The landscape is an adjustment, but I’m learning to love it. Anwar said it best “beauty in the bleakness.” Truly. The deer are virtually unphased by humans, as are many of the multitude of bunnies jetting around. And the magpies are mammoth! I’m serenaded every morning by vociforous Canada geese on my 20-minute walk over bridges and creeks to the studio. Generally I pack a lunch and head over mid-morning for the day, work until 7 or 8pm, come back to the lodge and cook. The lodge is like a one story small school house converted into a residency with modern fancy kitchen but alas, until now, no working wifi. We are quite remote, and you need a car to really get anywhere, except the clay supplier who is walking distance – but I can’t walk my clay home! Their technician is the fabled Tony Hansen of Digifire, and he’s a veritable wizzard. I’ve struck up quite the friendship with Tony and he’s helping me out a lot with my testing.
I’m not used to the society of group artist residencies – planned pizza and waffle sessions, spontaneous outings to the Cypress Hills. There are about nine of us, seven in the lodge, and most other artists here are just out of school and in their mid twenties. There are a couple in my snack bracket, and I’m enjoying getting to know all of these committed artists and their passions.
The creek that winds it’s way to the Saskatchewan River that I pass on my 20 -minute walk from the residency to the ceramics centre.
It takes a village to put together a 50kg sculpture!
It’s been two weeks since I arrived in Medicine Hat. Wow – it seems like a lot has happened in those two weeks, and at the same time, I feel as if I’m struggling and time is already bearing down on me. I came with the intention to build big and the expectation that I would make high fired work (something I can’t really do at home) and gas fire (another thing I can’t do at home). But what I have found is that the low fire sculpture clay has amazing qualities that make it by far a better choice. BUT – it’s limiting me in terms of surface decoration due to it’s high fired porosity. I’m exploring and investigating and making a zillion test tiles – and regret not starting there as my work stays under plastic until I’m ready for it and the air is SO SO DRY!!!! Apoloigies for the shop talk, moving on.
view of the brick factory from the top of the hill that I look up to from my window
The whole brick factory operation flooded so badly in 2010 that it wasn’t worth rebuilding. It’s a fascinating relic that will soon be converted into a tourist attraction. Jim Marshall lives in the old tile factory office right in front of my window, which is next to the defunct brick factory. Jim is 80, and aside from my friend Peter, the fittest most active octagenarian around. He’s still sculpting brick murals internationally and currently building a replica of an 1880 train on site. It’s also a treat to have an old Sheridan friend here to show me around, Annette Ten Cate, who took me to the Banff Film Festival last night. There never seems to be a dull moment. Today we had a field trip to the Medicine Hat Archives and an idea of working with archival images of the brick factory (similar to the one my father worked in in Hamilton) is fomenting in my mind.
The oil rig that was INSIDE the brick factory - is now a work of public art outside the factory - Medicine Hat nickname, Gas Town.
Completed the building of my first large-scale coil built sculpture. Prepping my artist talk to the staff and other artists for tomorrow. It’s full-on here and not as cold as I had anticipated – although felt like Toronto: 96% humidity!