Stephanie Foden, winner of RMG Exposed in 2016, is on the move

By Christy Chase

Photographer Stephanie Foden is going places.

Her love for photography keeps her moving year-round and her art is getting noticed, thanks in part to the Robert McLaughlin Gallery.

The former Durham Region resident won the Best Emerging Photographer award in 2016 at RMG Exposed, which raises funds for the gallery’s free arts programs. She also won the Community Choice award.

This year, Foden was selected by curator Charlotte Hale to donate a photograph for RMG Exposed: Out of This World. Her work, ‘Northern Sky’, will be part of a live auction of 10 chosen works at the Nov. 25 event.

“I’m so happy because I’ve been a big fan of the Robert McLaughlin Gallery for years,” she said, adding she’s always found the gallery warm and welcoming.

She’s also delighted her photograph is being auctioned alongside one donated by former Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield. A photograph of Saudi Arabia he took from the International Space Station will be sold in the featured auction.

Foden’s photograph of the Northern Lights was taken in Saskatchewan last summer and is part of her RV Diaries project.

“For the last two summers, I’ve been travelling around Canada in a motorhome,” she explained. “It’s essentially about my life on the road.”

Last year, she drove from Toronto to British Columbia, documenting her journey with her camera. This year, she headed east to Newfoundland.

And she’s done both journeys in her 1987 Chevy Elite RV.

“I’m very surprised that I made it,” she said with a laugh.

She calls herself a digital nomad, splitting her time and her photography between Brazil and Canada. The RV, which can be seen in her donated photograph, is her home base during her time here.

The cold months she spends in Brazil’s northeast coastal state of Bahia, where she stayed for more than two years after touring South America. Works from her time there were featured in her solo exhibition at the RMG this past spring, earned for her win in RMG Exposed in 2016.

Foden says the award last year has definitely helped her and her career.

She’s received other recognition since but the win at the RMG was the “first significant thing” to happen in her career and she’s grateful for it.

“Winning mostly was kind of like a confidence boost. It encouraged me to keep going on the path that I’m on,” she said.

The solo show, part of the Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival, also saw her work featured in media outlets across the GTA.

This year, Photo Boite selected Foden as one of its 30 Under 30 women photographers. And her photograph taken for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation won the American Experience category in the Smithsonian Magazine photography competition. Her works can be found in galleries around the world.

The former Durham Region resident didn’t set out to be a photographer. She was studying print and broadcast journalism at college but developed a love for photography after buying a camera and backpacking through Asia one summer before graduation.

“I never pictured myself as a photographer. I never thought I was creative enough,” she said, adding what has happened is “ a lesson that you should just try it.”

She said her time in Brazil was “kind of like my education. That’s where I developed my voice, my vision.

“I shoot in colour. I have an eye for light, and particularly dramatic, beautiful lighting. My stories and photos have a positive angle.”

She’ll head back to Brazil in December and when she returns in the spring, she and her RV will head to the United States.

RMG Exposed: Out of This World takes place at the gallery, 72 Queen St., Oshawa, Nov. 25 from 7 to 10 p.m. There will be a featured auction, live auction of curated works, and a silent auction of works selected from submissions from national and American photographers. There will also be space-themed events. Those in attendance get to vote for the Community Choice award. Tickets are available at the gallery and at www.rmgexposed.net where you can also find more information about the event.

Christy Chase is a long-time resident of Oshawa and a writer. She enjoys exploring her artistic side as a volunteer at the RMG.

Not your typical art class

The RMG is rolling out 21st century learning

21st century learning is an exciting, new and impactful educational model that’s developed around an understanding of 21st century skills and knowledge; like the role technology plays in day-to-day life, being adaptable and collaborative, thinking independently and critically, and effective communication.

We’re really thrilled to be bringing this learning model to the RMG’s programming. With this new cross-curricular approach to art making, kids explore big issues with depth and meaning through a variety of imaginative exercises, sharing ideas and discussions enable them to think critically. They’ll be up and moving, acting, singing, sharing and exploring their creative capacity.

By encouraging a ‘culture of participation’ and inviting collective contributions and innovations, we’re hoping to inspire people to take control of their learning through creative and artistic expression.

