Hot Topic: Cultural Appropriation

    This is an article in two parts to discuss the current controversy of cultural appropriation. The second part regarding the appropriation of First Nations art will appear next week.

     Most professional artists understand the ground rules of art in general. It’s pretty simple. If you’re a talented, dedicated and knowledgeable professional artist who sells work on a regular basis you don’t need to copy a particular style from another artist or appropriate anything from anyone. Professional artists are influenced by all kinds of styles, past and present, but the idea is to use one or more style in a work in such a limited fashion that you can claim the recombination to be yours alone. The idea is to put your own hand and mind into the work. It’s not about being completely original, which is incredibly difficult and problematic, but about being yourself. This is the western tradition. And professional artists understand that our tradition is one of many around the world and that if we have reason to be influenced by other cultures, either by proximity or by commission, we have to do the research and be respectful.

Ocean Guard is a nine foot long oil painting on canvas
initially inspired by First Nations art. 

     Cultural appropriation is a hot topic because our western tradition can conflict with the traditions and beliefs of other cultures. It’s also a hot topic because all sorts of people who are not artists feel their opinion is equally valid as professional artists. The world of visual arts is different from other practices because all rules have been broken to the point where many people believe that any opinion on art is totally subjective, that there is no such thing as good and bad in art, that everything is merely a matter of personal taste, and no one should criticize or judge. We are all free. We are all equal. We are all human. And there is proof that being creative is good therapy. It’s good to have a hobby. And who’s going to stop you from declaring yourself an artist? Maybe a family member, but likely no one else.

     To make the visual art world even more subjective many people would agree with art historian H. W. Janson’s statement that the history of art is the history of aesthetics, the history of styles of art as they change over time and in different parts of the world. Janson is excluding the history of right and wrong action, story telling, and all sorts of other social functions that art provided for society in their time.

     Anyone in Thunder Bay is allowed to trek over to the Painted Turtle and go home with paints, brushes and canvas and paint whatever their heart’s desire. In the privacy of your own home you can paint beautiful flowers, trucks, rock stars, pornography, or be even more gauche and paint Elvis on black velvet.

     However, the moment you take your painting of Elvis from your home and place it in public view in a gallery and put a price tag on it you are entering the civic world. In the civic world, where you have the freedom to express yourself that expression is limited by laws, copyright laws and customs because in a democracy other people also have the right to be protected from theft, slander, hurtful imagery, damaging lies and hate speech.

      Other people also have the right to free speech and they can say whatever they want about your tacky painting of Elvis on black velvet. If they think you’re a terrible painter they have a right just as you do to say what they think. If your price tag is clearly too high because you clearly have no talent, took only one course in art, and spent only a couple hours on the painting, anyone viewing your work has a right to question its value. If you make false statements about your work, the public has the right to question your motivations. And we don’t know your motivations because we cannot see what is in your heart.

   I can limit my biases in order to benefit the public by writing upbeat reviews for art shows that I don’t personally like. Thankfully, with so many talented artists in Thunder Bay, there are few of those. Art is often mysterious, subjective and so personal that my opinion is only that, my opinion. Yet I have avoided writing about a few shows because I felt the artwork was either terribly unprofessional or because I felt the artist was appropriating another artist’s work.

     In presenting my opinions about appropriation last week I pointed out that artists can’t help but to be inspired by other artists’ works, and that it’s hard to gauge an artist’s sincerity because we can’t read other peoples’ hearts. You would think that writers and visual artists are good at reading their own hearts and avoid appropriating another artist’s work, especially First Nations artwork, but we westerners, the colonizers, have a long history of inbuilt biases and we can be quite clever at creating arguments to assuage any feelings of guilt.

    One visiting professor I interviewed admitted to obtaining images for her drawings by copying directly from photos found on the Internet. In her inflated intellectual answer to my question about her source material she called what she did “research” while her face turned pink with embarrassment.

    Another visiting artist was clearly appropriating First Nations art. Suspicious about his intentions I read articles and an interview he did on the Internet. With only a distant First Nations relative he was whiter than me, and he gave a subjective cultural argument: “We are all human.” More importantly there was not a shred of personal creativity to his work. Although he was a nationally recognized artist I thought it was an act.

     Recently in Toronto an artist had her art show cancelled because of complaints that she had appropriated First Nations art. The controversy spiralled into a national debate to be followed by an equally controversial debate over the appropriation of First Nations literature. The debate was fascinating and pointed out a real misunderstanding about the differences between inspiration and appropriation.

On the left is a section of my painting “Ocean Guard” followed by a typical Morrisseau work, an image by Hundertwasser whose work I went to see at his museum in Vienna. Artist Roger Dean who did Yes album covers had some influence as did my mother’s quilts and sports car designs.

    Often it is a matter of degrees of separation. As an example, my most recent image of a giant fish was partly inspired by woodland art. I copied nothing directly, but I was relying on my memory of familiar shapes. For me the imagery in my painting was too familiar so I reworked the painting to make it more my own. I played with lines and shapes and colour and even perspective incorporating other influences into the painting.

       The result of playing around and being open minded is a painting that could be good or it could be kitsch. Either way I didn’t waste my time. I came up with all kinds of patterns and ideas that I can use in other future works that will have little or no reference to woodland art.  

