Art Exhibits

The opportunity for Jayne Burnside to have a solo exhibition presented itself when North Bay artist Kim Kitchen reached out to her with a vision of a year-long collaborative experience in the preparation and production of putting together this exhibition. As part of Kim’s practice, she shares her wisdom, knowledge, and lived experience through mentorship, a key aspect of her lived feminism. The year-long timeline included all aspects of the business of art; writing her artist statement and biography, choosing what pieces to be in the show, archiving the inventory and meeting the required details of the gallery. Kim provided an in-depth learning of valuing one’s art and practice in a feminist context, presenting a woman’s journey through her life as an artist, thereby creating a living archive as seen through art.

 

For Jayne, at this time in her life, it feels relevant to reflect on the evolution of her art, reflecting on where she has been, what she has learned, taken on, moved past and stepped into. Each different media she has worked in represents a time period. By nature she is a chronicler, she journals and records herstory in words, images, and 3 dimensional forms.

 

Jayne has been drawn to creativity as long as she can remember, but it was in her teens that she started to draw with intention and recalls excitement in the act of creating. “It continues to excite me – creating something is one of the most satisfying and rewarding practices in my life. There exists within me an innate desire to make things with my hands and to learn. I have always made room for it no matter how busy or chaotic life becomes. My creative time is my “me” time, the time when I feel my most authentic and connected to my inner landscape.”

 

Her artist statement reads: “My art practice was birthed from a strong visual response to my surroundings, to the world. I have a fascination with gathering found objects, vintage papers, textiles and art I’ve fashioned and joining them to create a collage, a visual story. This process is reflective of life in that the chaos, the beauty, the joy, the pain, and the happenstance becomes something new, fresh, and exciting. The unfolding of layer up layer; each mark, stitch, scrap of paper and cloth changing what came before and what comes after. The process is at times pure play, at others deeply healing as I consciously work to release perfectionism and outcomes in search of my most authentic visual voice.”

 

Jayne is a multi-disciplinary artist from Temiskaming Shores currently working in mixed media. She had an early interest in pencil drawing and watercolour painting which she pursued for several years. After attending a weekend clay sculpture workshop, she began a ten-year exploration of sculpture, wheel, and slab work. She loved the direct and tactile nature of the medium. When single parenthood demanded a career change, Jayne returned to school and began a career in mental health. The challenges of this meaningful work left little energy for the clay studio, but before long she missed creating and the way it supported her through life’s challenges. For a time she created mandalas, finding it a peaceful practice which re-connected her to paper and mark making. With an openness and curiosity to explore new art mediums, Jayne experimented with acrylic portraiture and found art journaling. She was drawn to the very tactile nature of bookmaking which led to the discovery of eco dying, slow stitching and the use of vintage and upcycled ephemera. In the creation of intricate and multi-layered collage, she has found her authentic voice and has connected to an intuitive manner of creating that is deeply process focused.

 

Why should you come and see the show? According to Jayne she is “hopeful that those who view the exhibition will enjoy the sheer variety of work and a peek into the rather ordinary life of a woman who has had a lifelong creative practice running parallel to my life as a daughter, friend, mother, student, teacher, partner, professional and the many things we become over the years. It is a viewing of the alchemical process of creating something from nothing for the love of doing and being in the practice.”

 

Join us on Saturday May 10th to celebrate the opening of “Gathered Curiosities”. The show will remain on display until Saturday June 7th. The operating hours for the Museum and Art Gallery are Tuesday to Saturday from 10:00 – 5:00pm. We are located at 107 Lansdowne St. E. in Callander in the same building as the Callander Bay Heritage Museum. Please find us on Facebook for more information (@callandermuseum), phone us at 705-752-2282 or email us at museum@callander.ca. We hope to see you there!