After several years of steady work, two years in my little back garden barn studio I am excited to announce that my solo exhibition In the Garden of Exquisite Unknown at the Judith & Norman Art Gallery in Sarnia, SW Ontario, Canada, officially opens this evening! (Gallery info below)
A studio visit from gallery curator Sonya Blazek and gallery team member Rose Canino in May 2022 led to setting the date for this show in August 2022.
Focusing on themes of light and dark, life and so-called death, fragility and resilience, the exhibited work includes a few sculptures and watercolour drawings that I had begun before meeting Sonya. The show represents about three years of work with seeds planted long before I moved back to Canada in 2021. Along with these pieces are a film which will be updated regularly, a soundscape, several installations & fibre arts sculptures and a 21′ x 10′ installation titled ‘Welcome Wall’, that highlights 350 pinned natural ephemera with this ekphrastic poem hand-written in graphite on the wall.
Here is the sharing of ideas; observed poetics planted deep and with love.
This is Garden as curated space, as entangled with humanity.
The exquisite is the exchange of observations, ideas, emotions. Connections.
Of joy. Of discovery. Of planting seeds. . .
Offered is a celebration challenge with our passing,
with the transformation of beginning again.
There is balance in darkness with light, and within the unknown.
There is a gap for memories to lodge, and a bridge from where you were
-all the places and times you were not-
to all the places and times you are and will be.
We build these moments into a vessel for our tomorrow.
We float or walk, remain or evolve, growing toward this sweet, ubiquitous unknown.
If it is not about wandering slowly then perhaps it is about being nowhere.
Now here. In the liminal. Or everywhere all at once.
Let this connection be the only light in earth’s showroom
that cannot be filtered, cannot be extinguished.
The garden grows wild yet with certainty envelops all who enter with a kind heart.
Kinship endures.
The ecology of belonging sings softly, blanketed warmly by your embrace.
Tell me your thoughts; show me all there is to know of your mysteries.
There is room in the garden for us all;
into this exquisite unknown you are so very welcome.
Hope you have a chance to visit this show in person, and if not keep an eye out on You Tube where I’ll be posting a walk through visit with titles and commentary.
Judith & Norman Alix Art Gallery
147 Lochiel Street
Sarnia, Ontario N7T 0B4
Phone: 519-336-8127
Gallery hours: Wednesday, Friday, Saturday 11:00 am – 4:00 pm & Thursday 11:00 am – 8:30 pm