Check out our new and upcoming programming for kids and adults here.

In Memory of Lotti Thomas

“I first met Lotti Thomas through her work. I was volunteering at the art gallery at the Scarborough campus of the University of Toronto in the later 1980s and installed one of her amazing lithographs in a group exhibition of alumni. I actually ended up buying the work for my own nascent collection.

Lotti would show her work in a solo exhibition in the fall of 1990 at the RMG and that’s where I got to know her as a person. She was passionate about Canada and its histories—histories both real and imagined. Coming from the small country of the Netherlands, the breadth and depth of Canada never ceased to amaze her and she explored many parts of it over the years. We were privileged, most recently, to install her beautiful lithographic construction Canada West, the Last Best West in the Durham Reach project that began the RMG’s 50th anniversary celebrations this past January.

Lotti died on August 3 and leaves a legacy in her artistic practice that combined the historic arts of her home country with her imaginings of the wilds of Canada. She will be missed by all her knew her.”

Linda Jansma

In Review – RMG Fridays: Young Minds

By Stephanie Pollard

“I want all my children to have the things I couldn’t afford. Then I want to move in with them.”

-Phyllis Diller

Wind and sputtering rain didn’t stop guests from enjoying May’s First Fridays at RMG, which celebrated Durham’s young people.

From performances by the Durham Girls’ Choir and spoken word artist Jaylen Stark with the O’Neill C.V.I. dance group, to the Durham Youth Council helping guests brush up on their Canadian history, young people got the spotlight to remind everyone that of all the requirements needed to make a contribution, age isn’t one of them. Kyle Fitzgerald, Chairman for the Durham Youth Council, appreciated the gallery for highlighting the young people who get involved in their communities throughout Durham, and noted that progress comes from everyone working together.

“I think we ( baby boomers, Gen. X-ers, and millennials) can view each other a lot better, and I think events like this that bring all generations together are really what’s going to benefit our region most, because we can learn a lot from the older generation, and the older generations can learn a lot from us- it goes both ways,” he said. As if to prove Fitzgerald’s point, guests could take a look at what the kids were up to via Friday’s Film Feature ‘Hero,’ presented by Vincent Massey Public School.

Upstairs, performers and artists were in their elements as guests were introduced to four new exhibits: Saudade de Bahia (May 06, 2017 – June 11, 2017), ab Next (April 29, 2017 – September 03, 2017), Visitor Information (April 29, 2017 – September 19, 2017), and Abstraction: The Rebel Cause (April 22, 2017 – August 27, 2017), along with music by Emily Rocha, VINCE, and Jack of Hearts (Isabel). Food-wise, Gabriella Budani of Nourished on the Go, Oshawa’s very own vegan (!) restaurant, made an appearance to show her support and relieve Durham vegans of the where-can-I-go-for-lunch stress (16 Simcoe St. South).

“Well, there were no vegan options in all of Durham when we opened, so I knew there was lots of vegans around and I had a feeling they would be hungry, so I opened Nourished on the Go,” she said. Menu items include salads, soups, pasta dishes, and dessert – specifically a breakthrough full vegan vanilla cake.

Check out next month’s First Fridays on June 2 from 7- 10 p.m., where all things PRIDE take centre stage!

Carin Makuz: UpholSTORIES

By: Christy Chase

Carin Makuz Image couresy of AJ Groen

Carin Makuz is a Durham writer with an interest in the detritus we leave behind us. She started The Litter I See Project (litteriseeproject.com) which matches photos of litter she’s found with short written works by more than 100 Canadian authors, all in support of Frontier College’s literacy programs.

“I’m interested in how casually we drop things on the ground and discard things,” she said.

Her exhibit, which moves into the RMG Gallery A this spring, focuses on something you often see abandoned on the curb – couches.

She wonders who owned them, why they were abandoned and what stories these pieces of upholstered furniture could tell.

So she’s taken photographs of the many sofas she’s found and has asked friends and people she meets for their couch memories.

“I was stunned when everybody had one,” she said.

