I am honoured to have some of my pieces included in the show, “The Breath Between Us”
Please join me and others for the official Opening Reception on Wednesday February 21 at 6:00pm in the Cathedral. Remarks, poetry, prayer, and music will kick off the evening, followed by refreshments, live jazz music, and ample time to view the artwork. Spend time mingling with the artists and take in the incredible energy of the Cathedral transformed by works of art.
Free & open to all.
St. James Cathedral is at 65 Church Street (at King St.)
A selection of my work on exhibit will be
- three prints:
- an Intaglio (Sip of Tea),
- a linocut (Hagar) and
- a serigraph (Lightbreak),
- one oil on canvas painting (Saphira);
- four ciment fondue pieces on the depiction of ephemerality (Carmina and three figures) and
- a compendium of a bronze figure, ceramic pieces of a box, a lizard and a tree trunk and a ciment fondue base depicting the story of Alamát ng Butikî. It will show for a month along with other artists in the community. I am honoured to be included in the show.
A theme description of these pieces are as follows:
- Fragility.Carmina and the three figures. Reflecting fragility. Constantin Brancusi said, “What is real is not the external form, but the essence of things… it is impossible for anyone to express anything essentially real by imitating its exterior surface.” In many ways, all materials have always been here. Clay remains and is recycled. The same materials we hold today were here before we were. Perhaps, the images and the sounds made then have been recorded in these same materials, if we just listenandlook very closely.
- Lightbreak
Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice,
To undo the thongs of the yoke,
To let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry
And bring the homeless poor into your house;
When you see the naked to cover them and not to hide yourself from your own kin?
Then your light shall break forth like the dawn
And your healing shall spring up quickly. [Isaiah 58:1-9a]
The Distillery District did not always look like the shinybauble that it is now. I remembered looking at a window in one of those dark buildings and saw how the light broke in from one of its panes, seeming to fill the room with some sense of daring, throwing an insult to the darkness, showing it for what it is and inviting the viewer to swim in its waves of light.
- Alamát ng Butikî. The Legend of the Lizard. The legend is actually quite disturbing but is a common story that is told about the nobility
of motherhood. I started thinking about Mary as a mother who had a son who was bent to behave and act in a way that bro
ke her heart. The legend of the lizard still disturbs me. It is because it was Mary the mother who saw her son broken. Maybe I’ll finish writing that story some day.
- Saphira. There is that moment of recognition
that she lied and kept something hidden away. Saphira, the gem, wife of Ananias was stricken and died. Acts 5: 1-11
- Hagar. She bore a child for her mistress, which was found redundant and so was thrown out to survive in the wilderness, yet God heard her cry, contended with her and gave her the means to survive and for her son Ishmael to thrive.
- Sip of Tea. It is a sip of life, to take a pause, sometimes with friends, or alone, to feel the warmth and the astringency, and be alive again.
We were told to be kind to her and to be specially quiet when she was quiet.
MaC Conlon's Blog 