Artist Biography

Susan spends much of her life doing legal work so she embraces the liberty and creativity that photography affords her. She has no formal training in either art or photography but she has eagerly embarked on a journey of self-education.  In her photography, Susan attempts to demonstrate her interest in the passage of time through photographing weathered architectural details, cemeteries and nature.  Recently she has been involved in photographing Waterloo Region’s industrial past.  Her series includes highlights from her travels and her exploration of the past.

Artist Statement 

“Time and memory are true artists; they remould reality nearer to the heart’s desire.”

John Dewey

My photography is governed by an interest in capturing the passage of time, be it seasons or centuries, in the architecture that surrounds us.  My current work includes studies of former factories in Waterloo Region which served specific purposes yesterday, and which may be revitalized today.  Before we proceed with their revitalization, we must appreciate their past.

Cemeteries also speak to me of the passage of time and of the significance of memory.  I have photographed cemeteries, large and small; new and old in southern Ontario and in Mexico.

In my recent photography I have attempted to capture moments from the past as reflected in Old World architecture.  I have a particular interest in medieval history and architecture, and my work includes studies of medieval French abbeys. These abbeys resound with the peace of a time and a life, long past.

To contact Susan:
email:susancampbell@bell.blackberry.net

Artist Statement:

My work begins with informal explorations of various materials’ properties
and how I can apply stitch to them. It then extends by considering my
personal connection to the material and through intuitive combination, I
create innovative fibre art. I strive for a visual interplay between texture,
colour and shadow.

In my current work, I combine manipulating fibre with the traditional
process of encaustic wax. I am intrigued with capturing fibre in an enduring
form with beeswax and resin. My pieces focus on my personal vocabulary of
the materials and their elements. This intentional blending of the warmth
of fibre with the encapsulation of hardened wax reveals an unique mergence
of mediums.

Artist Biography:

Nancy Yule is a self-taught fibre artist who challenges herself with breaking
tradition and exploring new combinations. In 2010, at the Cambridge
Centre for the Arts she had a solo exhibition entitled, “Random Acts of
Stitchery”.

In 2011 her work was exhibited in the Hard Twist: Obsession exhibition at
the Gladstone Hotel in Toronto, ON. In 2012, her art pieces will be shown
at The Gallery at Sheridan Institute, Oakville ON Memento mori, Common
Thread International exhibition and The Gallery Queen Elizabeth Park
Community and Cultural Centre, Oakville ON Quiet Zone, Common
Thread International exhibition.

Nancy Yule is a long-time resident of Cambridge, ON with her family and
pets. Her art is currently displayed and sold in local galleries and art shows.
Her art pieces have been bought and sent around the world.

To contact Nancy:

website: www.nancyyule.com
email: nancy@nancyyule.com
phone: 519-622-6744

Artist Statement

I use the medium of painting to investigate the structure of perception and how we understand the world by taking a cue from the strange imagery of reflections present in daily life. Usually, our minds automatically ‘fill in the blanks’ to conform incoming information to our worldview. However, the act of viewing a painting slows this experience down as we tend to look more closely. By exploring ambiguous images that exist on the edge of recognition, viewers are forced to think critically about what they are seeing. We tend to dislike being unable to identify what we are seeing and often our first reaction is to make an interpretation of that which is unknown. Partially recognizable images create an unsettling feeling of familiarity and a desire to know what is depicted in order to remove the uncomfortable sense of doubt. The painted surface becomes an area to project upon and reflect back the gap between our confidence in the truth of our perceptions and their constructed and fallible nature. I am interested in things that cast doubt on what ordinarily passes for reality and opening the possibility to alternative patterns of thinking. The medium of painting is a fitting tool as it echoes the structure of perceptions – it is a construct but has the ability to produce the effects of reality.  

Biography

Jen Weber went to the University of Guelph and graduated in 2011with a BA honours in Studio Art, specializing in Painting. Over the course of 2010 to 2011, Weber participated in numerous shows in the Zavitz Gallery at the university. In 2011 she won the Painting Faculty Award, as well as an overall Honourable Mention, in the School of Fine Art and Music’s 43rd annual Juried Art Show. She has also participated in Emergency – An Emerging Artist Show and Mentoring Program and won 3rd place in the Shirley Dilworth Jaychuck Painting Competition at the Elora Centre for the Arts. Most recently Weber has had a solo exhibition of her work displayed as part of the Woolwich Local Art Program.

To contact Jen:

email: jen@jenweber.ca
address: 12 Ernst St. Elmira ON N3B 1K5
website: www.jenweber.ca
phone: 519.807.6056

Biography

Nicole Waddick is a multi-disciplinary artist. Her current paintings and sculptures are inspired by the landscapes of Southern Alberta and Saskatchewan that she visited during an artist residency at the Shaw International Centre for Contemporary Ceramics at Medalta in Medicine Hat, Alberta, in July 2011.
In the spring of 2012, Nicole had solo shows at the Cambridge Centre of the Arts and the Carnegie Gallery in Dundas. She was a member of UpTown Gallery in Waterloo Town Square from 2009 to 2012. She has been a member of the Waterloo Potters’ Workshop since 2011. She teaches painting at Waterloo Community Arts Centre in the Button Factory.
Nicole graduated with an Interdisciplinary BA from Carleton University. Her degree spanned the fields of Art History, Cultural Studies and Industrial Design. She studied painting and illustration at the Ontario College of Art and Design.

