One of more than 80 monotype images in the Vessels series which continues to expand with 5-10 new images each year. A recent exhibition entitled, Vessels, explored the many shapes and meanings of the word, including cultural or religous icon.
I have spent my adult life dealing with the facts and fictions of contemporary society; more than 20 years as a newspaper and magazine journalist and photographer, and another decade as visual artist and educator. The increasing frictions between rural and urban cultures, and the subsequent impacts on natural landscapes have become important questions for all story tellers. Education -- BFA, Nova Scotia College of Art & Design, an international centre of conceptual thinking (majored in printmaking and painting). Professional -- Art instructor (p/t) at Acadia University; instructor and visiting artist various workshops and open studios; juror on peer review and submission committees; contract printer to other visual artists; current President of Nova Scotia Printmakers Association. Awards/Exhibitions -- Canada Council Award; Nova Scotia Arts Council award; Province of Nova Scotia Art Bank purchases (six years); work selected for international exhibitions since 1996; one or two solo exhibitions each year, in addition to various group shows of regional nature. Galleries -- Seven galleries within Atlantic Canada. Artist now interested in representation in other countries and regions. Techniques -- Collagraphs, etchings, woodblock relief, monotypes, hand made papers, and mixed media. For the past decade has been developing an experimental process of rust/oxidation, a media unique in the printmaking world but an appropriate metaphor material for any artist's fears of industrialization versus nature.My particular interest in issues related to our relationship with landscape, began more than 20 years ago in my research, writing, and illustration of an award-winning book on rural architecture. The book, Barns of Western Canada, became a best seller and covered a period from earliest settlement of the Western regions, to the late 1900s, including the world's largest single migration of people ever. The initial victory of climate and place over old-world cultures and designs, and the eventual triumph of a human/mechanical partnership over nature, has and will continue to greatly influence my various artistic voices.The Printmaker Studio and informal gallery is located on a high point of the North Mountain, a 75-mile ridge of jurasic balsat rock that separates the beautiful Annaoplis Valley from the powerful Bay of Fundy. It is a working studio, although visitors are welcome most afternoons.