The exhibit, featuring 40 photos, is a memory project, a way to start conversations, she said. The couch memories she’s gathered will be posted, although no names will be used.

Since couches are great places for conversations, Makuz is hoping to start them with her exhibit.

“I’m going to create a seating area in the gallery to encourage people to stop, sit and have conversations,” she said.

They can also write down their own couch memories.

Makuz added the frames used for the photographs come from thrift shops and have, in a sense, been abandoned themselves.

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Christy Chase is a long-time resident of Oshawa, a writer, and former reporter and editor with local newspapers. She now enjoys exploring her artistic side at the RMG.

Recap – RMG Fridays: Adventure Handbook!

By: Stephanie Pollard

In ancient Rome, stones were marked with distances-usually a full, or part of a mile-and placed along the road, hence the word ‘milestones.’ Today, we know milestones as place markers that hold significance in a person’s or entity’s life, big or small. April’s RMG First Fridays celebrates two ongoing milestones: the 50th anniversary of the Robert McLaughlin Gallery, and the fourth thesis art exhibition from students in Durham College’s Fine Arts program.

Executive Dean of the college’s Fine Arts program Greg Murphy highlighted the students’ learning and personal journeys, noting that support always makes a difference.

“It’s a partnership really. At the end of the day, you (the students) come out with this work with guidance from the faculty, and the faculty (comes) out with a pride in seeing you go through all the pain, joy, and learning that you go through from when you arrived here (Durham) to where you are now and the kind of work you’re producing, congratulations-really, really great work. I’m so happy to see that you stayed through,” he said to a group of budding artists who smiled shyly at a clapping audience. Professor Sean McQuay, Durham College President Don Lovisa and Mayor John Henry were also present.

Meanwhile, art enthusiasts, music lovers, and local get-together supporters made their way through various rooms upstairs, to either listen to musician Rob Moir, watch performances by the Maxwell Heights Dance Company or sample creations from upcoming businesses.

Norm Reynolds, co-owner of Brew Wizards Board Game Cafe, came to First Fridays to help RMG get a little closer to their next milestone, while encouraging samplers to visit their location (74 Celina St., Oshawa).

“We (work) with a lot of local businesses…we want to give back as much as we expect to receive,” he said. For three dollars, Brew Wizards visitors can access over 300 board games available, and re-fuel on homemade sandwiches, coffees, desserts, and draft beer. As one of the few (only?) games cafés open to Monopoly masters in Oshawa, it made sense to open a business in Durham.

“We’re all from this part of the world. I grew up in Oshawa, two of the other guys grew up in Oshawa (and) one in Whitby, and we wanted something closer to home-so why not?” Norm said.

The next RMG First Fridays is happening on May 5 from 7 – 10 p.m. See you there!

The RMG’s 10-year-old curator

Sigourney Baker is a 10-year-old junior curator at the RMG.

The junior curator program explores the world of art galleries and exhibitions. The program gives kids the opportunity to learn how to develop themes while given a behind the scenes look of how an exhibition comes together.

While exploring works from the RMG’s permanent collection, Baker was impressed with the amount of animals she came across. Her love for animals, paired with a paintbrush, gave way for Bakers focus while curating Gallery.

For this exhibition, Sigourney had the pleasure of browsing through the gallery’s permanent collection – her favourite being Barry Smylie’s, Pineapple Cat. The water-based painting features a white-pawed black cat, peering over at the tropical fruit to its left.

Baker says she would trade being a 10-year-old to join her feline friends sunbathing any day happily.

When she’s not appreciating the magnificent art work of RMG, Sigourney enjoys to paint herself. Bakers says her favourite animal to paint or draw is a peacock, allowing her to blend a collage of colours.

While looking through the gallery’s collection, Baker noticed one of the animals depicted in one of the pieces, is now a member of the endangered species list.

When speaking on the importance of saving animals on the endangered spices list, Baker says, “I believe all animals should have a chance to live. I want to highlight what humans are doing to our planet and this is a good way to show it.”

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Jared Williams is a second year journalism student at Durham College. Jared is a reporter/photographer for the Chronicle. He is completing his placement at the RMG as the new Communications Intern.