Artist’s Statement

I am inspired by nature and by the unique properties of the medium I am working in.
I play with opposing visual elements. I contrast straight with curved; precise with loose; light with dark. The juxtaposition of opposing elements increases the strength of each element and the dramatic impact of the artwork.
I consider an artwork successful when all the parts contribute to the whole and there is nothing superfluous.
My current sculptures are inspired by the unique geological formations I visited in Alberta and Saskatchewan in July 2011. The Land Plant Amalgam series is based on the rolling grasslands of Southwestern Saskatchewan and the shapes of the spore bearing apothecia of the lichen that proliferates in the harsh conditions there. The River Worn Rock series is based on a deposit of slate on the banks of the Oldman River at the base of the Rockies that are eroded by the spring floods each year.
I begin my sculptures with a specific place or idea in mind, but as the work continues the sculpture evolves into a composition in its own right. The aim of the work shifts to making a sculpture that has balance and grace.

To contact Nicole:

website: www.nicolewaddick.ca
email: nwaddick@gmail.com
phone: 519-744-7366

Biography

Denise Strong is a visual artist, photographer and active supporter of the arts in Kitchener Waterloo. She was born in the Netherlands, where she obtained a degree in Hotel Management. In 2005 she opened “behind the Red Door Gallery and Studio” where she supported and showed the work of local emerging artists, held group shows and also exhibited her own work. At present her paintings and photographs are exhibited throughout the Kitchener Waterloo area and she is represented in corporate and private collections throughout Canada.

Artist Statement

Trees are an essential link to human survival. They prevent erosion by being deeply rooted in our fertile soil and their canopies shade us from the sun, while providing oxygen through the absorption of carbon dioxide. Our trees shelter birds, small animals and insects and decaying leaves provide nutrients to the soil.
Yet time and time again we lay this natural resource to waste with unregulated cutting and burning, thereby slowly destroying an essential key to our survival on earth.
These photos expose the beauty and patterns of bark, aiming to remind us to treasure this natural resource. Strong yet fragile and as varied as only nature can be, trees remind us to pause and reflect on their sustaining beauty and the essential role they play in our life.
September, 2012

To contact Denise:

address: 287 Shakespeare Drive Waterloo, ON, N2L 2T9
phone: 519 885-0757
email: strong.denise@bell.net

Artist Statement

The selected images displayed here are from the series Southwardly, an exploration of the
mundane and everyday places that inhabit the American landscape. Being influenced by
photographers such as Phil Bergerson and Jeff Brouws, and the writing of J.B Jackson, my work in Southwardly is focused on how the design of human based landscapes create a sense of place (or nonplace), and how that sense of place develops social identity. My work in the series seeks to move beyond the mythical and romantic images that litter the canon of American landscape imagery and focus on the new landscapes being created by the continued growth of the United States.

Biography

Patrick Stieber grew up in rural southern Ontario before moving to Toronto to study photography at Ryerson University. After struggling to maintain the energy and passion for photography that had taken him to Ryerson, Stieber moved to Kitchener, where he felt the environment was more conducive for his creativity. Having completed his BFA from Ryerson University Patrick Stieber continues to live and work in Kitchener.

To contact Patrick:

address: 135 Mill Street
phone: 226-600-0458
email: patrickstieber@gmail.com

Biography

Bill Schwarz is a lawyer carrying on an active law practice in Cambridge, Ontario with his law partners, Bob Pettitt and Carly Hills. He graduated with a Doctor of Jurisprudence from the University of Toronto in 1966 and was admitted to the Law Society of Upper Canada in 1968. Born and raised for the first seventeen years of his life in Regina and Tyvan, Saskatchewan, he won his first colouring contest at the age of five! This burst of glory was interrupted for fifty years by school and his law practice. However, genius can never be suppressed! His smouldering interest in art was re-kindled in 1997 when his wife, Nancy, suggested they take an art course. In the pursuit of excellence his artistic skills continue to be developed at the Ontario College of Art and Design, the Dundas Valley School of Art, the Homer Watson House & Gallery, the Cambridge Library and Gallery, the Georgian Bay School of Art, the Fallbrook School of Art, and by attending artists’ workshops and painting trips in Canada, the United States, Mexico and Europe.

Artist Statement

Art helps me find the balance to what I was trained to do, what I want to do and what I see around me. As a lawyer, I am trained to look at facts, to study detail to find the core of an issue. Often in my practice, what may appear simple may be infinitely more complex. With my art, I want to do the opposite. The world around me – landscape, architecture, people – is a complexity of planes, texture and subtlety of colour. I want to make this intricacy simple. I feel that my art is a quest to find a balance between the detail I am trained to find and the simplicity I want to achieve.

