNmx80oBLCaZ-L9HvgJhTzntb2c-UE44Epewm2w7mmrrSdGCcTgTilazFFADTZrIRb1CEFNSPfE__BnebcAL6TcPReomd_icNjk4oeHi6bB_z0PBx-DU2poHaNA0SXE/s1600/DSCN3778.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="136" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpHfrEa8_Ej268zNmx80oBLCaZ-L9HvgJhTzntb2c-UE44Epewm2w7mmrrSdGCcTgTilazFFADTZrIRb1CEFNSPfE__BnebcAL6TcPReomd_icNjk4oeHi6bB_z0PBx-DU2poHaNA0SXE/s200/DSCN3778.JPG" width="200" /></a><span style="font-kerning: none;"> Examples of free-flowing streams of consciousness art pieces can be seen at the Growing Season restaurant on Algoma where several of Eugene Lefrancois’ ink and watercolour works hang. With limited reference material influences come from the styles of several artists including Norval Morrisseau, M.C. Escher, and Salvador Dali. The connected long strands and lines are reminiscent of the First Nations artist, Cecil Youngfox. Talking on this surrealist approach Eugene states, “When the pen hits the paper there is no idea what is going to happen… sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"> And therein is the risk with using one’s imagination, it’s not always fruitful and it’s certainly not always easy or even relatable to others, but it’s a practice worthy of its own merit. Eugene says, “To copy stroke for stroke is wrong. To get inspired by the work is awesome.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"> Playing around with line, swirls, patterns, colour and composition the results are little composite dreamworlds where shapes could be symbols which morph into landscapes. The whimsical approach to these small, mostly watercolour and ink works on paper might lack the punch offered by larger paintings done in oil or thick acrylics on canvas, but the airiness and flow of his choice of materials intimate stained glass and fabric works. The light seems to come through the work turning them into little windows, a feat that takes longer to achieve with oils and acrylics. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"> Earth, sky, birds and specifically the eyes of birds are most often represented where the sun is drawn in a variety of ways to suggest magical powers. The staring birds add a slight sense of the ominous and strength.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhE88uosibphuOKNaMwG8m5c7bDVFL3xWMXNkFM7CgtWMClnUK6fR9kYSw2lz7Y0XJEn4vNgTrRJ16LS6gTG2RrpqqRJu3Xk4PLLHtiyylwP8_nINBDICuv556ekcYJ6w5HgMtMBEd7OKY/s1600/DSCN3794.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="115" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhE88uosibphuOKNaMwG8m5c7bDVFL3xWMXNkFM7CgtWMClnUK6fR9kYSw2lz7Y0XJEn4vNgTrRJ16LS6gTG2RrpqqRJu3Xk4PLLHtiyylwP8_nINBDICuv556ekcYJ6w5HgMtMBEd7OKY/s400/DSCN3794.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"> Eugene says of his work, “I hope that the people who see my work will see things in a different way. Just to look at a tree for instance is looking at a tree. I feel that a tree is a living being. The only thing is we as humans can't communicate with it. Just like fire and plants. They all have a story and I try to get that story to people who see my work, in a small way.” </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNQZlBaajoR1vXTB88SrCLqxW3FJDBvAaZyoi7tzFhngGGnWQPEJklDFtztyfuO2-wcOkfNtxah71-cRmfsW68Xnv9JpKFmmD8gL4KSjFu6VRyrdMujIpVsRKYcPmcSwzNwyAZgHDiO_o/s1600/DSCN3791.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="135" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNQZlBaajoR1vXTB88SrCLqxW3FJDBvAaZyoi7tzFhngGGnWQPEJklDFtztyfuO2-wcOkfNtxah71-cRmfsW68Xnv9JpKFmmD8gL4KSjFu6VRyrdMujIpVsRKYcPmcSwzNwyAZgHDiO_o/s200/DSCN3791.JPG" width="200" /></a><span style="font-kerning: none;"> Being creative is also therapeutic for Eugene. “I am also an injured worker advocate. I have seen society make a mess of injured workers. Art is my therapy that I use to make sense of it all.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"> Eugene has shown his work in Thunder Bay often over the years, painting most of his life as a self taught artist with a creative instinct he says has always been with him, that being inspired to draw and paint was not an event, but born into him. Yet he still needed encouragement to follow his artistic interests and he took it to heart when an elder gave him practical advice, as Eugene relates,“do your own thing if you can afford it.”</span><br />
<span style="font-kerning: none;">And so he did. "Just the sheer act of being able to draw and put it out there is inspiration. To copy stroke for stroke is wrong. To get inspired by the work is awesome."</span></div>
