“Tangled Destinies”, 2019,  is both an artwork, and the title of my upcoming solo show at the Richmond Hill Centre for the Performing Arts, Ontario, Canada.  

They both explore the passage of time, and how what was once a sacred or precious document, object, or similar, is discarded, and has now found its way into a narrative and a new life.  

This artwork started with a beautiful antique box I found at an auction, in the basement of a pastors house.  It already looked as if it had lived several lives, and the size of the openings were challenge at first, as they were much bigger than the printers trays and boxes I had in my studio, but ended up being wonderful to work with.  The wood piece on top has been waiting in my studio for about 10 years, hoping to find a perfect home, and now she has.

The theme took a long time to come together, as with most of my work.  Other than commissions, there isn’t usually a finite vision as to what will evolve, it’s a journey through my collections, with influences from what is going on in the world, and what finds its way into my life at the time.  Sometimes I’m drawn to a certain patina, or image the ephemera has, and it ends up reinforcing the overall narrative in an uncanny way.  The work starts taking a direction of their own at some point, and I almost feel as if I have a partner in the creative process.  This one was no different.

After testing out many different placements of the larger objects, the work begins of figuring out the backgrounds.  With so much to choose from, it’s fun to find interesting juxtapositions, and this speaks to how we are intertwined in time and space.   See if you can spot any of these items….an antique beet seed package, 1890’s ads,  Black Diamond mandolin strings (D string), and a headless horseman. Antique playing cards from Prague. Antique money behind the Greek statue, seashells, vintage Bingo, antique dolls (whose eyes open and close when vertical or horizontal).   Antique receipt (lion graphic), vintage milk bottle caps, handmade clay baby face, vintage ticket for May 24 in Toronto, mortar rounds from WWI, Vimy Ridge.  Shell casings, antique Monopoly houses from 1936, vintage and antique metal soldiers from various cultures, fossils, pearls, RAF WWII button clasp, vintage metal tank and rocket, vintage plastic eagle from Baltimore, Monkey shoulder monkeys from scotch bottle, a lock and key, crayfish from Christian Island (Georgian Bay, Ontario),  vanilla extract bottle, food stamps, vintage domino piece, antique key, 1940’s women’s advertising labels, wooden ruler, metal advertising pins, 1890’s train ad, antique children’s book passage, rusted washers and bolts, vintage typewriter and compass, and so much more.