I have a personal and abiding interest in the urban landscape. This means architecture of all sorts, from buildings and boats to vehicles or machinery. I am fascinated by the effect that nature has on this architecture . . . weathering it or breaking it down to give it a unique character. I am captivated by the idea that when architecture is new it looks essentially the same as any other architecture in the same category . . . time gives it its unique quality and characteristics.

To contact Bill:

address: 11 Thorne Street, P.O. Box 129, Cambridge, ON N1R 5S9
phone: 519-621-2450
email: wkschwarz@gmail.com

Biography

Christina Preece attended the University of Western Ontario, graduating with a degree in Finance and Economics.  She went on to attend the University of Waterloo, receiving an Honours Bachelor of Fine Arts.
Christina’s main focus is landscape painting, using the natural world as a tool for contemplation.  Her work evolves from a combination of personal photographs and imagination, and intends to translate the play of light, reflection and air with a sense of heightened reality.  
Christina lives in Southern Ontario, and balances the demands of family life with the need for solitude and time to paint.

Artist Statement

I am interested in visually capturing the introspective feeling acquired when one quietly and intently observes their surroundings. I want to explore the quality of nature that is felt as much as seen.  
I paint landscape ‘moments’ that I have first captured with a photograph, which I, personally, find beautiful and meditative; my hope is that the viewer can relate in kind.
With busy, modern lifestyles, we overlook much while we hustle from place to place; I want to take the time to inspect something so closely that I am intimate with it, and through my paintings, perhaps I can encourage others to do the same … to pause for a moment to be open and present.

To contact Christina:

email:  bpreece@rogers.com
website:  www.christinapreece.com
phone: (519) 896-9377

Biography

James Nye was born in Kitchener and grew up in Ajax and Pickering. After graduating from high school he found himself with no ambition in his life and no insight into where it would take him. Nye moved to Vancouver Island where a slow and steady process of awakening took place. This is when he discovered painting. Within two years he was studying art full time at the Victoria College of Art. Nye graduated in 2002 and has since moved back to Ontario. Kitchener has been his home now since 2004.

Artist’s Statement

In Nye’s paintings the beauty is in looking and not necessarily in what you are looking at. So whether they consist of clouds, graffiti or people, means little. What matters to him is how these things are given shape through the fundamental principles of light.
His paintings are rooted in the realist, descriptive tradition of oil painting. Nye tries to paint honestly, accurately and economically. Using a camera to capture what he sees, fleeting moments of light, quick glances. The photograph outlines the scene and becomes the starting point for him to express his ideas. What is uninteresting and what is beautiful are the questions posed to viewers.
This ongoing series of paintings titled ‘Manifest Expression’ is a study of visual reactions to an environment. The paintings are a synthesis of found graffiti and the landscape it inhabits. Nye’s aim is to document and share these modern day cave paintings.
The paintings feature two visual languages that coincide simultaneously. One language is the graffiti someone was compelled to create, the other language is the landscape or the location of the graffiti. These coinciding visual languages and their synthesis in paint, explore the ideas of creative expression, identity and territory.
Aesthetically the paintings are reminiscent of reflections, where colour overlaps form. The juxtaposition of graffiti with the landscape offers a new way of seeing both. Equally visible, each element can be focused on individually, but will always revert back to the physical synthesis of the two. Nye believes that in this state, the evidence of beauty is revealed.
September, 2012.

To contact James:

email: eimajeyn@gmail.com
website: www.jamesnye.com
twitter: @eimajeyn
phone: 519-742-7786
address: 1-20 Ontario St. N., Kitchener, ON. N2H 4Y4

Biography

Carrie Musselman is a longtime local resident who is beginning her career as an artist having graduated in 2010 from the Department of Fine Arts at the University of Waterloo. Since this time she has been represented by Canvas Gallery in Toronto, and is currently a part of an exhibition facilitated by WalterFedy called Local Landscapes. As a resident of the region of Waterloo, she has a keen awareness of the structural changes in the city and wishes to draw attention to both these changes and the often unnoticed and unique places located within it. Additionally, Musselman is interested in capturing and conveying a moment, time of day or aspect of light that captures her eye.

Artist Statement

Landscape is about place, and all places have a history, a past and present. My work explores the interaction of past and present, when preservation meets innovation, and when heritage is assimilated within a modernized or restructured environment. Kitchener-Waterloo is my space and it is in the process of renewal and transformation. Although this region has lost its industrial base, the places remain through retrofitting, rebuilding or adapting to be sustained.
Even though these spaces and issues are regional, they also reflect what is happening beyond my home. I conflate these issues through painting, rebuilding and rethinking the spaces around me: I pour, scrape and drag materials across the surface to change, and likewise rebuild a painted landscape that mirrors what is happening in my region.

To contact Carrie:

email: carriemusselman@live.com
phone: (519) 893-9874