q)Walk us through an intimate day in your life
a)Well,
as I juggle many things, making my own work, teaching, and coordinating our
student gallery, no two days are the same really. Also, my work is very project
based and sometimes I'm juggling a couple at a time. So in an average week…I
spend a good amount of time emailing and researching on-line, shooting or
working in post-production in photoshop, and meeting with students. I might
teach once or twice a week-depending, and there is always lots of arts administration
work to do. Not very exciting I'm afraid…! OH…but there's always good food and
wine, my partner is a fantastic cook! As much movie watching as possible…and we
have a lovely house in the country…so I try to escape there when I can to
read…and write, and work on my projects.
q) Where did you grow up/where do you live now and how does that
contribute to your art?
a)I
grew up in a small town in Southern Ontario . I
now live in downtown Toronto ,
Canada Toronto
q) What is your earliest memory that propelled you to create?
a)Well
it may sound funny but I grew up in a very small town and there wasn't much in
the way of visual art…except church. My mom made me go to church on Sunday and
during mass I would daydream and look at the murals, statues and stained glass.
Even though I understood the symbolism, I was more interested in the idea of
making the art. In school art was always my favourite subject.
q) Tell us a little bit about your creative process.
a)I
think after many years I'm starting to understand it more…but I also feel that
it has a method of its own and to a certain extent and I just have to get out
of the way. Intuition certainly plays a big part, but it is also combined with
a lot of research and reading. And then the two start to have an interesting
conversation and things go from there. I've started keeping a separate sketch
book for each project and since I sometimes have more than one project going on
at the same time I find these books very helpful. They contain sketches, notes,
quotes from things I've read, technical information, measurements, everything.
If I meet with someone to talk about my work I write in my sketchbook. When I
feel stuck with a project I try to touch it lightly and then back off. Things
need their own time. Projects have not gone well when I've tried to push them
into something they don't want to be.
q) How do you wish for your art to be perceived?
a) I
hope it both touches people but also challenges their thinking.
q) What do your internal dialogues sound like?
a)About
art…I get very engaged in the subject of the work and I try to find out as much
as I can about it. For example, I've been working on this series with
endangered and extinct birds called Aviary. In developing this work my inner
dialogue ranged from technical questions of how best to photograph them in the
lab, to running to my binoculars and bird guide to see what is out my window. I
then go to the Cornell Ornithology website to look up the bird, and then I read
scientific articles about extinction and the history of parlour decor (with
stuffed birds) in Victorian England, and then I work in photoshop some more.
It's a very circular process. One thing feeds into the other.
q) Do you feel that there are limitations to what you want to create?
a)YES
and NO. I suppose sometimes there may be financial realities of materials I
can't afford, and time to do more work. I can't make things as quickly as
I would like to or afford to travel as much. But I think there are always
fences we learn to work within, and as creative thinkers these parameters are
sometimes really interesting and they can stimulate the way we make
things.
q) Do you feel art is vital to survival and if so, why?
a)That's
a challenging question. I don't have the exact quote (and it may be erroneous)
but during the war someone suggested to Churchill that the theatres be closed
to save money for the war effort, and his response was, then what are we
fighting for? I think art celebrates the best of our humanity, it challenges
and stimulates our thinking, connects us to each other and to something bigger
than all of us, brings beauty to the world, provokes us, feeds our dreams. It's
the food of our soul.
q) Describe a world without art.
a)Well,
it is hard to imagine. Imagine no music, no pictures of any kind, no beautiful
pottery…everything would just be utilitarian. Art/creativity appears in many
ways all around us. I looked around my house just now and saw beautifully woven
fabric on a chair, photographs, paintings, pottery, a beautifully crafted
wooden desk and clock. I suppose things would have the most utilitarian shape
and no colour no sense of beauty and the most basic use of materials. And no
music, no literature, no cinema, no theatre, no dancing, no poetry…. It would
be as if our souls had all died.
q) Tell us a secret, and obsession.
a)Hmm.
Well if I tell you a secret it won't be a secret anymore, so I have to tell you
one I'm ready to reveal. O.K. I'm superstitious. I get it from my dad. It's not
that I really believe these things, let's just say I don't mess around with
them. Luck is luck. Obsession. I never stop thinking about my projects -
ever.
q) Where can people see more of your work on the
internet?
