APPLAUSE!!

APPLAUSE

Not many visual artists are accustom to applause in Canada. Yet it happened to me this February. I have a little exhibition, Global Forces - Intimate Spaces, showing downtown Ottawa in a church hall. One Saturday, when I dropped in, a large group called Conversations in English for New Canadians, had just returned from their annual Winterlude skating on the Canal for hot chocolate. As I entered the hall, it was announced that I was the artist of the prints on display.  Everyone stepped forward and applauded. I looked behind me, thinking the applause was for someone other than me. What a great feeling when I realized it was for me! This must be what performing artists enjoy, as well as the money from tickets sold. Well enough said. I'm sure many visual artists can relate to what I'm saying. How special it is in Canada to receive applause. And yet, I'm reminded how when I have had exhibitions outside of Canada, the cultures applaud the visual artist all the time, and indeed show caring reverence, as if we are treasures.

Global Forces - Intimate Spaces Exhibition 2012 is showing at the Church of the Ascension Hall, 253 Echo Dr. Ottawa, parking available. I've selected eighteen photomontage archival pigment prints from my Arctic Crisis Part 1 (15) and from Ecology of Narrative Space Part 2 (15) in which the aesthetic discussion relates to the ephemeral nature of time, space, memory and identity. I'm giving an Artist Talk Saturday, March 3, 2012 at the same location. However, my inspiration begins thirty plus years ago when I worked in the Central Arctic Kitikmeot Region of Nunavut, then the Northwest Territories. Browsing my photo album, my eyes landed on my yellowed 1980's prints, their faded appearance reinforcing my senses a long ago identity. Simultaneously, their spatial aesthetic and concern with delicate light reminded me of a life long research concern with human-environmental dynamics.  As a contemporary visual artist many years later, its natural for me to reposition these memories, using digital photomontage techniques, within a contemporary aesthetic and global socio-environmental discussion. Come to the talk if you want to know more and to discuss your interpretations.