Tunisia
A trip to Tunisia and more particularly to the Medina of Hammamet was the inspiration for 4 paintings. The old medieval Medina with its narrow streets, white walls, blue accents, flowers and old doors, with the Mediterranean Sea in the background was a unique setting that led to multiple photos. Several images were treated with Photoshop, amplifying the blue tones and then translated into the “Medina de Hammamet” paintings.
Indigo
While curating “in the Spirit of INDIGO” Festival at Propeller and participating in the related workshops, papers of various kinds were dyed with indigo using shiburi techniques. They were then incorporated into mixed media artworks, of which 3 examples are illustrated: “Fenêtre Indigo”, “Artifice Indigo” and “Gloire du Matin Indigo”. Multiple smaller paintings were also produced with the indigo dyed papers.
Red Impulse
Two mixed media artworks were created for the “Red Impulse” exhibition that I curated and co-organized for Propeller. Cotton strips and old rusted objects were left after the “Epave & H2O Artefacts” and “Secrets de la Baie” exhibitions. Some of these pieces were used to build the textures in the Red Revival Paintings.
The theme of RED evoked for me years of working intensely in research with placentae, umbilical cords and blood samples from patients to study a vascular genetic disorder for which I had discovered the underlying gene. The preparation of these artworks was guttural, spontaneous and fulfilling both my creative artistic and scientific aspirations.
Nebulae
The “Out of this World” exhibition at Propeller was organized to celebrate the 150 years of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. “Crab Nebula, Homage to Dr. Robert Garrison” and “N66, NGC346, in memory of Bob Garrison” were inspired from Hubble Telescope images from 2005.
The Crab Nebula Messier 1 is a Supernova Remnant of a Milky Way Nebula 6500 light years away. N66, NGC346, represents a dynamic star-forming region in space, some 210,000 light years away in the Small Magellanic Cloud, itself a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way.
I dedicated these painting to the memory of a dear friend, Dr. Robert Garrison, a prominent figure in Canadian Astronomy, and a Past President of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. Bob was on the Faculty of the Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics at the University of Toronto for 40 years. He served as Associate Director of the David Dunlap Observatory and for 28 years traveled to Chile as the Director of the University’s Southern Observatory. His passion for Astronomy inspired many and he embraced life with enthusiasm, energy and joy.
