Art In Public
Places… till mid-April 2012
This is an initiative
of the Elora Arts Council. Its purpose is to enrich exterior and interior
spaces in our community with the vibrancy and beauty of visual art.
Art in The Municipal Building, Township of Centre
Wellington, Elora
in the Council chamber
Paintings
by IVANO STOCCO
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In Rainbows- Elora |
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Fergus |
~ About the Work and
Artist~
I strive to create a sense of rawness and depth in my
paintings by working fast and instinctually, layering paint in washes, and
using a variety of tools and media beyond oil and acrylic paint.
Before starting a piece, I set up the following
challenge: I imagine you, the viewer, are in a room with televisions,
advertisements, and beeping electronic devices—and my painting is on the
wall. I want the work to
outcompete the other distractions, to grip you immediately but also hold your
attention, for a long time, like a novel.
I want the composition, subject matter, use of colour, and play of
negative space to challenge you, that is, arise organically in the painting
rather than be forced by artificial effects.
To tease out the mood, character, and subjectivity of
a scene, I often perform-paint outdoors or in public venues, competing
regularly in “speed painting” competitions in Spain and in “art battles” or
“battles of the brushes” in Canada.
The plein air painters Antonio López and Blai Tomás Ibáñez have been
strong influences on my work, as have the American abstract expressionists, the
Canadian Painters Eleven, the Spanish informalists, and other “action
painters.”
Like
many artists, I am temperamental by nature. I use painting as a mood stabilizer and as a kind of pry bar
to the beauty that lies where we might not believe it to reside. I strive for pleasurable disruptions of
expectations. The built
environment engages me because I live there, and the periphery and its people
speak to me because I identify with them.
Many of my paintings incorporate collage. I use collage as the Dadaists did, to
“modernize” and break down the barrier between art and everyday life, but also
to symbolize the pervasiveness of fragmentary information and the slipping away
of common narratives to give meaning to our lives.
My latest work is a blend of urban landscape and
figurative art, two opposing traditions I believe should be better
friends. A fellow painter put it
to me recently, “You’re doing something quite difficult—a narrative that is not
illustration, and achieving it through experimental processes.”
For more on my art and background as an artist, or to
inquire about a piece, please visit my website, www.ivanostocco.com, or contact
me by email at ivano@ivanostocco.com or by telephone at (519) 824-1589.
In the
main hallway
TEXTILE
ART OF
Joan Hug-Valeriote
Since slaves were not allowed to learn to read and
write, they used memory aids such as verses, symbols and quilt blocks to help
them memorize information and communicate secretly with one and other.
For instance, the stars represent the North Star and the Bear Paw block
represents the trails that bears make in the mountains. Following such a
trail will usually lead to water.
The "code" on this Underground Railroad
Quilt was taken from a book called "Hidden in Plain View: A Secret Story
of Quilts and the Underground Railroad" by
Jacqueline Tobin and Dr. Raymond Dobard (1999). A log-cabin block denotes a
safe-house, usually a Quaker family willing to harbour fugitives on their long
walk to freedom in Canada. Traditionally, the centre square on a log-cabin
block is red, symbolizing the fire in the hearth. According to Ms. Tobin
and Dr. Dobard, a black centre in a log-cabin quilt hanging on a clothes line
or a fence outside a home, indicated a station on the Underground Railroad.
Different quilters have used different blocks to
portray the journey on the Underground Railroad. Sometimes a block with a
sailboat is used to depict the trip across Lake Erie by steamer or
sailboat. A log cabin block drawn on
the sand would alert local free blacks that someone was hiding nearby waiting
to be ferried across Lake Erie to Canada. The Crossroads was supposedly
Cleveland, Ohio where a boat would ring its bell twice (double rings) to
indicate its readiness to take on clandestine
passengers. Alternately, double rings could mean getting married in the
new, free land.
