Floyd Kuptana and deborah harris have been collaborating together for many years.

His sculptures have inspired her drawings, collages, paintings

which have in turn inspired Floyd to expand his talents into drawing and painting.

This show documents their creative conversation to the present.

what was once in the ocean,

is found on the shore.

This installation ushers in a new exhibition, 

F e r o c i o u s   J o y 

This whale bone was found on the shores of Tuktoyaktuk, NWT in 1940,

  at the mouth of the MacKenzie River where it enters the Arctic Ocean.

What happens to the creative process when we try to repeat or reproduce it?

We may find our self stuck in the same place just spinning our wheels.

Something we can also call habit.

and the space enters us

Today artists Vivian Felsen and Floyd Kuptana showed up at the gallery ready to paint.

They managed to entice deborah harris, in spite of her resistance, to join them.

These paintings are the result of the dialogue between them.

Kuptana and harris' work are Picasso inspired.

Against all of our resistances,

justifications and reasons for why not,

some hidden, forgotten, longed for essence 

continues to be.

Trying to find the story 

as it enters from the outside in

If it comes in I will find it.

A moving stream full of images.

One floats to the surface and lets me catch it.

That one image holds a memory of the whole.

If I can begin with that slippery fish

it will lead me through to an ending.

It is always surprising 

and always known.

Sometimes, but almost never

we touch what we desire.

excerpt from 'Robert Frost at Eighty' by Peter Boyle

 Something rich comes from our conversations 

that I take home with me to ponder.

Sometimes we cannot initiate. 

Sometimes we do not want to do what we are asked to do,

or we cannot decide what of all the things we think we must do

that we can do.

We are surrounded by movement. 

Simple, mundane tasks require our attention.

They insure that we continue to engage. 

We must only agree.

                                                                                                                                                   grass in the wind

"Greensleeves was all my joy

Greensleeves was my delight

Greensleeves was my heart of gold

And who but my lady Greensleeves."

I asked him, "What kind of day do you think it is today?"

And he answered, "A little bit flat but friendly."

And so I thought maybe it looks like this.

The Collage and E.J Gold Gallery have joined the present show 'In Memory of Spring'

with what is being called -   'A Delicate Response'

The day began 

stepping on my own toes

but slowly the steps became more sure

more steady and evenly paced

one step following the next.

More than an idea.

Matthew Bates is the nephew of a dear friend of ours, Pete Corr,

who passed away this last week, February 15.

Matthew has been here from England for the last days of his uncle and after.

He has inspired the next show entitled 'In Memory of Spring'

and has left us with many of what he is calling ' floral sculptures'.

This is one of his first excursions into collage which will be part of the new work shown in the Collage Gallery.  

How much further must we go?

An immensity of blue

small enough to fit in our mouth

or to hold in our hand.

An immensity,

too vast to comprehend

  and yet infinitesimal 

                                                                                             in our sight

                                                                    Moving from the darkness towards the light

Watching the snow melt.

Working from home 

seeing the familiar in an unfamiliar way,

through the camera's lens and Sae's eyes.

                                                                                    They are windows too. 

                                                                                   Another benefit of home.                                                                         

Sometimes we have to wear armour,

spikes and thorns pointing out,

to protect the soft inside.

Today is a prickly day.

We can do things more quickly and easily when we work together.

Today we were four working together.

These are two examples by Eron Boyd (top)

and 

Vivian Felsen (lower)

The moon tonight may appear as full 

but its face has begun to move into shadow.

An almost imperceptible turning

we sometimes look up to see. 

Blowing bubbles 

like small moons rising from the deep.

Feet fluttering to propel

a slow motion turning 

along the ocean floor. 

Today is a poem

written in shadows.

Lines which speak of roots and cracks.

Ice a broken voice 

waiting to be fluid.

For now content with silence.

How can we touch something which is floating?

It can be like a question which is not easily answered.

But even the asking inspires us to stretch our understanding.

Looking from one side I think that is all there is to see. 

But life itself keeps turning,

rising and falling with the tides. 

Through time I may receive the possibility of seeing from the other side,

a picture of the world,

more expansive and complex than anything I could have imagined.

Somewhere in between

is looking.

well maybe just one touch

There is a story whispered here

stillness and movement

coming towards and going away 

from the one who stands watching

We are gathered here to remember our roots and our gentle nature.

Regular schedule resumes January 16th but check here  for surprises.

Today's youngest visitor 

learning to walk 

and explore

a whole new world. 

OnE ForTy FiVe...

a time (in the afternoon or morning)

an age!

an address (without the street name)

the number of buttons in a jar

the number of centimeters of a shorter than average person

the cost of a skill saw on sale at Canadian Tire

the size of a large herd of cows

five pennies short of three rolls

when the train departs

the page in the book facing  144

(and the number just below the very nice shoe).

In this image I recognize the object to be a chair.

I know that it is sitting on a floor.

The wall behind tells me that I can not walk forward 

but must exit the space to the left or the right.

The shadows also tell me something of the space surrounding,

of its shape and where the light is coming from. 

And it can be said that the chair recognizes me.

It has been carefully crafted for a person, such as myself, to sit upon.

In this way I am welcomed to the space.  

What is it that allows us to know where we are?

Recognition: To know 

To recognize and be recognized.

Without that we are lost.

It happened that while we were having our ongoing conversation

about this and that

and that and this,

the winter arrived

and settled all around us.

This sculpture can be seen in front of the Mars Medical Research Building

just south of College St. east of University Ave.

This week began with a lot of unknowing 

 and ended with a little bit of floating.

    Please come to our holiday reception at Gallery Arcturus 

80 Gerrard St E., (Gerrard at Church St)  2:30 - 5 pm,

Saturday December 9, 2017

   All of our five gallery spaces will be open with new work

and yummies will be served.

We are working on the exhibit 'Learning to Float'.

This is not necessarily referring to swimming or flying

but more as a way of being.

To do the work I am asked to be honest about my own experience.

I realized at this time floating seems impossible

but what if I have something to support me.

This piece is my way of teaching myself how to float.

SK 

C.S. Lewis writes:-

"My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable spirit who reveals Himself 

in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind."

We decided that what we want most today is to be able to focus on a single project and to see it proceed towards completion.

This photo is a perfect example of unfocused. It is also very beautiful and evocative because of its blurred edges and sense of movement. It is fun to see in many different ways, and to approach our projects from many different angles. That is creativity. 

High strung and tangled

how to be in the ocean

on a ship    or   as a fish

   ?

wanting to  make it easier.

Wound up

in a tight ball 

wings humming

head  pointing

no feet for landing

no stopping 

stuck

up in the air.

When you hold the ladder

I can climb higher.

Standing in the middle of too many fragments

things begun but unfinished

what piece to pick up first 

where to direct attention

overwhelmed and wanting completion 

in some corner or other

standing in the middle...

still standing.

somewhere above the tree line

a lone cow

a ladder

and a place to wait

Having made a brief trip to Tuscon for the weekend to visit with a friend 

and wondering how does the experience of a place and time faraway 

shape the here and now?

This is the answer today.

f i N d i n g  f o r m

anD

c L i m b i N g  L a d d E r s

Reception

Saturday October 21,

2:00 - 5:00 pm

Works by allen egan, jeremy gordaneer,

camie geary-martin,

sae kimura, eron boyd, deborah harris

It is very different experience making installations with forms and then trying to paint or draw them.

I would say that the act of painting is one of seeing and it allows us to discover something new.

It is a way of engaging with the forms in the intimate and also limited, space of the canvas. 

Something of a conundrum.