      My knowledge of the issues is pretty limited and may be biased by my colonial ancestors. For a reviewer like me it’s a joy to write about artists who are clearly enjoying their inspirational rides, but it’s also a thrill to write about art that is not part of my culture at all, about artists who are committed to the telling and retelling of the stories of their community.

    Us colonizers have been living with the fantasy concept of the “noble savage” since 1715. As art historian Alan Gowans points out, “The Noble Savage’s irresistible attraction for the European mind corresponded directly to appeal of the idea of Mankind’s natural goodness, and its concomitant: ‘We’re all right; it’s society that’s wrong.”

  I can’t begin to tell you how this concept messed with white people’s heads regarding our treatment of First Nations people and their culture, mostly because I’m no expert. But there are a number of good books that can help both us white folk and First Nations people, especially us artists, to understand the issues. I defer to Mary McPherson’s list situated on this same page.
In order to write a third part of this article I will have to do a few interviews and a lot of reading. That might take a while.

Mary McPherson’s suggested reading list about First Nation’s culture and colonialism. A few of the essays mentioned can be found online. 1. Unpacking Culture: art and commodity in colonial and post-colonial worlds by Ruth Phillips and Christopher Steiner  2. Scott Watson and Paul Yuxwelptun’s essays in Beyond Wilderness: The Group of Seven, Canadian Identity and Contemporary Art. 3. An essay by Ruth Phillips titled Morrisseau’s Entrance, Negotiating Primitivism, Modernism and Anishnaabe tradition in the book, Norval Morrisseau: Shaman Artist   4. Carmen Robertson's Mythologizing Norval Morrisseau 5. Nelson Graburn's article in Hosts and Guests: The Anthropology of Tourism

Chris Stones show at In Common, "Now and Then."

    With his grizzled good looks and khaki coloured clothes Mr. Stones cuts an image worthy of Hemingway, intimating a Cuban landscape and otherworldly experiences. His art seems born of that same frame; exotic yet familiar, stoic, deep and well worn. His show, Now and Then, of sculptural wall hangings, drawings and sculptures are featured at the elegant Resto-Bar, In Common, at 40 Cumberland Street South. Smaller pieces on ledges within the foyer behind glass also deserve equal attention. The crannies are a bit difficult to get into, but the effort worthwhile. Born and raised in Thunder Bay with a number of jaunts to explore the country and better his practice with study, both at Lakehead University and the University of Waterloo, Chris Stones is a inveterate explorer of sites within nature and industrial landscapes. With a unique pursuit to peak his interest in the relationship of man-made objects to nature Chris creates his own thoughtful adventures and memories that are collected by retaining objects from his journeys, reworking the found pieces to make personal statements that are playful and well ruminated upon.    
     In his university studies he settled on wood and stone sculpture as his focus, but was expected to push the boundaries. This resulted in creating installation art. He continued with these interests while obtaining the bulk of his income from commercial work as designer for screen printing companies, namely sportswear and later as a self-employed sign painter. He also created artwork for local businesses.       
     More proficient today his art has become, as he says, more solid, secure, and substantive, taking on much more of a commanding physical presence with specific and expanding ideas that are highly individual. The majority of works in this show are interconnected with the use of materials and related themes. His personal stamp is made through a variety of subtleties that take time to ascertain. Chris’ work here covers a ten year span of thoughtful creativity. Especially thoughtful is the sculptural wall-hanging, Everything Beautiful is Transient.This piece is a brilliant work of art that reflects on manmade objects losing their functions to the natural entropy of time and friction. Rather than be recycled with a functional role, the wooden wheel has been left to rot, sinking gently with a companion, a bit of steal, into the sandy bottom of a river. The river bottom is suggested with the use of the grey/brown colour of the paint. Stained and mottled effects in the canvas suggest light reflections and refractions upon the sand, along with the weight of the water which would be pressing down on the objects. The dead little bird in the wheel-hole might suggest how our man-made objects often cost nature dearly or it could be a secure little burial site for something that once flew above the waves.Chris cleverly gives the viewer the best clue of all with the cutout canvas fish happily swimming above the refuse, somewhere between the bottom and the surface of the water, lively and clearly enjoying a moving living stream. Over the death and rot are the living, that balance in nature of renewal that Chris is able to suggest with a minimal use of information. Especially brilliant is to suggest the existence of the most present substance of all within this work of art, the one most present, but which can’t be seen by the viewer and only understood to exist in this piece; the water. Your mind is taken into a space beneath the waves in a way that is an incredible little virtual reality trip.       
    When asked about his work, Chris reveals what makes him an artist’s artist, reminding the rest of us artists how most of us should think about our process, without expectation. “I’m just revelling in the selfishness of it. I don’t care if anyone is paying attention to it. I’m not making it for Joe citizen to enjoy. It’s a gift and a talent I keep exploring it.”      Inspired by literature, (the large window sculpture is called, Don Quixote) and more so by nature, Chris states, “I’m a water person; under the water, top of the water, shore lines, water in industrial sites, scrapyards even.” He’ll observe the repetition of shapes and lines of bird’s flight or the beauty in their longs necks, as seen in one of his most beautiful sculptures. Many of his works make a statement with the simple application of subtleties, such as changing the natural size of an object. This can result in a cartoonish rendering of an idea, as in the comical drawing of fishing lures. With his drawings he downplays his interest in the subject matter saying, “Drawings are just a way for me to make time disappear.”      Clearly the drawings are more than that; Chris is celebrating the beauty of nature        