This particular code, intended to help
fugitives get to freedom in Canada, was supposedly passed down orally
from grandmother to mother to daughter, and revealed to the authors of the
book, by Ozella McDaniel Williams in Charleston South Carolina,
Hanging up a quilt with the monkey wrench
block or the carpenter's wheel was supposed to be a signal to other slaves to
start gathering tools and provisions, getting ready to run. The wagon
wheel block indicated that someone was ready to leave and was "loading the
wagon", even though there was no wagon and they would be on foot. The Shoofly block, means that if the men and dogs hunting the
fugitives get too close, the group should scatter like flies so that at least
some of them might not be caught. The Drunkard's path indicates that the
fugitives should never travel in a straight line and the Flying Geese block
tells them to travel north. In this case, the background of one of the
sets of Flying Geese, is darker than the others. The quilt would be hung
so that the darker set of "geese" indicated the way to run to get off
the plantation, or it might indicate North. The Tumbling Blocks or Tumbling
Boxes would be the last quilt displayed at the plantation, signaling the slaves
to pack up and be ready to move out, usually during a rainstorm when there
would be no work in the fields and it would be harder for the dogs to track
them once they had been missed by the plantation overseer.
Art at
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IN THE LOBBY Graeme Chalmers
From the
Wellington County Series |
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With a reputation largely established through
research and publication in art education, Graeme Chalmers now enjoys being more
actively involved in his studio practice. His paintings, currently exhibited at Groves Memorial
Hospital, explore the iconic images, textures and patterns of Wellington
County and Waterloo Region. You
will not see specific places, but when you view his work you will not be
surprised to learn that Graeme is a member of Heritage Centre Wellington. Professor Emeritus of Art Education at the
University of British Columbia Graeme was born, attended school, art school,
teachers’ college, and began teaching art in Auckland, New Zealand. A Fulbright Award enabled him to earn
graduate degrees (M.A. and Ph.D) in the United States. He came to Canada in 1972, first to
the Fine Arts Department at Concordia University Montreal, and then to UBC,
retiring in 2008 and moving to Fergus. Graeme has authored four books – the best known is
Celebrating Pluralism: Art, Education,
and Cultural Diversity (Getty Museum) – as well as many journal articles,
reports, and conference presentations. He served as Senior Editor of Studies in Art Education and on
several editorial boards. He is
the recipient of awards from the Canadian Society for Education through Art,
the National (USA) Art Education Association, the International Society for
Education through Art, the British Columbia Art Teachers’ Association, and
Heritage Canada. He continues to
be involved with the International Baccalaureate Organization as Principal
Examiner for Extended Essays in Visual Art. The paintings on display at Groves are acrylic
overlaid with oil stick. Graeme
states that as someone who has moved several times in his life this present
series of paintings, reminiscent of quilts, hooked rugs, and game boards, has
helped him feel a sense of “belonging” in his new environment. |
IN THE Day Surgery Corridor of Groves Hospital
Till Mid April 2012
From Ms. Hamilton’s grade 3 class
at St. Patrick Catholic School in Guelph. They were done under the
direction of Mrs. Tessaro, the art teacher. Inspired by Van Gogh’s sunflower
paintings, she had the children paint their own sunflowers pictures, all of
which are quite different.
Art in
the Sportsplex Board Rooms
The Plein
–Air Landscapes of Stan Jaychuck
ART IN PUBLIC PLACES
supported by artists and the
entirely volunteer work of the Elora Arts Council
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AT Our first endeavour was to work with a committee from the staff
of The Boardroom of the hospital has been brightened with a collection of framed original landscapes from the Charandini collection, donated to the hospital previously and now hung. The collection has recently been augmented, and more of these paintings were hung to grace the corridors in December 2003. The main lobby is an ideal place for a rotating art display of works on loan. Permanent track facilities for displays have been put in the lobby. Exhibits rotate every three months or so, featuring the work of local artists. Frames have been jointly purchased for displays of youth and
children's art. Frames in the long Day-Surgery .hallway are now filled with
the colourful paintings and drawings. Our thanks, as ever, to all who have
lent work. A recent initiative is the hanging of the photos of new-born babies
and children by Sheri Visakaly
in the maternity ward corridor. |
ART FOR OUR Temporary exhibitions, temporary loans and acquisitions, and
displays of existing art in As art expands in our community, so it is also expanding in our public
buildings. Through the initiative of the Cultural Committee of the EAC has worked with the Municipal Cultural Committee to draw up guidelines for the acquisition of art, temporary exhibitions etc. This
initiative has now been expanded
to exhibit art in the two Board Rooms of the Sportsplex, Fergus. |