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Duncan Wellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18154643396802535581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5144804585406918610.post-56707548314443551372017-08-02T23:48:00.000-04:002017-08-11T05:00:07.535-04:00The Incredible Whiteness of Children's Picture Books<div style="font-family: 'helvetica neue'; line-height: normal;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLMB-cYAX5tByqUm6mUR6JWvaU0k75OIxEao6uZOsxLEEKYHLejN1OnACF5WLNQ3dFco5UvM4ErL8mKykXqujcerRCBPGh2dPxvKxyEGYbTHVRLHjG2jAe3lqnbQQZG6Q2cjJzOQzG4M4/s1600/DSCN3562+copy.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLMB-cYAX5tByqUm6mUR6JWvaU0k75OIxEao6uZOsxLEEKYHLejN1OnACF5WLNQ3dFco5UvM4ErL8mKykXqujcerRCBPGh2dPxvKxyEGYbTHVRLHjG2jAe3lqnbQQZG6Q2cjJzOQzG4M4/s320/DSCN3562+copy.JPG" width="320" /></a><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">It’s a primary complaint I’ve heard from parents that children’s books are too simple. Parents want picture books to have greater depth of meaning and more excitement with clever and imaginative vocabulary. Children want those qualities even more. Parents sense that picture books are being dumbed-down for the masses.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"> Unlike picture books, middle readers and young adult novels have taken on big issues and flown off into otherworldly fantasies with exciting story lines, interesting characters and creative language. The result is an explosion of popular and worthy books with adults becoming their primary fans while rejecting violent and over-sexualized adult fiction or abstruse contemporary literary work. </span><br />
It is a very different scene for children. And it's been that way for decades in Canada. It's something I noticed early on.</div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"> It wasn’t long after our librarian at Agnew H. Johnston, Mr. Woodruff, read to our grade 3 or 4 class a story about a man who made his own plane and flew it around his farmland that I turned to comic books; Sgt. Rock, G.I. Combat, Spiderman and Weird Tales. Mr. Woodruff pointed out that the book he read had a gold award sticker on its cover. He said that books with gold stickers were the best children’s books in the library.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"> I dutifully headed to the cubby hole shelves with all the picture books and collected a stack of gold emblemed books. One by one I read the books expectantly and soon became disillusioned. When a classmate, Allison, sat next to me and asked me what I was doing I replied with some anger and guilt, “Don’t read the books with the gold stickers. They’re no good.” </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"> I had reasoned that what adults wanted us to like was different from what we actually wanted from books. I wanted books that could match the mystery and excitement of Where the Wild Things Are or the strange worlds created by Dr. Seuss. I realized years later that I hadn’t outgrown picture books: any really good children’s picture book can be equally enjoyed by an adult. And the real test of any book is longevity. Those books that I loved were also the ones that millions of other children felt were their favourites. Many books have lasted for generations while hundreds of thousands of other books continue to vanish into the ether. We kids weren’t wrong. There were commonalities in the books we liked that made them great.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"> Children are smarter than we give them credit for. Often they sense what’s going on when we think they shouldn’t and do so without the words to express themselves and the ability to contrast or compare what they see with other experiences in order to describe something fully to us adults. But they know what they like. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"> And masses of amounts of white space wasn’t one of them. As a child I wanted to be a little older than I was and a little smarter than I actually was. And white space to me symbolized baby books, Dick and Jane books, books that I really disliked as a child. Books with lots of white space aren’t bad books, some are great, but as a child lots of white space on the cover told me that they were lazy books. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbQ3XuvQGMR7JT9YWOAQh9wGhh2puAJy05cOVDCmeLhVu0_eQwY8beqGX9X22L1vHplwsRNptbBNnBq0041WoT0LR-UtqbMHzwY53ML1XCkclJJc2hSbDGVylh8qeUgOodxD3EM5QoxmI/s1600/More+White+Books+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="74" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbQ3XuvQGMR7JT9YWOAQh9wGhh2puAJy05cOVDCmeLhVu0_eQwY8beqGX9X22L1vHplwsRNptbBNnBq0041WoT0LR-UtqbMHzwY53ML1XCkclJJc2hSbDGVylh8qeUgOodxD3EM5QoxmI/s640/More+White+Books+copy.jpg" width="640" /></a> Sadly children have no one to represent them in the book industry. There are agents and promoters who work for the publishing industry who talk up the value of books. And there are “critics” who love every single damn picture book that gets published, which makes them self-appointed shills for the industry, totally unconcerned that a child and her parent has to wade through continuous stacks of lacklustre books before they can find something they truly love. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"> Why produce so many books with so much white space? Maybe the white space is a result of the illustrators choosing to avoid depth of meaning and depth of perspective in detailed backgrounds with extra characters and animals because it takes too long to create that kind of added value. And in Canada most illustrators are simply not getting paid enough to develop their work further beyond the main characters. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"> Or it might be fashion. White is in vogue. White space makes the illustrations look modern, like a gallery’s walls or a lab in a hospital. Yet lots of white also makes the books antiseptic and middle class where no one is wealthy or poor. Life as you might see it in the street or allegorized in a fantastic tale doesn’t exist. White backgrounds represent the ultimate in generic taste - a kind of egalitarian space, a left-wing utopia. Or conversely it’s a conservative place, a safer place where nothing can jump out from behind trees in the background or from around a corner of a distant pathway. Added levels of meaning might suspiciously harbour left-wing activism like environmentalism or diversity. Some people are afraid of depth and diversity or even the subjective qualities or real world allegories that spring from it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"> But why so much white space in contemporary children’s books? Backgrounds and added characters make picture books much more interesting allowing the story to have multiple meanings, greater depth, or the kind of detail that causes children and adults to return to the book again and again without getting tired of it.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"> I don’t know the answer and maybe it’s not a real problem, but parents will tell you, when there’s lots of white space in a picture book… some children love to fill it in. </span></div>
Duncan Wellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18154643396802535581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5144804585406918610.post-59491161319366797102017-07-22T23:47:00.002-04:002017-07-22T23:47:49.587-04:00Two Summer Shows in Thunder Bay, Thunder Bay Art Gallery and the Definitely Superior Art Gallery<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> With nearly two hundred artists from our region represented in two compelling group shows each showcasing a potpourri of aesthetic approaches and personal expression I didn’t know how to begin to cover it all in such limited space. Bumping into children’s book author Bonnie Tittaferrante at the Superstore I joked about the difficulty of writing about such shows. Bonnie smiled and suggested, “Why don’t you write about that, how difficult it is.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> Good idea! </span></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFU4-EfF5wJVBv5_7EDhY0fB093Hzm7PQ6GwO37Sz33rzF9I1kmnr3BV7Xnhi39pe49D8qPq0eJaFYrkW3hnbdvSZJ6ON4aARmcGRcfWUd0FucGGapibM-UG1KK9WnHNaV5woQaKfqO8c/s1600/02+Untitled+Acrylic+Painting+by+Kamila+Westerback+copy.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFU4-EfF5wJVBv5_7EDhY0fB093Hzm7PQ6GwO37Sz33rzF9I1kmnr3BV7Xnhi39pe49D8qPq0eJaFYrkW3hnbdvSZJ6ON4aARmcGRcfWUd0FucGGapibM-UG1KK9WnHNaV5woQaKfqO8c/s320/02+Untitled+Acrylic+Painting+by+Kamila+Westerback+copy.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Untitled, Painting by Kamila Westerback</td></tr>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> Interspersed amongst artwork submitted by local and living artists are works from the Thunder Bay Art Gallery’s collection including artists long deceased for The Perspective From Here: 150 Artists From the North. This show runs till September 24. It is massive with a great deal of First Nations Art represented. For although we are, for the most part, celebrating colonial consolidation the Trudeau government is attempting to make the effort more expansive and inclusive. This show does just that, scooping up a great deal of First Nations art for the show to represent a broad selection of local contemporary, traditional and experimental art. Local art fans will find most of the familiar names amongst younger less established artists. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> Meanwhile the Definitely Superior Art Gallery hosts an annual member’s show to celebrate its youthful 29th birthday. This show is represents a diverse selection of work with heartfelt and inspiring videos, stop motion animation by guest artist Amanda Strong, a successful Indigenous filmmaker. This show runs till August 12. </span></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXr9t_bK_J0XwrVNn5xQQU2y8AVG5SpIa4WHVPWce2_30AuHuxvcgbH96r1FZT3J46B2aZZlxM60QKhxqyyzWzfh1aL0ZmJjV1VxTIxpLsnUpGrj7BycvIywPRxHL-4LB47MgF1BgtsT0/s1600/01+Flocks+by+Katie+Lemiux+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXr9t_bK_J0XwrVNn5xQQU2y8AVG5SpIa4WHVPWce2_30AuHuxvcgbH96r1FZT3J46B2aZZlxM60QKhxqyyzWzfh1aL0ZmJjV1VxTIxpLsnUpGrj7BycvIywPRxHL-4LB47MgF1BgtsT0/s320/01+Flocks+by+Katie+Lemiux+copy.