     while lamenting its destruction. But he’s an optimist who sees regeneration as a fight against the entropy sped up by human beings’ destructive influences. He even conjures up the idea of an ancient fish, the sturgeon, having become hyper-intelligent, turning themselves into missiles. This is an idea he has for a future series of work, which he discusses with a playful smile, shrugging at how the idea appears silly when described.     These “sturgeon torpedoes” are part large living sturgeons and part metallic torpedoes. “If nature could fight back and self-determine genetically, what would they become? How would that manifest if they decided they didn’t want to be buried in the muck, part of industrial waste? How would they survive? They would become faster, deadlier.”.     Entropy, synergy, dealing with form, finding subjects with lots of texture, Chris has a keen interest in many aspects of his subject matter, which he says is inexorably linked to his own character, explaining that ideas come as much from his own character as much as external sources. Nevertheless, he explains that he is always “taking his eyes for a walk.”      
     “I’ll keep a memory of where things are in the environment and boxfuls of notes. I started using a GPS to document a spot in the bush, so I don’t have to think much about getting back there, to a particular spot in the environment that I thought was stimulating. The sculptures are indicative of where I’ve been.” Chris can look at an old work and recall where he was and what he was doing at the time. This is a side benefit of employing found objects and recycling them into new works. “You don’t have to buy lumber to sand it and render it down to a piece of non-dimensional wood. And it represents a history of where it was found. There is a memory attached to a beach or an island or a lake.” 
     As humble as he is and claiming to be “retired,” he’s nowhere near done exploring or ruminating about his relationship with nature and he has a clear mission to express what he loves. He is more likely more “tired” by the art world and what it takes to be an artist. Wondering why he does it, produce art, he still appreciates the kick he gets, the shot of support he gets from people admiring his work.

Annual Juried Student Exhibition, Great Work from the Lakehead University Visual Arts Department

Local artists! Be afraid! Yet another crop of young people with skills, ideas, imagination and commitment are beginning their incursions into our community that will shatter the ensconced recalcitrant cliques, batter the old fuddy-duddies, and jiggle the juxtapositions of the obstinate ideologues. We, in this small city with too big an artistic community for its working class britches are in even further trouble. Where some of us protested against egalitarianism to support the belief that funding and attention should go to the best of the best, we now say, "Hold on! Maybe this sharing of finite resources is not a bad thing."

     If you're an artist and you want to see what you’re up against head to the Thunder Bay Art Gallery soon. If you're a collector and lover of art, it's only out of duty that I inform you of the amazing talent ready to explode from the forested encampment for intellectuals found on the hill. 

     The variety of mediums used and subject matter vary dramatically. The quality of the work this year is excellent. There are many pieces worth writing about and many young artists who will likely have solo shows elsewhere very soon if they haven’t already done so. 

     Many of the artists featured also had work at the Urban Infill show hosted by the Definitely Superior Art Gallery. Do check out their current exhibition featuring international artist, Diane Landry whose kinetic works employing common materials is a lot of fun. An annual event is Dr. Bob Chaudhri’s latest additions to his art collection, a good variety of contemporary pieces. And a short art film installation appears in gallery 3 titled, A Game of Chess by Marcel Dzama. 

     To categorize this year's student art is difficult. Influences come from everywhere. Execution, aesthetic style and content are all over the map. Personal preferences on which you judge art should be set aside to take in all that is offered; the students are throwing a lot at you to think about. 

     Many of the students are concerned with an unseen world that needs exposure. A visual subtitle to the entire show is summed up the three paintings on the wall across from the entrance. Lisa Makela’s landscape is a perfect metaphor for all that you will see. And with the concerns come a combination of great drawing skills and imaginative use of the materials. Many of the students do this really well: Lisa Makela, Vanessa Ervin, Amanda Toope, Shaylyn Bishop, Cheyeanne Vanderlind, Katy Poirier, Marielle Orr, Katrin Huerzeler, and Katie Kramer. 

      Many works that make environmental statements, revealing our dependence on behaviours that are harmful to the environment and to our own bodies; Lisa Makela, Vanessa Ervin, Bronte Normand, Mary J Kakekapetum, and Robyn Burns. The problems facing bees is of big concern to young people. 

      Using more symbology and allegory are Bronte Normand, Shelby Gagnon, and Mary McPherson. Political and humorous works: Bronte Normand, Aidan Domenis, and Mary McPherson. Bold imagery of our relationship to nature or a man made environment are featured in works by Violet Cross, Mary McPherson, Robin Faye, Cheyanne Vanderlind, Katy Poirier, and Katie Kramer.

     Introspective psychological works that reflect on the creator’s inner life, dealing with change, appearances, the building up or dragging down of self; Violet Cross, Shayla Hickerson, Vanessa Ervin, Asia Schultz, Rebecca Widdes, Amber Leppanen, Claire Everett, Courtney Davis, and Robyn Burns. 

