Chez Nous at GRACe, 144 Gaukel St, Kitchener - May 3 to 31, 2024 (Copy)

A Group Collaboration on the theme of HOME

ManChoi Chow | Arlene McCarthy | Tom Samolczyk | Val Thomson | Anne Williamson | Roger Young

Opening Reception Friday, May 3, 4-8 pm

Thursdays May 9, 16, 23, 30 — 3 to 6 pm

Saturdays May 4, 11, 18, 25 — 11 am to 2 pm

Victoria Day, May 20 — 11 am to 2 pm

‘Chez Nous’

I collaborated with 5 other retired professionals from education, finance and health care to created this exhibit over the past 18 months. Using various media (acrylics, water-colour and photography) accompanied by prose and poetry, we have created an interesting mixed media exhibit. Each artist explores the theme of HOME drawing upon our own life and professional experiences to reveal what HOME may mean to us and to others. Revealing that HOME is more than four walls and a roof, but a living and dynamic process.

Homeless

I began with ideas of “my home”, and then considered what home means to those who don’t have a place to call “home”, as the crisis of homelessness has exploded all around us.

Like many others, I have been disturbed by the crisis of adequate affordable housing in just about every community in Canada, and definitely “at home” in Kitchener. As an artist, I want to use this exhibit as a means to engage with this social challenge.

a.b.t.c

“Home is where you love and where you are loved,” said Father Toby when I spoke to him about A Better Tent City, part of the response to many residents in Waterloo Region who are precariously housed.

Father Toby Collins, CR, Pastor of St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Kitchener, guided me through A Better Tent City (ABTC) in December. ABTC is home to a community of residents who are underhoused. There are supervised facilities on site for food, shelter and support.

“unforgiven”

Brad, who is site supervisor at A Better Tent City, spoke about how many chose to return after experiencing isolation, living in alternate housing because they miss the community at A Better Tent City where they feel safe and cared for and experience forgiveness not judgement.

Home for all

This further led me to reflect on the common home for all who share the planet.

Again, I am reminded that we are inter-connected and inter-dependent, no matter human, animal, bird, aquatic, insect, vegetation, or microbial.

inter-dependence

We thrive or we perish, together!

A hard lesson, to be sure, that we can no longer ignore. While looking for solutions to homelessness is daunting, I am emboldened that crisis is both danger and opportunity.

Natural Beauty of Autumn

‘Liminal’ - Chiba (Japanese maple) harbinger of winter in our front garden, Kitchener, ON Canada

Autumn or Fall conjures up for me mixed feelings. Fall is a happy time for me celebrating thanksgiving; many, many birthdays in our extended family; gorgeous beauty in nature; time to put the garden to sleep… I even tolerate Halloween! However, I also feel the loss of the warmth of summer, almost always wondering if I made the most of the short season; coming to terms that I am one year older, and still getting used to the idea of being an “elder”; preparing myself for hibernation till next spring… From the perspective of an art photographer, the season is full of promise, capturing that ‘perfect’ fall scene, discovering the hidden late blooming gems of the garden like tricyrtis, fall crocuses, catkins on the locust and red berries on the aronias, and being blown away by the brilliant burgundy, burnt orange and popping golds of the native shrubs and trees that surround our home. A few personal and family happenings sidetracked me this fall, however I am grateful for life and all the parts of creation that sustain our lives, especially the nurture and love of family. This autumn I have had a much more profound experience of liminality than I can remember, amplifying the realization of transitions and being neither here nor there, in between summer/winter, young/old, wellness/sickness, even life/death. I have renewed my appreciation for who we are and what we have, here and now.

Pioneer Tower, Doon village, Kitchener, ON Canada

‘Golden Sunset’ near Paris ON Canada (available at Uptown Gallery Waterloo until January 2023)

‘Harvest Traditions’, Mennonite families harveting stooks Hawkesville ON Canada

Benjamin Road, Waterloo ON Canada

Overlooking Hidden Valley, home to endangered species and precious wet lands and woods, Kitchener ON Canada (available now until Jan 2023)