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A ceramic work called "Flocks" by Katie Lemiux.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> So although the TBAG’s retrospective is one of scale and size that make this a must see show DEFSUP adds another dimension to represent our community and a bit beyond. You can make a day of pretending to be a tourist this summer and hit these two major art hubs as a starting point. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> Having accomplished the general to then dive into specifics becomes much harder. The first rule for writing about group shows is not to mention that you have work in the show otherwise it might look egomaniacal. So I won’t. And you can’t favour your friend’s work. And you can’t pretend all work is equally worthy of attention. But to discern worth can be one of personal bias so I have to be mindful while fighting the urge to be sappily egalitarian and randomly pick works to write about. Being egalitarian is not fair to the artists who have gone out of their way to put in greater effort, to make a work supremely beautiful or to make a statement. Or with almost no effort to make a humorous and pointed statement with a souvenir straw. And thus the size of a work is irrelevant. </span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqlvq9bXAAKMFdIvT2kceaJx3fnusUDzOYCBbBTLUaEyLRdC3AdniZrZzcCb4WlztoFe9bTLrCdB9or9XTINw_UEW57xScO-bYp-xsn6fPr64g9jOAXg0hBIjp3UX9Oar9UagfmPmA2nQ/s1600/DSCN3660+copy.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqlvq9bXAAKMFdIvT2kceaJx3fnusUDzOYCBbBTLUaEyLRdC3AdniZrZzcCb4WlztoFe9bTLrCdB9or9XTINw_UEW57xScO-bYp-xsn6fPr64g9jOAXg0hBIjp3UX9Oar9UagfmPmA2nQ/s400/DSCN3660+copy.JPG" width="373" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kristy Cameron, Acrylic</td></tr>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> Also, admiring works for their craft or originality of approach is not enough. Artists often go beyond the aesthetics with a message. Finding it might take time. Another challenge is finding commonalities in works to see if the curator had a plan or if the theme of the exhibition is successfully presented. How artists take on a similar subject can expose a viewer to a variety of ways that the same subject can be expressed. That’s useful to artists and others in their every day lives where ideas might be transposed into every day living. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> Dealing with such variety is an opportunity for any viewer to appreciate an artist’s potentially new and unusual method of expression. And each artist may be progressing in ways that stretch their abilities and fully encompass the spirit of a theme that might be the inspiration for a group show. To discern who is up for the challenge and to what degree takes time. And therein lies the beauty of the difficulty. Group shows can be a massive landscape taking many days to traverse. I know I’ve missed something important simply because I just didn’t have the time, feeling swamped by it all. I’ll return to the shows for a second or third look over the summer adding both to my delight and guilt. </span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Duncan Weller is an award winning author and illustrator of children’s books. You can find him hocking his picture books, art and other books Saturday mornings at the Country Market and at his gallery and studio at 118 Cumberland St. You can write to him at duncanweller@hotmail.com.</span></i></span></div>
Duncan Wellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18154643396802535581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5144804585406918610.post-33660529205765586322017-07-06T05:48:00.003-04:002017-07-06T05:57:42.234-04:00The Legacy of Ahmoo Angeconeb<div class="MsoNormal">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP54oBdq1sKnS7W4UZQthCiH9TWr91hVyLv0Sk3p0iF2z9dl6PMnt7QFcmfN_j6thQmQz4yX2R-UEK2rsASgL3B9GD3y5va-b3xtYZOdCppv_fuRkZob7OzPck17aOLGMlrPUvlBvsdDY/s1600/01+Ahmoo+Angeconeb+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP54oBdq1sKnS7W4UZQthCiH9TWr91hVyLv0Sk3p0iF2z9dl6PMnt7QFcmfN_j6thQmQz4yX2R-UEK2rsASgL3B9GD3y5va-b3xtYZOdCppv_fuRkZob7OzPck17aOLGMlrPUvlBvsdDY/s320/01+Ahmoo+Angeconeb+copy.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "tahoma" , "geneva" , sans-serif , serif , "emojifont";"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-size: x-small;">A photo of Ahmoo Angeconeb by Alastair MacKay<br /> for the opening ceremony of his 2007 exhibition titled, <br />Ahmoo's Prayer at the Thunder Bay Art Gallery</span></span></td></tr>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We are naturally geared to be impressed by
dramatic effects, bold and bright colours and clever artistic hijinks that we
often neglect the beauty and ability of drawing techniques to make bold
statements, to inhabit and exhibit powerful links to the past and other