Jo Yetter: Dripping Faucets Are My Metronome

Jo Yetter: Dripping Faucets Are My Metronome
Art Lab through March 30

Jo Yetter is a Toronto-based artist who explores space, interpersonal relationships, identity and growth through printmaking, book art and installations.

“I like to say I work with space,” they said. “I make books but they are spaces to inhabit.”

Yetter is using their month in the RMG’s Art Lab to explore and to encourage discussion.

“I just want to use this space to experiment. I want to experiment with the narrative quality of objects, because they house people.

“I’m trying to make sense of people being transient in our lives.”

Yetter said they are concentrating on creating, not in making finished art works.

“It’s nice to not be so wrapped up in making something.”

They said when creating finished works, “I don’t let myself be as free as myself. “

They are also seeing themselves as part of the work.

“I really want to have the hand be a part of objects, as a way to insert my own visual poetry in this.”

These creations are installed on shelves in the Art Lab and Yetter hopes to start discussions about these. Gallery visitors are invited to bring in their own objects for discussion.

The works Yetter creates in the Art Lab will likely end up in future finished works, they said.

Simplicity in Complexity: An Interview with Hillary Matt

by: Raechel Bonomo

Artist Hillary Matt has created a conversation about everyday discussions; how we converse with the inanimate objects we encounter daily and more importantly, what they say to us.

The multi-media works hanging in the Robert McLaughlin’s (RMG) Gallery A are a collection of recent, new and site-tailored pieces comprising the artist’s solo exhibition Chances and Dangers. Inspired by the 1881 novel The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James, Matt takes you through the all-encompassing highs and lows of life, similar to those experienced by the novel’s protagonist.

I spoke with Matt about the chances and dangers of her exhibit, what speaks to her and the intricacies of life in both the 2D and 3D form.

Raechel Bonomo (RB): Take me through your process. How does your work begin?

Hillary Matt (HM): Each work is kind of like a magnet that accumulates all the ideas and feelings I have at the time it is being made. How this begins is tricky to say, as it’s completely intuitive and is kind of always happening. I would say it usually begins with a feeling and that feeling is often a response to the music I am listening to or the stories I am reading or the movies I am watching. This is then followed by Google image searches, visits to Wikipedia, YouTube, Reddit forums and the library. I have referred to this process previously as art-based research and that sounds really professional but I think it is accurate.

RB: How long has this exhibition been in the works?

HM: I have been actively making work for Chances and Dangers since April of 2016, so about seven months. Having this length of time has taught me a lot about how I work. There was many times where I thought I was finished or had planned to be finished and then another idea would come up that seemed really necessary to follow through on. I think this speaks to the fluid nature of how I make sense of this exhibition and my work in general.

RB: How has the novel The Portrait of A Lady influenced this series of work?

HM: The quote from [The] Portrait of a Lady in the exhibition write-up is something I chose to reference because I feel like the sentiment it holds reveals a lot about the guts of the work in the show, which are really quite personal are more or less about the guts of life. The work was already rolling before I became interested in the novel so it didn’t really influence much of it but rather helped me to explain my thinking around it.

RB: What does “chances and dangers” mean to you?

HM: To me, chances and dangers is a poetic descriptor of the ups and downs of life. The line comes from the quote I used in the exhibition text which is a conversation between Isabel, the main character in the novel, and one of her suitors. She is realizing that happiness and suffering are inextricable; they are in a sense one in the same. To avoid the chances and dangers of life would be to avoid happiness, too. As humans I think we can all relate to Isabel’s realization.

RB: Your work plays on the simplicity and, simultaneously, the complications of life. How do you believe this comes through in your work?

HM: It fascinates me that you perceive my work in that way. I think perhaps the only thing that simplifies my work is its flatness, the ability for all parts to exist and interact on the same plane. After that things get pretty complicated. I guess using the text from the novel is a way to point out what it all boils down, these existential questions, which may in some way simplify things for people.

RB: How would you describe the relationship between 2D language (signage) and your work?

