ARTIST STATEMENT
I strive for a balance in my work that I find lacking in the world. To try to keep an equilibrium is the most satisfying state of being. Yet to create tension is also part of the process. I tend to follow lines of thought until they are played out and then rarely go back to them, done is done.
In the restoration and healing of damaged and flawed materials, I look to highlight the breakage and find the beauty in the midst of ruin. I try to take damage and deterioration and re balance the work until a state of equilibrium can be achieved.
In life, this is the essence of resilience, also reflecting the philosophy of wabi-sabi; embracing the flaws and imperfections of the human experience.
There is satisfaction in combining materials that do not naturally mix. Lately my work ponders these contrived relationships.
Biography
As a young child, I immigrated to Ontario. My father began the first plaster mold cast foundry in Toronto, Pattern Matchplate Ltd., the first year we came to Canada. Ironically enough, this was located on McCaul Street on the site facing the present Art Galley of Ontario. This foundry has dominated most of my life in one form or another.
I attended York University, and studied Fine Arts and History of Art. Along the way I turned to teaching to make a living and was a secondary school visual art department head/curriculum leader and administrator. During this time, I have continued my work in sculpture and some painting.
Although my middle name could be ‘hiatus’, I have again resumed working and thinking about those images that never seem to leave me. Some works, I have begun 10 or more years ago and have finally solved their riddle; others continue to take shape in my mind. I live near Orangeville and have set up my studio there
Exhibitions
Fall Festival Juried Art Show 2023
Newmarket Juried Art Show, 2022
Headwaters Arts Gallery, "The View from Here" 2022
Headwaters Arts Gallery, "Raising the Bar" 2021
John B Aird Gallery, SCULPTURE_2021
Headwaters Arts Gallery, "Relaunch 2021"
Newmarket Art Gallery, "Winter Show" 2021
Headwater's Arts Gallery, "In the Mix" group virtual exhibit 2020
Newmarket Juried Art Show, 2020
Artist Coop Owen Sound, Guest Artist, 2018
The Art Gallery of Peel, "Entropy New Work", 1996
Cornelius Parkway Arts Centre, North York Group Exhibition, 1993
Cyril Clark Art Centre, solo show, 1990
Round Up, Niagara Street, Toronto, 1989
IDA Gallery, " Surfacing", 1988
IDA Gallery, New works in sculpture, 1987
Education
York University, BFA
Visual Arts Specialist Edu
Awards
L.L. Odette Sculpture Award
Publications
https://citizen.on.ca/orangevilles-public-art-collection-continues-to-expand/ October 2022
Orangeville Citizen, November 2021
Headwaters Arts, e-flash July 2021
John B Aird, SCULPTURE_2021
https://www.orangeville.ca/en/
https://www.orangeville.ca/en/