     You can likely come up with more categories than I’ve listed here to include many of the students I’ve missed. All the works are quite wonderful and worth checking out. Make sure you take the time to take in what are likely to be the first works for a whole crop of new artists to influence the scene in Thunder Bay and beyond. 
    The annual Lakehead University juried exhibition for the students of the Visual Arts Department is on display till April 9. Go quick. Capping this gang with great work are the fourth year graduating students of the visual arts department whose show runs till April 16. The opening reception for them is Friday, April 7 at 7:30 pm. They will be presenting Artist Talks Monday, April 10 from 1 – 4 pm at the Gallery.

     

Andrew Dorland: A Graphic Tale

     “The usual kind of culprit was comics,” laughs Andrew Dorland, also siting Star Wars and Dungeons and Dragons amongst his long list of popular cultural influences. But Andrew was also influenced by the great Renaissance artists and the Pre-Raphaelite movement of romantic art. Andrew gave an analysis of how the chiaroscuro effects used dramatically by the 16th Century artist Caravaggio influenced the graphic art of his time and carried through to present day comics. “DaVinci’s grotesque stuff is just like comics too,” says Andrew.

You can see his work HERE

     Originally from a suburb of Holland Landing, farmland area near Barrie, Andrew came to Thunder Bay to study business at Lakehead University. He got his business/administration degree, then worked briefly in a tattoo shop in Toronto, became a stock broker and then headed back into his art. Back in T. Bay he does some bookkeeping to pay the bills.

     Andrew sees a good deal of irony in that his father wouldn’t allow him to study art at university; for the biggest influence on Andrew’s artistic bent came from his father. Although a pilot by trade, Andrew’s father was also a part time painter, taking on the occasional commission to paint airplanes when he wasn’t painting landscapes as a hobby. He taught Andrew perspective tricks, like drawing the typical train tracks receding towards the horizon line.

     Parents rightfully worry that their kids will go down a path that could lead to misery and the sad stereotype of artists suffering in poverty is a reality for some. However circumspect Andrew is about the art scene he knows he would love to be making a living as an artist if he could. As a result you can find him and his buddy comic artist, Kyle Lees, working away at the Country Market Saturday mornings at their vendor’s booth on the second floor where they refer to themselves as the Octilius Studio. They are soon to be joined by fellow comic and graphic novel artists Bry Kotyk, Christopher Merkley and Colin Rackham.

     Andrew is not entirely new to the game of the comic book world. He’s worked for one of the larger comic publishers and done illustration work near Barrie for a small publisher, illustrating children’s books and activity cards. He jump started his desire to be an artist by producing his own comic book series, Scarabs.

     Scarabs is a 22 page comic. It takes Andrew about twelve to sixteen hours to draw a page which produces a comic in just over two months. Once the artwork is done a entirely new workload takes over involving the layout, design and publishing that follows.

     “I’ve illustrated children’s books in the past and it’s nice to just hand over the illustrations and be done with it,” he says. “That said, I’ve got a large oil painting that seems to be taking me forever.”

     Andrew is realistic about what success is. “Success is having the money and time to create the things you want too create. I believe everyone has a drive to create in their own way and being able too do that full time is success.”

    “I'm currently finishing up the next few issues of the Scarabs Comic, but as far as projects goes I'm working on a number of pitches for comic publishers including an Irish Mythology themed story that I'm sure people who like fantasy stories will like. It will be my largest challenge too date as I'm painting each page.”

     The influences of popular culture upon Andrew is not total. “Sure, I’m very influenced by popular culture but I really try and avoid bringing too much of it consciously into any story I create. The Scarabs Comic is all psychological and at least fifty percent based on incidents of my own life. The story is very heavy emotionally so I think by adding some Egyptian gods and fantastic looking creatures I give the reader a "safe" separation too absorb the message.” 

     Andrew also acknowledges that trying to win over an audience with the pizzaz of detail, dramatic settings and violent action, like special effects in a movie, does nothing compared to how interesting characters can grip the reader. Referring to his Irish mythological tale Andrew says, “Having a true understanding of what these characters would do and what drives them is the most important thing.”
      Andrew has some big ambitions, hoping to work with a large publisher who takes an interest in Andrew’s story ideas. Being realist he says he’s trying not to get attached to his ambitions. He’s aware of the old adage of keeping expectations low, but he’s certainly not going to avoid doing his best to make a go of it.

The Art of Jasper Schmidt

Constraints aren’t Jasper’s problem. She’s dealt with limited space in her childhood and currently takes great advantage of her living room, packing and unpacking her supplies. As a third year student at Lakehead University in the visual arts program Jasper creates large works with expansive themes of home and place in colourful yet muted tones. Her paintings are currently on display at Espresso Joya at 8 Cumberland St. South.

     A major source of inspiration for Jasper are maps. Jasper employs these everyday functional tools in her paintings to cleverly suggest connections with the intimacies of home life. And not just her own home life, the paintings will soon become mapped portraits for others as well. Having taken on a commission she has found a unique way to generate an income.