cultures. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>As a professional print maker, Ahmoo Angeconeb’s deceivingly simple and
unique use of line in his prints and drawings make powerful impressions,
intuitively felt first before one realizes how much work, thought, history and referencing
of other cultures is incorporated into his work. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Angeconeb passed away a few weeks ago succumbing to health issues
related to diabetes. He left a lasting legacy of art and influence in the arts
community stemming not only from his art, but from his instruction as a teacher
of adults and children, primarily in Northwestern Ontario. He was also a
surprisingly upbeat and inspirational despite his acute condition in the last
few years of his life. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3iXThc752UatAHGUAoZh95X4mV5sOTKgSq98IEqAZu-8JzmdcK6W9mUVoA869jbGcEOmoj6jIEfYUkqhzql8S3sYIXNwTHd_CjRckrBsE079e3hvsBLShaNwu67UMqCbgdIRx-zdnen4/s1600/02+Family+Migration+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="270" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3iXThc752UatAHGUAoZh95X4mV5sOTKgSq98IEqAZu-8JzmdcK6W9mUVoA869jbGcEOmoj6jIEfYUkqhzql8S3sYIXNwTHd_CjRckrBsE079e3hvsBLShaNwu67UMqCbgdIRx-zdnen4/s400/02+Family+Migration+copy.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Born in Sioux Lookout in 1955 he was raised Lac Seul First Nation of the
Whitefish Bay community until he was six when he attended a residential school
in Pelican Falls with his siblings. Ojibway culture and language came by way of
elders he met when getting a high school education in Kenora. There a teacher
from Ireland introduced him to oil paints and he attended traditional First
Nations ceremonies. Already drawing at the age of four, having used a bullet to
draw with at one point, he was inspired at the age of thirteen by the work of
Norval Morrisseau. He later studied visual arts over the years at York
University, Lakehead University and Dalhousie University where he was also an
instructor. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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</span>With his art being curated and collected internationally, Ahmoo’s art
shows featured thirty years worth of drawings, serigraphs, linocut prints and
etchings. Across Canada his work travelled through Thunder Bay, Sioux Lookout,
Winnipeg, London, Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, and Halifax. He had shows In
Santa Fe, Paris, Monaco, Basel in Switzerland. He was especially loved in
Germany with many shows in Cologne, Berlin, Zurich and Munich. He was an artist
in residence to the Sami, the Laplanders in Northern Finland. Prince Albert of
Monaco has some of his work.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQrJNKQolpL6xCQ3QPH6Kb6sw8hwTYdGLv_n4qI2eJlnxyHGNXSVZwC1NhgrduVn4TQgwA5MrkHqjkdclXUDg3phxC1upI67VuGab_T_7u46nignWlYNOQNonlDMrYZLYu2fvAzJZas90/s1600/Man+Seeking+Wisdom+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQrJNKQolpL6xCQ3QPH6Kb6sw8hwTYdGLv_n4qI2eJlnxyHGNXSVZwC1NhgrduVn4TQgwA5MrkHqjkdclXUDg3phxC1upI67VuGab_T_7u46nignWlYNOQNonlDMrYZLYu2fvAzJZas90/s400/Man+Seeking+Wisdom+copy.jpg" width="325" /></a><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>His travels abroad influenced his style greatly. As an Ojibwe ambassador
he<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>met with indigenous artists from
other parts of the world. Not only was he introduced to their art and to the
original art of their ancestors, Angeconeb was surprised by the commonality of
imagery, thousands of years old, having visited<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>sites in the South of France to see ancient pictographs and petroglyphs.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Although Angeconeb’s subject matter of bison, birds, stags, thunderbirds
and other animals were solidly woodland art based, influences upon his style
came from other indigenous cultures and traditional Japanese and ancient
Egyptian work. He even incorporated the design elements of European
heraldry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>His art is particularly known for their human figures looking much like
bears with wide eyes and ghostly appearance. Both animals and humans often
morph into one another to suggest spiritual realms beyond our physical reality.
He personalized these worlds with his own symbology relying on his artistic
temperament rather than employing static imagery out of habit or tradition.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Two of his sculptures sit outside the Thunder Bay Art Gallery. The
gallery regularly pulls his work out of their collection for retrospective
shows as in the gallery’s current show: The Perspective From Here: 150 Artists
From the North. His work can be purchased at the Ahnisnabae Gallery at 18 Court
Street.</span></div>
