Looking at reflections

When we got the theme “Reflection” I was in the middle of an artist residency. This residency was close to my hometown, on the coast of Nova Scotia. The setting was beautiful, I worked in a barn overlooking the ocean and an inlet. I was working there every day for four weeks, looking out over the water, sometimes in bright sunlight, and sometimes in cloudy, overcast weather, and once during a thunder storm.

The water looks different in all those different settings, the colour changes and sometimes there are white caps whipped up by the wind. Thinking about reflection just led to one interpretation for me, and that was the obvious “reflection on water” theme.

During my residency I was able to delve deeply into mono printing on fabric. This led to some experimentation to see if I could print some reflections using a large Plexiglas plate. I was happy with the results and those fabrics I made there will be featured in my finished piece.

The community aspect fell into place easily. Not only was this artist residency sponsored by my community, but I was also able to work as an artist in my community and share the process with lots of people. The barn that was my studio is adjacent to an old heritage home that also serves as a restaurant.

Each Friday during the summer month the local community offers a traditional Acadian lunch there. The local women come in a day or two before and start the preparations for the food, which is traditional local fare like fish chowder, ham and beans, or fish cakes. They feed up to 150 people on those occasions. Locals and tourists from all over the world come together to eat. And those visitors often stopped in the barn to see what I was doing in there. There were lots of opportunities to share my process and finished pieces, which was wonderful. This piece ended up being a tribute to my oceanside community that supports artists in a meaningful way.