     In her younger days, painting at home was too messy for Jasper’s family and she didn’t have a lot of room for it, but she organized with a closet dedicated to art supplies. Her painting journey really began at LU. Previously she had only worked with watercolours and fell in love with acrylics when she was first introduced to them. 

     Jasper’s desire to have the acrylics mimic watercolour effects rather than the plastic look acrylic can sometimes generate, lead her to work the acrylic into raw canvas. Priming a canvas with gesso makes the surface hard, smoother and more resilient. It’s not generally recommended to paint on raw canvas unless treated properly. Most of Jackson Pollack's paintings, worth millions of dollars, are falling apart. Museums and galleries spend millions on restoration, especially contemporary works of art as they contain the most volatile of materials often with no concern for the works longevity. In some museums you can actually see a line of paint dust on the floor beneath a Pollock due to the paint slowly disintegrating. 

    However, if done correctly with sealants and coloured gesso, watered down in order to keep the elasticity of the canvas, the benefits of painting into raw canvas can result in effects that are much harder to achieve with a completely primed canvas.

     “I’ve had quite the journey with painting,” states Jasper. “My beginnings weren’t very hands on.” She first took architecture at the University of Manitoba. “It really opened my eyes to what I really wanted to do. Ideally I would like a job that is very very hands on, whether working in wood – fine carpentry or furniture…. I found my niche in painting and along the way became interested in maps, personal maps, and map-like shapes that people might recognize… the tryptic [for instance] is all Canada.”

     This large triple painting and sectional “map” of Canada actually isn’t as jumbled as it looks. There was a lot of preplanning and projection involved. This tryptic inspired follow-up paintings where Jasper included significant places in her life which she highlighted; her childhood home, favourite lakes, babysitter’s house, friends homes, and more. So when you view the paintings you may now be aware of why it is you find her work somewhat familiar.
  Duncan Weller is a writer and illustrator of adult fiction and children's books. You can find them here.

Amanda Burk at the Thunder Bay Art Gallery

Amanda Burk’s show at the Thunder Bay Art Gallery, “Stories of Contentment and Other Fables” mix contemporary and traditional approaches to create what could be described as visual poetry or as visual allegory for adults where Burk’s creative use of animal imagery in beautiful charcoal drawings are enhanced by their scale and method of presentation.  

     We are accustomed to animals representing us humans in fables and fairy tales, anthropomorphically telling a humanist story that might otherwise be too harsh and too close to reality for children’s ears. Traditional stories use this method of distancing to cleverly educate children, and even warn them, about the complexities of living a moral adult life, easing them into the adult maze with a humanist map forged in their minds. 

   For us adults, contemporary art can perform similarly where complex realities are transformed into subjective realms of feelings and philosophical meanderings. Quite different from traditional art or storytelling with a moral purpose, the contemporary realm of art has its drawbacks when too focused on itself rather than the subject at hand creating what artists and art historians call the “history of ideas” when the technique and aesthetic approach is demonstrably newer than the last. 

     Fortunately many contemporary artists avoid a pure discussion of aesthetics and use unique and clever approaches to better express the relationship they have with their inner selves, the outside world that affects them, and at their best a combination of both. The results can be visual poetry not intended to illustrate any specific story, idea or moral approach to life. This kind of mental kinship a viewer can often have with the artist is something to be found in traditional art and even in popular culture, but these subjective elements are often taken for granted whereas in contemporary art they are the focus. 

   And a contemporary art gallery has the space for physical creativity where the size and method of presentation of the art can be played with by the artist to help make their shows more dynamic and impacting.

     At the TBAG, Amanda Burk’s work puts you on an emotional journey, very cleverly achieved in the work, its presentation, and sequentially as if in a book, from left to right. Or potentially in the other direction or even from wall to opposite wall. 

    Amanda Burk’s beautiful drawings of animals are both technically brilliant and composed with great forethought to creatively generate feelings and potentially thoughts on current topics possibly similar to what Burk herself felt or thought when the inspiration came or during the work’s creation. In describing her work, Burk relates how present day influences affected her thoughts and feelings. She also described the journey she took in her practice that related directly to her life and world events. As a viewer you won’t learn these specifics unless they are relayed to you verbally or in a written text, but you may feel them in the show, which is quite the feat.

     The moon shaped imagery of sleeping animals on one wall are contrasted dramatically by animals violently lurching out from the dark spaces in the squares within a disorganized display of black picture frames on the opposite wall. 

     When you study the works take note of other opposites: square and circle, day and night, peace and anger/fear, balance and unbalance, black charcoal and white charcoal, white paper and black paper, white on black and black on white, sleeping animals and angry animals, jumbled active crowd and mirrored peaceful balance. 

      These multiple opposites and contrasts are clever expansions upon the drawings. They are like settings or backdrops for our animal friends, combining to make for a brilliant show, simplistic in some ways yet deep and thoughtful in others, a show worthy of your adult mind. 

    This show of recent drawings by Amanda Burk is on display at the Thunder Bay Art Gallery till March 26. And just to note, Nadia Kurd as curator has done a great job of picking out some amazing artists for us.
  Duncan Weller is a writer and illustrator of adult fiction and children's books. You can find them here.

