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Installation, Blackwood Gallery, September 1995
Acer Family Viewing comprises thirty-three editions of lithographs which present traditional keys to memory - accurate portraits of individuals at specific stages of development. This work arose from an examination and collection of brilliant maple tree buds on winter walks through Toronto's Mount Pleasant Cemetery and Arboretum. Consideration of memory, public and private, is natural to this site.
(litho; suite of 33 images; each edition 10; 11"X15"; 1991-1994; $300)
In 150 Maples an iconic representation of a maple bud form is present for each maple known. Here in the accumulation of information, it is the repetition of sameness that underlines the commonality of experience: Maple. Family and history merge in an installation which suggests an heraldic precedent. |
Complete Listing of Acer |
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Parterre: An outdoor garden/room meant for contemplative strolling. (litho, drypoint, acrylic & flocking; 1995-) This suite examines three collections of natural and nature inspired objects. In each large scale print hands choose, examine and compare elements. Coloured maple buds link the three images to each other and previous Acer work. In contrast to the apparent scattering of information in the central grouping, each editioned print is bordered with a formal distillation of the contained imagery in the form of a Renaissance inspired flocked pattern.
Although based on locally found flora and fauna in my own collections, Parterre suggests links to early botanicals where colour and black and white information is merged in scientific/artistic catalogues of peculiarities in familiar and novel species. The abstract quality of some of these botanicals, perceived when groups of closely observed forms are viewed together on a page, clearly relates to the work as well.
The majority of the Parterre thinking is built upon the original matrices in combination with other litho and intaglio matrices, drawing and painting. These related images consider alternate recognitions within collections of information. This work continues to quietly evolve as new information is chosen, examined and compared. |
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Complete Listing of Parterre |
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| The Field and Home Collection (litho & drypoint; suite of 6 images; each edition 10; 14" X 22"; 2000) pairs local field specimens, labeled with their unfamiliar latin names, and evocatively named home-decor colour swatches. Identified nature is romanced: made at once exotic and familiar. |
Complete Listing of Field and Home |
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The Canadensis Suite considers choice from the point
of view of a 20th Century journey of exploration. The work is specific
to three historic Canadian locales, with echoes of previous imagery suggesting
a method, history and overall context for the collection. Canadensis is
a re-exploration of territory long known and inhabited: An echo of former
documents of discovery in a collection of images of the familiar. Within
this familiarity is an acceptance of the less than perfect, the dried
and twisted, the discoloured and decomposing. The specific identification
of forms is less important than this sense of familiarity - a possible
recognition, a similarity, a reminder.
(litho; suite of 12 images; each edition 10;
26"X20"; 1997-1999)
Historia Naturalis Canadensis This edition presents a
compendium of information selected from individual Canadensis images.
Other editions and monoprints using Canadensis information with new collections
are forthcoming.
(litho & drypoint; each edition
4; 31.5"x 48"; 1997-2001) |
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Complete Listing of Canadensis
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