Wild Goose Studio,
Blyth Ontario

Across from the Blyth Festival Art Gallery two artists created Wild Goose Studio for both their own works and those of local artists. I was fortunate to exhibit eight memory boxes at their location at 432 Queen Street in Blyth in August, 2022.

Turquoise Tacks

You can see in “Turquoise Tacks” my first attempt to use repetition as a design element, along with a bolder colour choice for a background. My aim is also to put older Found Objects with more contemporary objects. I used two white canvas squares inside the box frame to reflect the larger white frame. The small tacks seem suited to repetitive designs. I would like to find more assorted sizes and shapes of tacks to explore this idea in the future. It may be that over 1,100 types of tacks have been manufactured.

Door Lock Barnboard

“Door Lock Barnboard” has a more unified theme than I usually create. The background is a faux pattern of distressed wood, meant to complement the door lock covers and single larger lock. I carry over some repetition as in the memory box described above, but this time I don’t use as many different types of Objects. The door lock covers came from a store in St. Jacob’s which specializes in old doors and windows. www.artefacts.ca

Wonder Child

          One of my older pieces designed in 2019 was a centrepiece of the exhibit at Wild Goose Studio. I used a book cover with unusual colours as both a design element and for the title, “Wonder Child.” The dark blues and greens meshed with the deep wood colour of the frame and the wooden Objects. I like the finished look of the graphic component of the illustrations and typefaces on the book covers juxtaposed with the rougher industrial elements of the shoe form and other tools. A hint of gold lettering ties in with the warm wood tones.