WS Gallery on the Island

We took the big trip (not so big actually - only about 2 hours away) to Manitoulin Island this past weekend to hang our first gallery at 4Elements Living Arts. We brought some watercolour paintings and prints that are now available to view and for sale on site in the Gallery and met with two lovely ladies, Sophie Edwards and Patricia Mader who are doing all kinds of land artwork and community arts initiatives. They even offer a River School partnered with Manitoulin Streams. The beauty of the Island is really its own. Kagawong in particular is a quaint little town that reminds us of the East coast. Wide open spaces, blue skies, crashing waves.

We decided to camp out for the night at Norms Campground and settled into a lot aside the lake, without a campfire (there was a fire ban) but with some vino and snacks. We awoke sleepless, with bags under our eyes. Unfortunately, we got rained out of our tent, as the wind babbled on across the lake. But, in the AM we huddled ourselves over to a cafe, Main Street Cafe where some locals chatted about the weather, and we had coffee with warm trail mix cookies. The wallpaper had roosters, there were wildflowers on the tables and a guitar sitting in the corner, very warm. Then we made our way to the gallery to place the paintings. We also visited Bridal Veil Falls which we both remember from childhood, but I recalled it with schools of salmon that filled the creek with pinks, this time it was a rainy green. But nonetheless a nice scenery.

A couple months later in October we returned to take part in the Elemental Art Festival also organized by 4Elements Living Arts. A weekend of locals and visitors sifting in and out of the lovely galleries and taking part in art workshops and events. This years’ multi-arts festival explored the theme of 'walking' as well as a world outside traditional gallery and museum spaces by emphasizing land art, performance art, music and riverside installations.

We placed our painting along the Kagawong River trail next to salmon swimming up stream, witnessed a few eagles swooping down from atop trees. We stumbled across hidden treasures or thoughtful pieces such as Matt Ceolin's flags and trace paths. It explored the cultural inscription of humans to the earth, along with connection to movement and ecology. Or Judy Martin's cloth halo path which made viewers think about the act of walking as a daily ritual and bodies, bones. All the artists including Judy Martin, Chris Turnbul, Matt Ceolin, Nate Nettleton (and us) took part in the Artist Walk and Talk, describing the layers of our work, inspirations and meanings of each piece.

Our approach was a little playful. To honour the theme, we comically explored the idea of the 'selfie stick' vs. the 'walking stick' using animal narratives and humour to bring to light sociocultural influences on how we explore nature. It was meant to touch a little on how we anthropocene (humans) tend to anthropomorphize animal creatures but also the way our tech-savvy, social-cultural world has influenced our interaction with nature. With technology, we are always attempting to capture moments in places and create personal narratives for our ‘self’ including in nature (think Instagram), which is both part of the human condition but also strange and a kind of egocentric practice. Imagine animals behaving like us! Taking selfies in the wild and capturing their hobbies, milestones and daily tasks via tech (cellphone or selfie stick). Would you follow and like. And what would you choose if you were about to head on a nature trail, a walking stick or a selfie stick?

We would like to thank curator Sophie Edwards and Patricia Mader and all of the volunteers who brought this festival together! Please do take a peek at the video highlighting the artists at Guided Art Walk & Talk.

Take care.
-WS