Indigenous Large mixed-media paintings explore the process of moving from difficulty to opportunity.
Exhibition Dates
- February 13 – April 6, 2023
- Reception: Saturday, March 18, 1-3 pm
"The Hero's Journey". Image courtesy of Karen Dolan
From the artist, Ginny Snowdon Trousdale: "These works were born in response to a crisis in my life. The word 'crisis' can describe many kinds of situations, but all involve an element of danger or challenge and a turning point which determines the outcome. This crucial point, the incipient moment of change, comes through the crisis. The potential opportunity that can come from a crisis cannot be rushed, it has its own rhythm and requirements, it is earned. During the creation of these works, I was immersed between these two poles of difficulty and opportunity.
Hindsight is a perspective that is not granted in the experiences, but only comes when they are behind us. It is in the gaining of new knowledge and understanding that we can see a situation differently. Our perspective is changed. With endurance and steadfastness, I have come out of the crisis a different person than the one who entered it."
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Ginny Snowdon Trousdale
Who I am and why I do what I do
"I am in my 70th year and as I age, I am able to see the patterns in my life, the people, the places, and the events that have surrounded me and shaped me.
As I child, I moved frequently as a result of my dad’s job with Ford Motor Company. It even took us to Rhodesia when I was quite young and we lived there, with my mother and 3 younger siblings, for 6 years. This began my interest in world travel, but also developed my awareness of context: How things change and look different depending on where you are and how you view things at a particular moment in time.
While I was growing up, I thought I could never be an artist since I could not draw representationally, to have things look 'just so'. But there was a strong, persistent, immovable desire in me to create. At first it came through cooking and gardening, then through photography, and last of all, painting.
Using a camera as a 3rd eye taught me different ways to see life, deconstructing images with my eyes before I took the picture. The desire to get so close that the image gets abstracted, blurring and losing the edges of things has always been there for me.
A workshop many years ago in New Brunswick and later in Africa, with Canadian photographer Freeman Patterson, was pivotal in many ways in my artistic journey. I became aware of my own artistic being and it reenergized my passion to create art and make sense of my world visually.
Almost by accident, I took a painting course over 20 years ago and have never turned back. I continued to take workshops and classes with local teachers and artists, and later to the United States and Ireland.
Like the title of this exhibition, it is in hindsight that I can see the footprints behind my current work. To discover the bones of a visual narrative, I am driven to find the essence, its core and the connecting pieces and context. What I choose to leave out, cover over or obscure is significant. The errors, blemishes and changes are real and are important. There is much beauty in what is raw, imperfect, and unfinished."