The Rent is Too Damn High!: Greedy and Shameful Landlords are Charging Far Too Much for Rent in Thunder Bay

      What needs are essential in order for an artist to survive? To flourish? To be able to contribute to their community? Few artists manage a full time living selling their wares or working with a publisher or gallery or promoter, yet having these connections is the biggest influence on where an artist lives. Being part of a scenee in important as well. Like-minded groups build camaraderie and help an artist to further engage with the public. 

     One of the biggest influences on where an artist chooses to reside is the rent. High rent won’t completely dissuade them from living in downtown Toronto or Vancouver, at least at first, but if they give their acting career a good try and it doesn’t illicit the work or success they had hoped, they are likely to seek out a more manageable cost of living elsewhere.

   Every human being on the planet requires shelter. It’s a human commonality, not a wanting luxury. And there are good reasons for governments around the world to believe that the most any average income earner should pay for shelter is 30 percent of their income. For someone to take advantage of a situation, like a flood, to take half or more of a person’s income by jacking up the rent without due cause is not just being greedy, it is disgraceful, shameful and it should be criminal. High rent makes life difficult for others and can outright steal a person’s ability to own a vehicle, to have a spouse, to have children, to save for a house. High rent can steal’s a young person’s future from them. On top of paying ever increasing tuition fees, students at Confederation College and Lakehead University will tell you how upset they are about high rent and that no one seems to care about their situation. 

     For artists the cost of materials is high. Framing is expensive. Promoting and selling work requires being an entrepreneur and business person on the side with all sorts of costs involved. They are particularly vulnerable to economic change. And any adult earning a basic income and looking for an apartment is in trouble. 

     The rent has seriously jumped in Thunder Bay, less so than other cities, Toronto being the worst, but the rise in this city is  without cause. What goes on in the head of a landlord when she or he decides to hike the rent by hundreds of dollars? Where are the great new jobs flooding into Thunder Bay? Has everyone’s pay suddenly doubled? Do landlords think we’re all winning lotteries? 

     It’s not the “market” that is making them hike rent or lack of rental spaces, for even if this is true it’s still no justification for the hike. It’s taking advantage of people. It’s outright shameful greed. Or could it be that people have a fantasy that the future is so bright here in Thunder Bay that we are all going to pick money from trees. It’s not happening.

     High rent will make life harsher in Thunder Bay and lead to a slow suicide for the city. We should be encouraging people to move here. We should make the city amendable to our children so they can have good lives here. We need to make our city beautiful. Economists say we need Thunder Bay’s population to grow by at least thirty to fifty thousand people in the next twenty years if we want a healthy and viable city. The latest demographic study shows that in the last ten years Thunder Bay's population has risen by only twenty-five people. In a bad week, our obit column can feature thirty deaths. So you can imagine how tight the race is.
     Closing schools and businesses won’t help, but likely necessary. It won’t help to defund promotional campaigns that advertise the city. It won’t help to defund the arts or underfund programs and projects that make Thunder Bay culturally attractive and beautiful for those living here. Why would anyone living in other cities with worthwhile amenities want to move here? People need good reasons to brave a Northern living with its isolation and long winters. And they need reasons not to leave.

    Having grown up in Thunder Bay and travelled to quite a few countries I’m suspicious of an undercurrent of fear in this city: the fear of change. I think the reason so many people are jacking the rent and politicians are doing little to nothing about it is because these people secretly don’t want young people to succeed. They don’t want people to move here. Artists, young people and outsiders might change the face of the city, change the culture. They might alter the city’s course and make it something other than what’s it’s always been; familiar, comfortable, low key, stable. 

    Artists and young people are terrible. They like to do research and get worldly experiences by traveling, opening their eyes and being empathetic. When they return they bring ideas with them and open up gastropubs which puts the familiar greasy spoon places out of business. You don’t want more of that, now do you? Imagine if artists, young people, First Nations people and immigrants became politicians or big business owners. They might “change” things. Scary. 

     In the name of human decency let’s start by lowering the rent in 2017 and practice giving to others and not taking what isn’t yours.
  Duncan Weller is a writer and illustrator of adult fiction and children's books. You can find them here.

Make Art Great Again: A Call to Canadian Artists to help our American Friends Destroy the Trump Train

An iconic Canadian image, Horse and Train, by Alex Coalville
modified with Photoshop for this article by Duncan Weller. 

If Trump isn’t soon ousted from office it will be time for a war effort, one in which artists and others work to prevent him and his cronies from infecting masses of people with fear, hate, bigotry, sexism, prejudice and an ideology that puts money and retarded ideas about success ahead of people, animals and the environment. 

[Update: Cartoonists Fight Trump]

     A number of calls for action have gone out to artists and within the calls are predictions that Trump’s presidency will foster new art movements the likes of which hasn’t been seen since before World War II. If a new art movement does occur it will be one with clear messages and imagery that connects with the public with the potential to protect individual and disadvantaged groups’ freedoms in a diverse cultural landscape where everyone should be treated equally. And it may produce great art.  

      Many American journalists, historians and politicians are proving to be correct in their assertions that Donald Trump is a potentially dangerous president like none before him. But he is only part of the equation as Vladimir Putin is salivating at the potential for more international influence, the lifting of sanctions for his incursions into Eastern Europe and the likelihood of wars in Europe and elsewhere in the process. 

