Gary – Memory Box Art

Blyth Festival Art Gallery

From May until September 2022, local artists were invited by the Blyth Gallery Exhibition Committee to submit two pieces for display at the Bainton Gallery in the Blyth Community Memorial Hall. I choice two works that highlighted a new direction in using multiples of the same Object to create a pattern in a memory box.

Brown Keyholes with Hinge

For “Brown Keyholes with Hinge,” I employed the repetition of metal keyhole covers to emphasize the attractive shapes of the brass plates. The negative space of the keyhole section is also unusual and interesting. The covers were meant to protect the wood around the keyhole opening as well as align the key with the keyhole. Keyhole covers could be plain or elaborate. They were also called “escutcheons;” but “cover” is a more commonly used word.

Pastel Keyholes

I played with the notion of colour in the second memory box, “Pastel Keyholes,” since the Objects are still partially covered with old colours of paint. The tints are all pale, which is interesting, meaning they could have come from one house that was painted in light colours. Door hardware on older doors eventually became painted over, and I do not know if the beauty that we see today in the brass or other metals and the design was appreciated. It could be these utilitarian Objects eventually faded into the background, much like today’s door hardware might. I like to think that the manufacturers made the hardware both durable and with fine design elements that we can appreciate today.

Wild Goose Studio

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.

Zenfire Pottery & Mercantile

Zenfire Pottery and Mercantile
St. Mary’s Ontario

Selling memory boxes in St. Mary’s fits perfectly with my notions of nostalgia and looking back. The town has a beautifully well-preserved 19^th century downtown: its nickname is “The Stone Town.” There was a broad industrial base in and near the town, making for a connection between industrial Found Objects and the area. I visited Zenfire to look at the owner, Angela’s, pottery, and other retail selections. While not a gallery, all the items for sale are handmade by local artists. The Memory Boxes I chose to sell at Zenfire were custom made to reflect not only the town, but also to correspond in style and size to what was already in the store.

Round and Yellow Tin

“Round with Yellow Tin” is a study in circles. The colour focal point is the bright yellow lid from Dr. W.A Chase’s Ointment, touted as “antiseptic, soothing and healing.” The lid features a solemn bearded gentleman with glasses, meant to look both trustworthy and knowledgeable. In 1904, Dr. Chase also sold Nerve Food, Liver Cure, Backache Plasters and Syrup of Linseed. The tin’s bright colour would have made it stand out from other boxes and vials, which would have had had darker colouring and black ink. The tin dates from 1923-1943 and was made by the Chase Medicine Company in Canada. Pocket watch parts, gaskets and other round objects complete the design.

Saint Mary’s Bottle Cap

I was sure that the memory box titled “St. Mary’s Bottle Cap” would generate local interest. I placed a green and white bottle cap from Hooper’s Dairy of St. Mary’s in a key spot. The dairy seems to have been large and prosperous industry in the area, open as late as 1966. Angela told me that two groups of people had noticed the bottle cap and a discussion had started about local businesses. I added more colour with the addition of a Shirriff food coloring box and a Club House Alum box. Other small industrial tools bring a warm glow of wood to complete the piece.

Toronto Artist’s Alliance

I conceived of combining objects that are green and metal pieces of various shapes and sizes for “Toronto Artist’s Alliance.” The title derives from a black and white postcard which has an unusual photographic angle of the building which housed the Alliance. I used the reverse of another postcard to highlight the penmanship of the era. The green items naturally form a tonal overlay, with the greens all in the same range.

Goderich Co-Op Gallery

Located in Goderich Ontario, Goderich Co-Op Gallery is a collective enterprise with over 40 participating artists. Categories of art include stained glass, needlework, jewelry, oil and watercolour painting and photography. Each artist has a separate section of their own to display their art. The Gallery rotates the placement of the works every six months. Artists mostly live close by and work in the gallery, which is open Wednesday to Saturday. The CoOp started in 2002 and is located at 54 Courthouse Square in the centre of Goderich. The Gallery jury accepted my work in 2019. I sell original pastel works, pastel prints, and memory boxes.

Since I started exhibiting at the Goderich Gallery, my memory boxes have keenly interested customers captivated by the found objects with local markings, specifically from places such as St. Mary’s, Goderich, and Guelph. Four pieces I have sold there were early work of my experiment in memory boxes and found objects. In the Gallery section of this web site, you can see photographs of these pieces, labelled “SOLD.”

Early 20^th C # 1

In “Early 20^th C # 1,” I made my first attempt to combine antique Found Objects in a two-dimensional work. I was attracted to the beautiful worn and yellowed colour and texture of the rulers. They were used as practical and low-tech advertising pieces, an early variation of today’s digital billboards and pop-up ads. They remind us of small businesses, hardworking entrepreneurs and eking out a living by handing out a simple marketing tool like a ruler. Of course, the wood is such a contrast to the plastic objects of the present day. This is one of the few memory boxes where I used an existing mat behind the objects. I matched black and white industrial photos with the mat openings.

