Artist’s Statements
Shelley Freeman
After growing up in Hudson Heights, Quebec, Shelley Freeman studied French literature, fine arts and typography at York University, then worked for 2 years at Coach House Press in Toronto. She subsequently began a long career in Montreal as a social worker specializing in community-based psychogeriatrics, while simultaneously pursuing her art practice and obtaining her BFA with Distinction from Concordia University.
Eclectic in her interests, the main focus of Freeman’s artwork is nature-based: darkness and empty spaces existing within natural phenomena such as caves, rocks, water and ice formations, and man-made structures such as tunnels and abandoned mines. Unlike terrestrial landscapes which are distant and limitless, extending laterally and heavenward with no apparent boundaries, an underground environment is by nature obscure, absolute and claustrophobic.
Source material for Freeman’s semi-abstract paintings comes from photos taken while travelling, hiking, and caving as a member of Spéléo Québec. She slowly builds multi-layered, textured surfaces using oils, resins, plaster and wax and then may gouge, sand and polish them to create smooth transparencies or empty spaces.
Freeman is intrigued by the link between the concept of illusion and the dimension of depth. This has recently led her to create a series depicting the roots of aquatic plants from a lake-bottom perspective. Her research extends to other aesthetic issues such as ambiguity of scale, the juxtaposition of light and dark masses, and the play between 2D and 3D forms on a flat surface.
Freeman’s paintings suggest slow natural change over eons, such as erosion and fissures in rock formations that remain indefinitely. Metaphorically, they evoke the forbidden world, separations, fusions, and the exploration of self. Her paintings, prints and photos have been exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions, and figure in public and private collections in Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, USA and Wales.
Active as a volunteer in Quebec’s art milieu since 1999, Freeman serves as a board member for the Regroupement des artistes en arts visuels du Québec; represents RAAV on the board of the Canadian Artists’ Federation/Front des artistes canadiens (CARFAC); and is a member of the English Language Arts Network (ELAN), Les Artistes de St-Henri and Arbor Gallery.
Wendy A. Thomas
Wendy A. Thomas was born in Montreal, QC and grew up in Hudson Heights, QC. She has a B.A. (Honours, Visual Arts) and an M.A. in Interdisciplinary Studies from York University, Toronto, ON. A major influence at York was George Manupelli (founder of the Ann Arbor Film Festival), who encouraged his students to notice and reconsider their everyday surroundings. Thomas also studied for several years at the Visual Arts Centre, Westmount, QC.
In her three series of semi-abstract paintings, Thomas explores scale and perception, inspired by years of photographing her urban environment—concrete pedestrian overpass walls and sidewalks—and of views from airplanes. Long shadows cast by gravel on a sidewalk create worlds with multiple interpretations, and scratches and bumps on concrete support walls of overpasses testify to an unknown intervention. Fields tilted, figures added, and a lack of horizons offer a different approach to landscape painting.
While keeping the basic compositions she observes in these surfaces, Thomas creates new ways to present them. The works create an interaction between abstraction and real sites. Due to the ambiguity of distance, viewers do not always have a recognizable reference point and therefore cannot be certain whether they are seeing a small object up close or a large object at a distance. The surprise aspect of the scale offers new ways looking beyond the surface and the first impression to recognize other interpretations and diverse realities. One can find beauty and diversity in something as simple as what we happen to pass by or walk over.
The final selection of works is of more traditional landscapes and portraits. Thomas likes the calmness of a winter scene, the tranquillity of a setting sun, and the quiet and encouraging gaze of a horse. The portraits capture a moment in time.
Thomas is a professional member of the Regroupement des artistes en arts visuels du Québec (RAAV); of the English Language Arts Network (ELAN); and of the Arbor Gallery. She has also helped plan and participated in the NDG Art Hop for several years. Her paintings are in private collections in Canada and the United States. She lives and paints in Montreal (NDG).