     President Obama has yet to step down and Trump has already inspired hateful acts, worried foreign nations and upset their relationship with China. Internationally the extremist right around the world is reading Trump’s presidency as a vindication of all sorts of regressive acts against immigrants, minorities, women, the LGBTQ community, refugees, journalists and others. The possibility that Trump’s presidency might influence political upstarts, even here in Thunder Bay, using ugly Trump rhetoric and tactics to vie for political power is worrying and very real. 

    In our city worries about minority groups and immigrants affecting the larger group financially and culturally are unfounded and hardly worth laser focus. Our real problems involve high rent, lack of affordable housing, lack of jobs and the difficulties involved in starting a business. These are profoundly more important. But these issues and others can be ignored or played down during an election by someone cleverly Trumping other voices.  

   Artists voices needn't be silent, during an election or any other time. Artists are a strange and sensitive bunch with both great and bizarre traits. They are often at odds when it comes to their art, but what they most usually agree upon is that diversity is a plus. The freedom for an individual to express herself is fundamental to an artist. They have been known to speak out against anyone or anything that might deny a person’s ability to express themselves. Yet, as is all too human, artists fall into camps of thought, grouping themselves by their peculiarities of interest, stereotypes or ideologies that often remove them from the interests of a larger public. 

     It’s time for artists to step out of their comfort zone as this is one of those rare times when the democracy that supports and defends their divergent interests could be used against them. As faulty as democracy is, democracy really needs help from artists. Artists have to hold off on their aesthetic experiments and naval gazing that produces a subjective art for the wealthy one percent. Artists have to hold off on painting yet another barn, pretty flowers or Sleeping Giant. Cartoonists and comic book artists have to hold off or set to work their cartoon characters and superheroes on a cause greater than the comic book world. It’s time to get political. Time to get nasty and pointed in order to expose anyone spouting hatred and division. Artists have to get nasty to fight the nasty people. It’s time to stir things up with honesty and commit to positive change and action for a better world. We were on the right track with progress, as slow as it was. We can’t let everything slide backwards. 

Related Article: Trump VS Harper

   I can only imagine that as an artist you’ll enlarge your fanbase. As we artists are often known to the public for being condescendingly critical of their majority, their slow grasp or desire for change and inability to see the value in what we do. But we can win them over by doing what we’ve done best whenever and wherever democracies have allowed us to “enlarge and enhance man’s mental and moral nature.” For if we deserve to be looked up to for our ability to reflect on our inner selves and the world around us, then we should also be able to actively take part in the world that allows us our frivolities and idiosyncrasies. Rather than simply live in the world, comment on it and react to it, we can change it. We can be the artists who made things happen. How? Well, if you’re the artist. Use your imagination.
  Duncan Weller is a writer and illustrator of adult fiction and children's books. You can find them here.

Elizabeth Buset at the Thunder Bay Art Gallery: Swine

This little piggy went to market,

This little piggy stayed home,

This little piggy had roast beef

This little piggy had none,

And this little piggy cried wee wee wee all the way to the Thunder Bay Art Gallery by way of the slaughterhouse to be featured in uncompromising detail in Elizabeth Buset’s solo show, Swine. 

     The bulk of this show, comprised of installation pieces with an audio element are five large oil paintings that are amazing displays of technical craftsmanship, detail, and commitment to a ongoing worthwhile political and social statement. 

     The size of the paintings, the size of the pig heads and amount of detail create a sense of awe, which you may find combines with a sense of unease. You can admire these paintings for their detail and accuracy, the use of colour, and the amazing ability of paint to mimic skin. Which is why Buset’s use of paint dissolve the surface of the paintings into reality. A painting done using other techniques, such as thick, broad colourful brush strokes would be attractive, but then the painting becomes more about technique and less about the subject. 

    High realism, although most often cold and lacking obvious dynamism has the benefit of being both admired for the workmanship while allowing the viewer to be fully engulfed, with access to the subject in glorious and gory detail in a way that no photographer could ever capture, especially on such a grand scale. Various kinds of paint, manipulated subtly by the human hand can have effects that are otherworldly. 

    While we feel sorry for the pigs and for liking the paintings despite the carnage, we also wonder at the startling contrasts that Buset has supplied for us to contemplate. The human tokens that the pigs wear are colourful and associated to activities we do for fun, creating a sort of dialogue between the pigs’ heads and the tokens. The tokens insult the respect we should have for the poor pig who gave up its life for our consumption, while the activities associated with the tokens are put into question. 

     Like a serial killer from a cop show who plays with our perceptions of what is right and wrong, Buset plays with the associations we have with popular culture. The Batman mask or Minnie Mouse bow are supposed to be fun, but placed on a dead pig’s head the fun becomes a bit of a horror show calling into question the purpose of the imagery. For Buset, that purpose is to make us think, to reflect on the kind of destruction that comes from blindly buying into a culture of mass production. 

     Buset rightly points out that it is our consumption that is destroying our planet. So hopefully, that sense of unease you feel may stay with you when you next feel the urge to consume. 