The brass scale is the centre piece of this work: also known as a spring scale, mechanical scale, or fish scale. These handy weight measurers were first introduced when springs could be widely manufactured, around 1770. They replaced balance scales in many applications and eliminated the need for weights, using gravity instead. Their attraction for me is the shine and warm colour of the brass, the interesting, curved hook at one end, the graphic scale and numbering on the flat part, and the large circular piece with which to hang the scale.

Bicycle and Round Tool

I sold a smaller, desk-top style piece at the Gallery in 2020. With a colourful background and striking set of round objects, it was called “Bicycle and Round Tool.” I used the round shape of a vintage jar opener in conjunction with a watch face casing to create an interlocking set of round shapes. The filigreed, decorative metal frame makes a contrast to the utilitarian material of the tool. I used two deep blue paper swatches to add colour and texture.

Early 20^th C # 2

“Early 20^th C # 2” was sold in the summer of 2022. I used the wooden rulers in a comparable way, but this time combined them with dictionary excerpts and watch parts. The purchaser recognized one of the names on the rulers as a former place where he worked. The memory was one he wanted to keep in his home.

Canadian Speller

Finally, “Canadian Speller” is the first memory box I created using old book covers. I thought the deep red of the covers plus the wood and antique pieces resulted in a pleasing composition, especially with the modern, plain frame. I used the sparkly gold watch parts as a differentiation in materials with the matte book covers. Legislation was passed in Ontario in 1884 mandating that schoolbooks were written and published here, and other provinces and the federal government followed suit. These early books are a unique part of our Canadian heritage in both publishing and writing.

Dale’s Antiques

Dale’s is a large and eclectic store located on Highway 21 near The Pinery Provincial Park. We often stopped there on our way to the park, or to the Lambton Heritage Museum nearby. As well as custom-made Mennonite furniture, Dale’s has an extensive selection of Canadian and American antiques. After I bought about ten small objects there to use in my memory boxes, the owner, Todd, showed an interest in what I was doing with them. He looked at photographs of my work, and soon after I was dropping off eight finished pieces to display at his store. I hope you will enjoy the following background information on the works now on sale at Dale’s.

Tin Ceiling Triangles

found object art — Tin Ceiling Triangles

The work “Tin Ceiling Triangles” contains pieces of tin that builders used on ceilings throughout buildings in Ontario, and in other parts of North America. Tin was an inexpensive alternative to elaborate plaster ceilings, which were very labour intensive and required specialized skills. These ceilings were beyond the financial means of most people, but the mass produced, patterned tin pieces were easily installed by retailers and homeowners. Now we see the beauty in any patterned ceiling since plain ceilings are the norm. I have arranged the tin pieces to highlight the other mid-1800’s design elements from our area in the box.

Many Boxes

“Many Boxes” was inspired by small boxes of shoe tacks that came from Todd’s store. The boxes have deep rich colours, unusual shapes, typefaces that recall the past and which arouse a feeling of nostalgia. These small boxes were an integral part of daily life: this early advertising on the outside of containers was both creative and attractive. Now that the boxes have aged, and the cardboard has mellowed in colour and texture, I find them interesting building blocks for memory boxes.

Metal Pieces

“Metal Pieces” has an incredibly unique background! My sister Susan found the large rusty piece on the road near her house in Casselman. She sent it to me by mail, and I happened to have a picture frame that was almost identical in colour to the rusty hue. It seemed very intuitive to put the two items together, and the match is quite arresting. I found other items that complement the distinctive hue that pull together a narrative of erosion and tarnishing, and the beauty in the colour of decomposition. I also used small frames within frames to highlight the rectangle shapes and the wood.

St Jacob’s Bridge, Thousand Islands, Toronto Artist’s Alliance

“St. Jacob’s Bridge,” “Thousand Islands,” and “Toronto Artist’s Alliance” are all titles I chose for three more memory boxes hung at Dale’s. Each memory box contains a postcard of that same place in Ontario. The postcards are handsome depictions of sites from the era 1910-1914. I realized they would make a good central feature of a memory box, because of the photography on the front side and the old stamps and handwriting on the back. Postcards have now almost disappeared from use, and I see them as an art form. Postcard collecting is popular because of unusual photography, colour tinting or views of places that have long disappeared or radically changed. I like the simplicity of the cards, which were a fast way to send a message, before the advent of the phone camera and texting.

The three memory boxes just described have other content in common. I discovered a box of old Meccano pieces at the Pinery Market this summer. Meccano was originally a British toy manufacturer who made pieces for kids to construct models of bridges and machinery. I was attracted to the pieces’ uniformity and colours: some deep greens and reds as well as gold circular parts. The Meccano parts evoke handmade toys and an era of teaching-type toys. They look used and there could be a story behind well-spent hours of play.

Exhibits

On the pages in this section we can see where my work has been or is currently exhibited. To get news of where and when my work may be seen in your area sign up for my newsletter.