Tag: AOM Gallery

The Medium and the Message

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This work was created for a solo exhibition at The AOM Gallery in 2012. Each image was designed on an iPhone 4 using various apps, including Brushes, ArtStudio, and 100 Cameras in 1. Upon completion, the file was emailed to my computer for larger viewing, and then subsequently sent to a printer, matted, and framed. More than half of the works were done in bed late at night. 

Click here to view the works individually.

The Medium and the Message

Artist Statement

 The Medium:

Smartphone technology and software applications (apps) have finally turned science fiction into reality. From children’s games, to sophisticated NASA orbit mission trackers, it seems everything is now possible in one hand-held device!

Photography and digital art have traditionally required expensive equipment and complex computer programs. Now, professional quality work can be achieved on a portable phone with a five-dollar app. As an avid techie, my phone has become a small canvas on which to explore big ideas.

The Message:

Themes of transience and life changes are recurring subjects in my work. Family cycles and dynamics are fragile, mysterious, and often rife with memory and longing for what was, or for what could have been—whether the course of things was prematurely altered through loss or fractured relationships, or fully and naturally realized over time. The human condition means that none of us is immune to pondering the unfolding of that which is our life.

Nature is teeming with symbols that reflect our own experiences. Naked trees, abandoned nests, birds on a wire… all reveal a hint of meaning if we open our hearts and minds to it. They have endured as ideal subjects for communicating abstract ideas and emotions throughout history, and poets and artists continue to strive to free the silent universal voice that is ours to embrace and celebrate.

All images in this exhibition were created on an iPhone and printed on archival paper.

 

The Nest as Metaphor

Corvus Familia Nidus

The English language is peppered with metaphors, but we don’t often think in terms of visual metaphors. We hear people describing so-and-so’s nesting instincts when preparing to start a family or buy a house; we hear about the empty nest syndrome when children have gone off to university or other parts of the world; and of course most of us have grown up knowing the expression, “Nature calls.”

Experiencing nature is a delight for the senses–it is a place where smells replace words, and where colour and sound enter the psyche. It is a place of wonder and wisdom.

Corvus Familia Nidus was created on the iPhone 4 using various apps including Brushes and ArtStudio. It was part of my solo exhibition, entitled  The Medium and the Message, at the AOM Gallery in May 2012.

Smoke Before the Fire

Smoke on the Water

Sometimes we know things without knowing that we know them. On occasion, these things have not happened yet, but our knowing manifests itself in some mysterious way. Smoke on the Water was created several weeks before the big fires in northern Ontario ravaged forests and wildlife, and threatened cities in May 2012. The piece just sort of happened, and when I first saw the result, a fleeting hint of fear grabbed me in the chest.

Indeed, little did I know that fires would be burning all over Ontario the May long weekend. Timmins was surrounded by fires, all of Kirkland Lake was on evacuation notice, and even areas around Ski Club Road were evacuated here in North Bay.

Smoke on the Water was created on the iPhone 4 using various apps including Brushes and ArtStudio. It was part of my solo exhibition, entitled  The Medium and the Message, at the AOM Gallery in May 2012.

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