Duncan Wellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18154643396802535581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5144804585406918610.post-33235291853652061272017-07-06T05:42:00.000-04:002017-07-06T05:45:59.230-04:00Marjorie Clayton's Other World<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY1siwxbJ_qYP53cx1b8X28-jh6XIe3BFxuU2TU5URzZ6KiCQS0vzf57pz5JgQse_71HxDBjHR537dGyrt9mMESxVsSIc8AtSwhDqQ-1t99G6CHn3z9ffpyPPqRIZbfSyiGRzNzm1Dlv8/s1600/America%2527s+wife+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY1siwxbJ_qYP53cx1b8X28-jh6XIe3BFxuU2TU5URzZ6KiCQS0vzf57pz5JgQse_71HxDBjHR537dGyrt9mMESxVsSIc8AtSwhDqQ-1t99G6CHn3z9ffpyPPqRIZbfSyiGRzNzm1Dlv8/s320/America%2527s+wife+copy.jpg" width="320" /></a><span lang="EN-US">The need or ability to travel to remote
areas of non-Western countries is still relatively rare and few who do make the
journey don’t always return with something deep and artful that changes their
lives and benefits the rest of us. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>As a professional photographer with a love of distant places and
cultures Marjorie Clayton returns from her journeys with iconic images of
ordinary people. The images allow us to glimpse into the lives of people who
are rich at heart yet live in a difficult world without the advantages that we
take for granted. Whether in Ghana or Bolivia the phrase “seize the day”
doesn’t reflect choice and opportunity as we see it, but of doing what one can
to survive on a daily basis.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_qEiUnxMe4O9mHNWI5xCd4WkNWK5kSIR0PNZkFh1UOmz0rJq8JI-7XwHjz-slSTbGbxgGACZ3zQ4mVopUWqabqVsJIVbIrG9UvgYPAmg_eKYVl5hWxjs0t94i4LPXqeKG7AVWK4e4Zr0/s1600/Ayine+%2526+Moses+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="141" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_qEiUnxMe4O9mHNWI5xCd4WkNWK5kSIR0PNZkFh1UOmz0rJq8JI-7XwHjz-slSTbGbxgGACZ3zQ4mVopUWqabqVsJIVbIrG9UvgYPAmg_eKYVl5hWxjs0t94i4LPXqeKG7AVWK4e4Zr0/s200/Ayine+%2526+Moses+copy.jpg" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfePJXVCZe4W0HEScVXJnR03FBj1yvFklwNox61HGpz1JyHdaqr5B7noZfLc9SbNT86HirE0Mf-I34HCXGETHkuIUy0MvVElbktkP7RQl43PmoCDdms4_a5R40CWXhMtlMuQZW9Nz5vKU/s1600/Anthony+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="143" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfePJXVCZe4W0HEScVXJnR03FBj1yvFklwNox61HGpz1JyHdaqr5B7noZfLc9SbNT86HirE0Mf-I34HCXGETHkuIUy0MvVElbktkP7RQl43PmoCDdms4_a5R40CWXhMtlMuQZW9Nz5vKU/s200/Anthony+copy.jpg" width="200" /></a><span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Marjorie spends a great deal of time with her subjects, involving
herself in their community more so than most artists and photographers would,
stepping into a world that no tourist would see and one in which trust has to
be earned. It’s a world that exists beyond our stereotypes. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Driven by an interest in other countries, peoples, and cultures Marjorie
first moved to England which became a springboard to Africa. Failing to
confidently master French she chose English speaking Ghana as a destination.
Beginning in 1992 Marjorie sporadically returned to Africa to spend an
accumulated 15 months in Ghana.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhmq4UbqI2c6nWATQ2OC5C3xxqX9nYg7JM7rE6rbR6YVefBvRSnMFcOW7Pal3Of71DkDaB1Ol21yqVRrlEwoQBCIo6uzZa882ix63KzG-OOeHeVxK_Ke0OQ1GgAymP0Ts9YuJFVisqo2Y/s1600/GhaBH12104+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="147" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhmq4UbqI2c6nWATQ2OC5C3xxqX9nYg7JM7rE6rbR6YVefBvRSnMFcOW7Pal3Of71DkDaB1Ol21yqVRrlEwoQBCIo6uzZa882ix63KzG-OOeHeVxK_Ke0OQ1GgAymP0Ts9YuJFVisqo2Y/s200/GhaBH12104+copy.jpg" width="200" /></a><span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>When first entering the country with only one contact with an NGO,
Margorie states, “I figured I'd let life take me where it wanted me to go. I'm
really not much of a tourist. I rarely go to monuments, museums or anywhere
near a resort. I prefer to get to know what everyday life is like for the
people I meet. Often I am drawn to artists, musicians and farmers and they
often dictate where I go and what I do.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOJKJILFUeE5vFu0tgrqGrEmdmnjIg1wdVL7Qrz3qSbo0AM0C0uLORnDJIiAltUDY7IfpbAPCvtYF07K7ciTLkpsYj_JsWhbcfxhAMA8ICnDBXwO58Dh5omisaTAuk3jK_XqrP48OTh8M/s1600/Moses+%2526+Kolgo+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="136" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOJKJILFUeE5vFu0tgrqGrEmdmnjIg1wdVL7Qrz3qSbo0AM0C0uLORnDJIiAltUDY7IfpbAPCvtYF07K7ciTLkpsYj_JsWhbcfxhAMA8ICnDBXwO58Dh5omisaTAuk3jK_XqrP48OTh8M/s200/Moses+%2526+Kolgo+copy.jpg" width="200" /></a><span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>On several occasions Marjorie spent time in Navrongo, near Burkina Faso,
as well as visiting Bolgatanga and the capital city Accra. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</span>“My main photo essays have been taken in Bolivia, Ghana and the Gambia.