     The work Collective Guilt, which takes up a huge space along one wall is of many pig masks ordered from Shanghai. Without strings to fix the mask to a person’s head you might first wonder if the pigs’ faces were torn from their bodies. Combined in this way on the wall the faces engulf you and stare at you. You might feel guilt. You might wonder how many pigs you’ve consumed in your lifetime. Pigs are, after all, as intelligent as monkeys, smarter than dogs. Here there is a moral issue with what and how much you eat. However, the message is not only that little animal lives are being destroyed by our consumption, it is also that our lives are being whittled away piece by piece by our insatiable North American need for happy little plastic products and the ideologies associated with them supplied to us by corporations and governments who don't always have our best interests at heart. 

     So it’s wonderful to see Buset take up the very real and contemporary cause that conflict with North America’s blind run to make money as represented by Trump’s America. Buset states, “I am very satisfied with this exhibition. Everything from its creation, to display, to the conversations it has started has made every hour painting worth it.” 

    And there were a lot of hours involved. “Swine took three years, or around four thousand hours to complete. That is a lot of time to be alone in the studio. To fill the time I listen to audiobooks and podcasts, many of which were about socio-poetical ideas and observations. Creating this series was a form of research and self-education. It clarified my identity and purpose as a political artist.” 

    “I was first introduced to large scale painting during my HBFA. Painting students were asked to recreate a famous painting and I chose a work by the American Realist, Philip Pearlstein. Through that exercise I realized the physical and psychological impact of scale in art.” 
     This is Buset’s third solo show, with two previous shows held at the Definitely Superior Art Gallery. “In comparison to my other solo exhibitions I believe SWINE is my most mature and fully realized series…. Swine is unique because it is the first time I have included installation elements, printmaking and interactive art stations to help augment my content and educate my audiences.”
  Duncan Weller is a writer and illustrator of adult fiction and children's books. You can find them here.

Oxen of the Sun: John Books at the Thunder Bay Art Gallery

Emblematic works of bronze sculptures by John Books at the Thunder Bay Art Gallery inhabit and reference the human condition in ways that are dramatic and subtle, historic and present day. You have to be a bit crazy to dedicate your life to such an intensive art form. In John’s case it’s an unending love for exploration of the medium, one that generates a sense of awe and respect for anyone who knows something of the complicated process involved. That process gives bronze sculptures the advantage of being taken more seriously over other forms of art, partly because the expense and process weed out artists who have little talent or patience. Most often works of bronze are truly great and John’s work is no exception.

      Another reason for respecting the medium is that bronzes will last for thousands of years. They immediately resonate with history. And aware of this John has added features that further deepen connections with the past. A beckoning pathway of canvas with topographical footprints stretches across the floor amongst tall ochre lichen earth coloured podiums and walls. The canvas imitates the impressions made by the first humans. The dramatic podiums encourage reflection upon the small sculptures that animate their tops. When in your hands the weight and solidity of the sculptures will take on new dimensions. Along with being encouraged to hold most of the pieces, John also welcomes photography of his works.

          John is interested in sharing his love of art as best he can and he’s particularly proud of this show, putting a lifetime of knowledge into his work so much so that he’s currently taking a breather. This is a signature show revealing a mature artist in love with life, art and literature with an endearing commitment to an exploration of the human subject with all its glories and foibles.

  After thirty years of living in Thunder Bay John now lives in Grand Marais where he continues his study. “in the past two years I have taken workshops using techniques from two thousand years ago that were used to make moulds and pour bronze.” Results of these and other process span works in the show created from 2009 to the present.   

     “I really like where this show went artistically. I feel like I stepped into myself, intellectually and as an artist. Emotionally too.” 

     The bell placed centrally in the show over the pathway is of special significance to John. “I lost a brother a year ago and always wanted to do a commemorative piece for him. For a long while it was a piece of wood I was carving. And then I made the ringer. And I thought of my brother.”

  Of the show, John says, “It was a delight that it came together. It was very satisfying.” John adds, “It looks like I’m taking a break. I don’t know where to go from here. I’ve been thinking about this show for years. I’ve been writing for the past few months and its’ been the writing that’s pulling me together. It’s not postpartum depression. It’s just breathing.”

    A good deal of equipment and tools are required when John proceeds with the 24 to 30 steps in the process from moulding a model in microcrystalline foundry wax, carving it with various tools, then applying wax “pipes” to bring the molten metal uniformly to the mould, brushing it with alcohol and varnish, dipping it into a chemical soup of ceramic material a number of times, sprinkling or rolling it in sand with a final coating of slurry that is a centimetre thick. The piece is suspended while it dries. The wax is carefully melted from the ceramic mould with a propane torch so the mould becomes hollow. The piece gets fired in a furnace at 2000 F for an hour, buried in sand or cast in resin. The bronze is melted in a furnace and poured into the cup on the top of the sculpture. When cooled the mould is removed with a hammer and chisel. It might get sandblasted, then is filed, ground, after which a wax finish and patina are applied. And be aware, this is just a harshly abbreviated version of John’s description of the process.

     John Book’s show, Oxen of the Sun runs till January 8 at the Thunder Bay Art Gallery. 
  Duncan Weller is a writer and illustrator of adult fiction and children's books. You can find them here.