Mini Solo Show Install at VANS Corridor Gallery

On November 1, 2016 I installed 10 of the 35 pieces from the Internal Dialogues body of work at the Visual Arts Nova Scotia Corridor Gallery. This is the first time I had to narrow it down to a specific selection from that work due to space restriction. Interesting experience. I like it.

This is the third solo exhibition of Internal Dialogues I am showing, different venues/ cities each time with a different set up and different curators and I have to say I am delighted.
Some people may think, ah that same work again, I think about it differently. Especially these large pieces have sometimes taken 4 months to create, and I am determined to have them travel the world until each one has found a new home. I don't think I will ever create work identical to this again, as I continue to develop and change as an artist and a person and so do my ideas, approaches and techniques. 

It is always a pleasure to see "Kelsey", "Anne-Marie", "Asima" and "Valerie" exhibited again. I also have two additional large paintings, "Sophie" and "Fiona" but they didn't make the cut this time around due to the space restrictions. I think of these portraits as "my ladies" as they are people I look up to and have the privilege to know in person. The unique combination of lacery and figure I am very proud of as that was something I strived to express and create in one way or another for 4 years before this body of work. Many experiments in printmaking later followed by a few years without access to a printmaking studio finally had me rummage through my studio, find all my linocut and litho pattern prints and proofs on ricepaper and fabric that I didn't need any longer and started experimenting with incorporating them into my acrylic paintings.

Leaving the print studio behind in 2010 and spending 3 years focussing on painting primarily was a revelation in calm, quiet and reflective studio practice. And it was the first solid body of work I created after finishing my MFA at Concordia, without major outside influences in my life. I realized that I am a very different painter now than I was in 2004 (when I switched my major at Hartford Art School from Painting to Printmaking). My approach to painting, and what made painting "work" for me again was thinking of it in layers similarly to printmaking. At least that's how the background patterns were approached. "Kelsey" is the most extreme example of this layering as I was striving to make it physically three dimensional as well by incorporating knitting (additional "making method" I started experimenting with in 2012).

Install almost done, labels, lighting and clean up commenced. 

Welcome to Internal Dialogues, as "Kelsey" is so much more textured I am glad she has her own purple wall greeting visitors. ;)

This photo turned out a bit of a yellow affair, excuse the poor quality please.

Out of close to 30 different size (non-portrait) paintings I chose my personal favourites for this exhibition. "Lacery" (on the to left) is still the one that expresses what I was trying to communicate the most, that we are made of these layers and textures of complexities. "Emotional Shift" on the bottom right always makes me feel uplifted. When I see one of my paintings again after a long time  I am always a bit amazed that I came up with this in the first place and I still get the same emotional reaction from it. With "Emotional Shift", the delicate highlights in the circular pattern does that for me every time. 

These two are Cellular Bliss and Interior Provocation. Both a bit darker. Interior Provocation has a lot of detailed movement within the pattern, upon a closer look it's almost like there are little vortexes that could either suck you in or repel you, I like the push & pull effect.  

Please visit here, for the official press release of Internal Dialogues at the VANS Corridor Gallery.