HM: Formally, I think most of the work in Chances and Dangers reflect a conversation between two-dimensionality and three-dimensionality. I am interested in flatness as a metaphor for how we interpret time, space and language. So much of how we represent and know our world is in 2D: photography, newspaper, film, painting, drawings, and yet we are 3D beings. I am always trying to engage with that notion in my work.

RB: What do you believe is the difference between sign and art?

HM: I believe there is a big difference between sign and art and by suggesting a comparison of the two with this exhibition I am trying to drawing attention to the possibility of language being just a pictorial symbol. As an artist, I struggle to use words to describe what my work is about, why I make it, or the most confrontational question: What does it mean? Breaking down and abstracting language and the written word is a way for me to confront the authority and meaning that language usually holds.

RB: You used various objects in a mixed media setting throughout this exhibit. What are some of the objects in particular used in the work?

HM: I used a piece of polished break-form steel that I retrieved from a local scrap metal yard as a support to hold up the two large-format prints in donno if it’s real but it’s what I feel, 2015. To me this work resembles some kind of ceremonial hanging banner you might find in the back of a place like the Lion’s Club. Dually, I imagine the piece of steel as the spine of a book and each print as a page in my diary. In another work titled score, 2016 I use a found towel rack presumably from the 90’s judging by its decoration that I repainted pink. I imagine the rungs of the rack as lines on a sheet of paper or on a page of sheet music. The objects I have created out of paper weave in and out. Other work in the exhibition uses textiles, a motorcycle mirror, and a plastic cable wire cover. Because I studied sculpture/installation I am forced to consider the implications of the materials I use. In using found objects I am forced to consider their past life, their role in consumer culture, and I value the challenge they present.

RB: What is one thing you hope people take away from your exhibition at the RMG?

HM: I hope viewers are inspired and take away something that is useful to them.

How Do People Find Them?: Stephanie Pollard on the Value of RMG Fridays

They’re artists in Oshawa…as in ‘GM town’ Oshawa?
But they’re based in Toronto right?
No?!
So where do they get support for their work?
How do people find them?
(Do they even have an Instagram account?)
Who comes out to see their work, do they know where to find them?

RMG Fridays is where artists and art lovers get together to experience and share the local creativity buzzing at home.
On the first Friday of each month at the Robert McLaughlin Gallery (RMG) in Oshawa, a quiet 72 Queen St. comes to life by welcoming a stream of admirers that moves easily to and from the displays of local artists and businesses.

“We’re showing visitors what Oshawa has to offer, in Oshawa,” said RMG’s volunteer manager Carla Sinclair. “People can ask the artists questions, talk to business owners, and get a great night out with family and friends-minus the expensive drinks and parking.”

Jay Dart was October’s First Friday artist with his ongoing creation of the land Yawnder, a place where inspiration lives and takes shape.
“Yawnder is my mental landscape. When people are going into that creative space, they go somewhere-their ideas come from the back of their mind that they can’t quite describe. It’s a little abstract and for me, that is Yawnder,” he said. The exhibit gives visitors a chance to take a walk in Dart’s Yawnder through the story’s main character Jiggs, as well as discover their own Yawnders by creating idea geists and including them in the exhibit.

Not far from Yawnder in the gallery’s lower level, local filmmakers showcase their work as part of RMG Fridays’ Friday Film Feature. Councilwoman-turned community activist Amy McQuaid-England took viewers to the South Patch community garden, one of the too-few practical steps taken to address the lack of access to fresh, locally grown food for residents living in Oshawa’s high needs areas. The decision to switch from politics to filmmaking seems to align with McQuaid-England’s focus on bringing sustainable and lasting change to her community, as the short film became the bronze winner at the 2016 International Film Awards.
Business-wise, Isabella’s Chocolate Cafe and the Auto Workers Community Credit Union (AWCCU) had displays where audiences could make their financial goals known, or sample an array of Yawnder themed baked treats respectively.

Creative manager of the AWCCU Meghyn Cox emphasized that each time local supporters – whether in the arts or otherwise-get together, the larger community reaches new levels.

“It’s about bringing people together and making things happen in Oshawa, Durham-it just gets bigger from there. The more we’re involved with community, everything gets better,” she said.

Be sure to check out the next RMG Friday on December 2, from 7-10 p.m.