I have been doing some slightly smaller work for a pop-up show December 12-22 behind Blue Heron Books in Uxbridge Ontario. Sizes and prices will be published soon. Questions?Email LynneMcilvride@icloud.com. Opening reception December 14, 1-4 with special guest KEN WELSH entertaining the crowd. This is the only kind of shopping experience I can handle! Featuring several local artists. See hours below.
I am happy to be showing a mixture of my work at The Second Wedge Brewing Co, Uxbridge Ontario. It is up now and will continue to November 3. I will be having a reception for the show on Thursday, October 24, 6:00-9:00. Dawna Huizenga will be my musical guest for the last part of the evening.
When I found out the owners of The Second Wedge were storm chasers and tornado lovers, I knew I had to resurrect my tornado series to mix in with my newer work. The following is my artist statement written 5 years ago about this series. I called it “Spin”: Weather is such a powerful metaphor for human emotion. And that writhing weather monster, the tornado, is a particularly apt way of describing the trauma, the fury, the intensity of loss. It’s hard not to take a tornado personally: it gets to the point by narrowing down and strikes a specific spot. It comes out of the blue. We don’t know what hit us. We are caught in a whirlwind of emotion. Everything is up in the air. There is no emergency plan for these twists of fate. To put a positive spin on it, a tornado (that snaking shape-shifter) is just energy. It makes a long-winded metaphor that lasts and lasts because it wrecks and then absorbs whatever it touches down on. What starts out as an emblem of emotional devastation contorts into an expression of fury and then is reborn as a metaphor for unstoppable creativity, play and passion. Like the flowering cross, can it become a cornucopia? Blooming tornados! Elijah goes to Heaven, Dorothy goes to Oz. One thing for certain is this: we are pulled out of our orbit and dropped in a different place, undone.Here is a link to a video Steven Frank created a few years ago of me talking about the tornado series.
This show is a mix of old and new work, the newest being my carved relief sculptures. I call this ongoing series my “Epiphanies”. The following is my artist statement from that series: I’ve always loved symmetry, especially imperfect symmetry where pattern is revealed and then lost but still the intention of the pattern remains. I am drawn to the shape of the equilateral cross with its reference to life and death; arm-stretching cosmic hugs, whirligigs and flowers with stillness at their centres; the crucifixion and the flowering resurrection. My friend and I were talking about the small epiphanies of childhood—instances when we sensed an invitation from God: the mysterious comfort of a statue of Virgin and child along a well-frequented path; wind animating treetops; a song about the Magi breaking into a child’s sad night. As I do these small dense painted carvings, I realize they represent hints of hope: modest epiphanies. They allude to those moments that happen in the blink of an eye, brief and easily missed…but if you manage to pay attention, life-changing.
Lynne McIlvride …… Storm Seller; Relief Worker
LynneMcilvride.ART
Garden Variety Angel
The following is a Confusing Price List:
There is a similar price list at the actual show with arrows which are helpful. Basically the relief wood carvings that are still for sale are enlarged. Otherwise they are already sold.
Thanks so much to Lesley and Michael, Rob and Joanne for all the help hanging the show!
Hello. I have been continuing my theme of “Epiphanies” which I will be happy to show you at The Uxbridge Studio Tour, September 14 and 15. More beadwork, more woodcarving, more colour riots. Francis Muscat was in my studio the other day and and described the series as Psychadelic Baroque.
This last one is a video. Click to see on instagram. All work is handcarved basswood with inlaid glass beadwork and acrylic paint. Oil paint is added to some and many have gold leaf applied. Here is a LINK to the Uxbridge Studio Tour Brochure. I will have extras you can pick up at my studio. I am Site 24: last but not least!! My guest artist is magnificent ceramic artist, Ann Cummings.
I am looking forward to my Easter show April 19, 20 and 21. We have even done a couple of crazy radio commercials for 105.5 local radio. I’ll see if I can post them.
I am looking forward to my Easter show April 19, 20 and 21. We have even done a couple of crazy radio commercials for 105.5 local radio. I’ll see if I can post them.
I like to think I’m in this for the long haul. You know, like Bob Dylan. I’ve been selling paintings for about 40 years and I could do so for 40 more!!! Who knows!? I wonder sometimes where my work is and how it is doing. As a mixed media artist, over the years I’ve experimented with a lot of different kinds of adhesives etc. I’d like to make it clear that if somebody bought something even years ago and it starts to become unglued or undone in any way, arrange to leave it with me in my studio and if it is fairly minor (or clearly my fault), I will do my best to fix it–no charge! If it’s a major thing like the Christmas tree scraped the encaustic off a painting or you threw one at your ex, then I will still try to fix it but I might charge you a bit. Email me to arrange a time: LynneMcilvride@icloud.com.
After decades of art-making, I am still delighted when I am led into an unanticipated direction. I’ve always liked wood. (Who doesn’t?!) But my past experience has been limited to woodblock carving for prints. In the commission I finished last year for ‘Our Lady of Perpetual Help’ Church, I incorporated relief woodcarving into the frames. The placement of the commissions in the niches of the church and their content of the presence and workings of the Holy Spirit all sent me back to a way of art-making from years ago before the tornados hit that was characterized by hope and the munificence of God. This is timely I think because surely we are living in an appalling and absurd time in need of hope.
I fell in love with woodcarving doing this commission
I’ve always loved symmetry, especially imperfect symmetry where carved pattern is revealed and then lost but still the intention of the pattern remains. I also love the shape of the equilateral cross with its reference to life and death; arm-stretching cosmic hugs; whirligigs and flowers with stillness at their centers; the crucifixion and the flowering resurrection. My friend and I were talking about the small epiphanies of childhood–instances when we sensed an invitation from God: the comfort and mystery of a statue of Virgin and Child on a well-frequented path; wind animating the tops of trees; a song about the magi breaking into a child’s sad night. As I do these small dense painted carvings, I realize they represent hints of hope; modest epiphanies. They allude to those moments that happen in the blink of an eye, brief and easily missed but if you manage to pay attention, life-changing.
The Epiphany series will be shown at the Artist Project Toronto February 21-24, 2019