At the end of this coming year I plan to branch out and will be doing a new
photo essay in Peru and possibly Ecuador. My most significant work was self
funded with the exception of my first trip to The Gambia which was commissioned
by a now defunct magazine in London.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</span>Here in Thunder Bay you can see Marjorie’s photos at the Ahnisnabae
Gallery at 18 Court St. And online at: <a href="http://www.marjclayton.aminus3.com/"><span style="color: cyan; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">www.marjclayton.aminus3.com</span></a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>“I will be presenting 2 exhibitions in Bolivia in 2018. The first will
be in February at City Hall in La Paz and the second will be in the Museo Tambo
Quirquincho also in La Paz. For the May exhibition I will be creating a
talk and workshop using my material from Ghana and The Gambia. I'm hoping
to share my experiences in Ghana and The Gambia and show my images to a
few Afro Bolivian communities as well.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1ZJzMAw-qX5JID8Ej_EMzNiZR3NR7lKHVZqiqVQX6CmMF63RKeZcu5z_1jWi0aSPKRctwzn7qg2hsu6T_ZbVPMkBcCoRjK_jo4hld4GBp_e4ktlQy-ppI0XsIlELHUCgDLGdpZoJJlZI/s1600/Ayine+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="142" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1ZJzMAw-qX5JID8Ej_EMzNiZR3NR7lKHVZqiqVQX6CmMF63RKeZcu5z_1jWi0aSPKRctwzn7qg2hsu6T_ZbVPMkBcCoRjK_jo4hld4GBp_e4ktlQy-ppI0XsIlELHUCgDLGdpZoJJlZI/s200/Ayine+copy.jpg" width="200" /></a><span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Most tourists who step tepidly into the fringe world that surrounds a
resort or city centre encounter hustlers or “bumpsters,” as in the Gambia,
where people resort to tricks and cons to earn a quick buck.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>“My work can show another point of view, of real families, people who
want to earn a living, to support a family in areas where unemployment is
extremely high.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Marjorie captures people living and working with their families. Most
are really happy to have their photo taken, especially if they can get a
printed photo from Marjorie, which is a rare luxury. And although poverty is a
constant toil, people continue to be optimistic assuaged by the understanding
that everyone around them is in the same boat. Yet they are determined to bring
joy to their lives, with family and friends and by being extremely creative
with the limited resources they have.</span><br />
And this is what Marjorie so artfully captures in her work, the
industriousness and the humanity of people living ordinary lives, yet
extraordinary for us.</div>
Duncan Wellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18154643396802535581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5144804585406918610.post-61459150647637716492017-06-12T09:31:00.004-04:002017-06-12T09:38:49.192-04:00Kyle Lees and Merk: New Works<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmseWO0w3hclsucAeLUGedlFtySkbODy6UVgrCK29rEFdGQFoSPITcqs28NeGL-zIOvX3dfj5gIwzd8NOK5KzsHwQfk96tx91bpsBRUrQJ2A0FXLELPQPqx8XjpXpds02i68WY0gXLeEw/s1600/19046555_10158778693615287_525114670_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmseWO0w3hclsucAeLUGedlFtySkbODy6UVgrCK29rEFdGQFoSPITcqs28NeGL-zIOvX3dfj5gIwzd8NOK5KzsHwQfk96tx91bpsBRUrQJ2A0FXLELPQPqx8XjpXpds02i68WY0gXLeEw/s200/19046555_10158778693615287_525114670_n.jpg" width="129" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL0xjs62YTNehQ2MIriJBsHHFSJ3jhms8FbdNVXNmZKsLhhEZmICS_n0JIxB4BgpVCm3odypRa3dInyIxL7BgH6uvcu03zyAGM1SgT_VRbq0E5B1jyFQZJ4LsFK3bVB7_D6rhpcAORA54/s1600/Kyle+and+Merk+copy.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL0xjs62YTNehQ2MIriJBsHHFSJ3jhms8FbdNVXNmZKsLhhEZmICS_n0JIxB4BgpVCm3odypRa3dInyIxL7BgH6uvcu03zyAGM1SgT_VRbq0E5B1jyFQZJ4LsFK3bVB7_D6rhpcAORA54/s320/Kyle+and+Merk+copy.JPG" width="320" /></a><span style="font-kerning: none;">Two of the local gang spearheading the burgeoning scene of the comic arts in Thunder Bay are Christopher Merkly and Kyle Lees. They both have new books out and they often work together to promote their separate projects at book launches, comic conventions, markets, festivals and book stores. Their work is quite different from one another’s, but fall into that low-brow category of popular arts that is an ever growing shelving problem for bookstores and libraries: continual expansion. The comic world is experiencing boon times with the support of the movie industry and huge comic conventions. No longer an underrated genre, the typically spotty teenage fans have been joined (if not superseded) by millions of adult fans who live for qualities in their comics and graphic novels that are typically found in more respected forms of literature and the visual arts. </span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"> Christopher, otherwise known as Merk, spent three years working on his graphic novel, Season of the Dead Hours, his third graphic novel. With his Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign he raised nearly eight thousand dollars for printing costs, an extraordinary success. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmMBM7eMD5mpi-ycsaQgAX1RWCWICYwzcalr3OLqtzwop6RU_QLEotg2Uav9M_wPlY4V81DeZyA96qKLV8IXpU8yBGEHgX5ZVdJZ_s_uAPc0Xz6JUbPC9tWddKrb-5aQUAQicfFzNRKlg/s1600/Season+of+the+Dead+Hours+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img height="16" id="3vzuhndgni5s" src="data:image/gif;base64,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" width="16" /><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmMBM7eMD5mpi-ycsaQgAX1RWCWICYwzcalr3OLqtzwop6RU_QLEotg2Uav9M_wPlY4V81DeZyA96qKLV8IXpU8yBGEHgX5ZVdJZ_s_uAPc0Xz6JUbPC9tWddKrb-5aQUAQicfFzNRKlg/s200/Season+of+the+Dead+Hours+copy.jpg" width="125" /></a><span style="font-kerning: none;"> Once printed he took the book on the road. Merk states, “I go to comic conventions all over Canada every year and I have been for probably about five or six years. I've been to the big fan expo in Toronto, C4 in Winnipeg. I go to Calgary every year in the spring. This year I went to Regina as well. And I just got back from Orillia's first ever convention, which was super fun and a big success.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Merk, Kyle and another local comic artist, Bry Kotyk, “go full on nerd” as Merk says, with a weekly podcast called Zero Issues Comicd where they discuss all aspects of popular culture. They also share a vendor’s booth at the Country Market with other comic artists Saturday mornings and Wednesday afternoons.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"> In his book Merk sends his two protagonist companions on a dark journey of past reflections with the promise of a dramatic conflict for the climax. Based on Merk’s interest in swamp bogs in Europe that continue to turn up mummified bodies, the swamp in the book is not only an ancient burial site but a purgatory and portal for lost, once sacrificed and murdered souls who can be resurrected under the right conditions. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"> And so an ancient Druid named Sitchenn rises from the swamp and befriends a boy named Fionn who helps him search for an ancient talisman that can be used as a weapon. Crossing a bleak Irish night-scape the characters speak a wonderful otherworldly Gaelic. These foreign features heighten the mystery, increase the sense of magic, and deepen the history creating a wonderful moody read. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"> Kyle Lees’ compilation of cartoons called Ski Ninjas spans his most productive year, 2013, and Ski Ninjas ran for a good eight years in a dozen student newspapers and elsewhere across the country giving him some national acclaim. Kyle is working to illustrate a children’s book and will soon put out another instalment of Ski Ninjas.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"> Kyle’s bulbous cartoon characters and abstract incongruous segues are insightful and often hilarious. He uses a good deal of wit and sarcasm, taking on contemporary issues and making occasional popular culture commentary. The strips are sometimes a rambling guide of a young person’s doubts and insecurities in a world made more complicated by social media and changing relationship expectations. So, it’s a lot of fun and gets you reflecting on your own situations in life, an art in itself. Is there wisdom here?</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlwMAiG2ZKkgs9C9pgU_4QOcW8w2CuZ0oa83T7j1D6rz6mklG2zj-ecwqZSqXtZ9hP-7WTCCcqNRg7d37F1KxCvlhdgkAsKmutjBo6HqHGDFTeWAT0ERmne1zjBD9hzIkVy5Phn1IYB7I/s1600/thumbnail_ski+ninjas+cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="164" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlwMAiG2ZKkgs9C9pgU_4QOcW8w2CuZ0oa83T7j1D6rz6mklG2zj-ecwqZSqXtZ9hP-7WTCCcqNRg7d37F1KxCvlhdgkAsKmutjBo6HqHGDFTeWAT0ERmne1zjBD9hzIkVy5Phn1IYB7I/s200/thumbnail_ski+ninjas+cover.jpg" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirRMHvI9cqSw_-oBJTPQ9QaJcKcVhvEO-88ZWiWq7GSQgsqgQiszrz5-0VK4Dzt2bydOjp9AtFXnx41STWHtI5OjgZh0ftMLPoJt9MegIGzVpyrIMFwbUeSCgKAz-v1GWiNETIQs0Ss9Y/s1600/Ski-Ninjas-2.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="140" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirRMHvI9cqSw_-oBJTPQ9QaJcKcVhvEO-88ZWiWq7GSQgsqgQiszrz5-0VK4Dzt2bydOjp9AtFXnx41STWHtI5OjgZh0ftMLPoJt9MegIGzVpyrIMFwbUeSCgKAz-v1GWiNETIQs0Ss9Y/s320/Ski-Ninjas-2.png" width="320" /></a><span style="font-kerning: none;"> Kyle states, “Wisdom's a strong word! A lot of the book's content is made up of me, my life and experiences. That's the sort of thing that you have to heavily lean on with no recurring characters or plot.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"> Merk’s website is <a href="http://www.merkasylum.ca/"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">www.merkasylum.ca</span></a> and Kyle’s is <a href="http://www.thekylelees.com/"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">www.thekylelees.com</span></a>. Their books are available at Chapters and soon at the Waterfront Art sale in the Baggage Building June 24th and 25th. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">Merk saliently adds, “Comics aren't for kids anymore. And they haven't been for a long time. But it's only just in the past decade or so that seems to have come into the mainstream. With the success of all the comic book films, I think a whole new audience has been introduced to comics. They are an artform unto themselves and are taken seriously. Whether it's the superhero aspect, which I view as modern mythological tales, or a host of other genres & approaches for comics… there's something for everybody.”</span></div>
Duncan Wellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18154643396802535581noreply@blogger.com0