Appearance and Essence
Exploring the themes of "appearance and essence" gallery member are invited to submit one work to this unique annual exhibition of local art.
November 3 to November 23, 2007
Opening Reception November 3, 2007 - 2 to 4 pm
Participating artists:
Carole Davidson, Chris Johnston, Fran Freeman, Shelly Rahme, Keith Campbell, Kati Kirke, Jackie Carter, Michelle Shepherd-Wotton, Lise Melhorn-Boe, Marjorie Moonfire, Allan Hirsh, Judith Ingwersen, Julie Bartkiewicz, John Coffman, Sarah Woodward, David Carlin, Ken Stange, Eleanor Mackey, Dermot Wilson, Arndt von Holtzendorff, Kathy Browning and Daniel Elzinga.
(works of art can be viewed on WWG Myspace)
ARTISTS STATEMENTS
Sarah Woodward: My own Artistic Practice…
Some memories leave imprints on our souls, testing our stability and challenging all that we are and what we strive to become. I’ve chosen the art of printmaking to explore the imprint of memory and the tracing of self. I am interesting documenting a tempered reality and altering perceptions of time and space. Printmaking lends itself to the elusive quality of remembered experience. By manipulating the prints so that they became deteriorated, soft, and distant images, I hope to acknowledge a collective experience of memory and to re-create in others a sense of nostalgia.
Chris Johnston:
Serpent Mountain, 2007, oil on unstretched canvas
We live in a state of constantly becoming. The atomic structure of matter is in constant motion. Mountains, like shelves, built upon layers of material and although seeming solid, are in a state of becoming. The appearance is not the essence. This work is one of a series of landscapes exploring what it is to become.
Carole Davidson:
Artists Statement
My textural inspiration comes from process and possibility. The mechanics of combining colour and media, building, manipulating or deconstructing layers results in the magic of an abstract piece.
Kathy Browning:
Spirit of the North 2004
Growing up in Thunder Bay has been a source of creative inspiration for me and has guided my artistic path. My spiritual relationship to the land and the lake have encouraged me to take photographs of particular sites over the past thirty years. I have studied these spiritual sites with a variety of photographic media and I have now recorded them digitally. These photographs capture spirits that are embedded in the sites themselves. Thunder Bay residents are surrounded by this beautiful landscape. The Ojibway legend of the Great Spirit Nanabijou affected me at a young age as did the respect for the land and the lake. The rock, water, trees and your relationship to these is an experience that needs to be unpacked through time. By continuously returning to The Giant, Hidden Valley, Balsam Street, Rabbit Mountain and other sites I have been able
to come to terms with the spirit that is inherent in each site. This understanding has inspired me in the past to create sculpture, painting, drawing, printmaking, musical instruments, performance art, and photography. I am now translating this understanding through digital photography. This digital media has the power to translate information into new forms. I am the medium through which the message of the spirit of the land and the lake has been translated.
Lise Melhorn-Boe:
Garbage, 2007
English: Each quilted page of this book contains one day’s worth of connections between human health and our environment.
French: Chaque page piqué dans a livre contient l’orduve ménaagères d’un jour. Dans le texte, il y a des relations entre la santé humaine et notre environment.
Judith Ingwersen:
Art helps us remember what we have forgotten, who we are and why we are here. Thus, my work integrates stories, myths and dreams as I explore relationships and spirituality.
Originally the northern landscape, which for me represent both wilderness and wildness, strongly influenced my work and was reflected in many of the images I produced. Now my art express the inner landscape, the passages from birth to old age and looks at the underside of experiences. This has led me to explore collage and mixed media as well as acrylic and watercolour.
“Mid-way in life’s journey, I found myself in a dark wood having lost my way.” A quote from Dante’s The Devine Comedy, is present in much of my work and in others a whimsical air is expressed.
My art reflects the ragged edge of aging, the transition from traditional roles to the reach of the independent self. This process, for me, involves a humourous response to the jokes life play on us. The restlessness of the human condition is also part of my work and I find inspiration in stories and myths because they sometimes tell us who we are and how we can emerge as more conscious individuals.
Most of my work is large and life size and invites you to enter the mystical, magical world of the imagination and there discover your intrinsic worth and the mystery of the Other.
John Coffman:
My installation represents the impermanence of art. The work may appear very permanent yet due to time, the drifting sands of deserts, foreign policy and war as in the case of the destruction of the museums in Iraq or even in this instance, the action of squirrels, the work may eventually be destroyed remaining only in the Essence either as a photo or perhaps only in the memory.
Ken Stange:
Frigid, 2006
- Second part of diptych Construction 86: Intemperate Zones
- Monoprint on canvas of digital artwork
Remarks on Work
If there are aliens in our midst, they probably find it easier to blend in and adapt in our more intemperate zones with climates closer to their own.
About The Artist
Ken Stange is a poet, essayist and visual artist with a strong interest in science and computers. His last poetry book was Advice to Travelers. His computer art and poetry has been shown in juried shows and published in literary and art periodicals. A collection of his art. A Smoother Pebble, has been published by Penumbra Press. He is currently working on a book that compares creativity in the arts verses creativity in the sciences.
Shelly Rahme:
Artists Statement
The central focus of my work is reflected in my use of materials. I use the industrial materials that shape our built environment: the asphalt of roads, the glass and drywall of buildings, to list a few. I use these materials because of their manufactured flatness and striking contrast which the natural environment. I create landforms and landscapes ranging from hand-held sculptures to grandiose installations. In doing so, I revert the industrial materials to a quasi natural state.
Fran Freeman:
Artist statement
Fran Freeman’s work is contemplative and suggests ritual. It explores our place in the natural world, our misguided attempts to separate from and dominate “the environment” and our relationship with the veriditas, or spiritual intelligence of nature. It comments on our naïve embrace of technologies whose implication we do not fully understand.
hive consciousness I, 2007 suggests concepts such as godhead, the belly brain and Jung’s collective unconscious. It also calls to mind Colony Collapse being linked to a number of technologies as well as industrial-style agriculture practices. CCD is devastating North America bee colonies and could have massive consequences for food security as well as for wild plants requiring pollinators.
Daniel Elzinga:
Appearance and Essence, 2007. Soapstone carving
This work represents a literal interpretation of the exhibition theme with soapstone. Working with this theme I am giving the viewer a glimpse of the appearance of and essence of a very mixed and faulted piece of soapstone. A dialogue forms from the arrangement, presentation and the amount of polish in the stone fragments.
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Images from the opening, November 3, 2007
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