"HOMETOWN DREAMS"

"When the Sky Became the Sea"

“I dreamed that the sky became the sea.   I stood with my mother and father on the railroad tracks that split the town in two.  We watched in awe as buildings floated high above the horizon, and away.  Reflections of trees not yet uprooted, hung upside-down over our heads.   I held an antique box camera but did not take a photograph. “  (1988)

All Art is Experiential and Autobiographical.

My prairie roots were intertwined with people from various sociological, ethnic and cultural backgrounds who shared an upbringing in and around a rural east-central Alberta community.  Our great-grandparents and grandparents immigrated to Canada at the turn of the century, mine in 1902.   Their children, my parent’s generation remained and built a vital community, their efforts culminating after WWII with the boom of the 1950’s.  But the Boomer generation left home for the sake of further education and employment in larger centers and many towns faltered.  The subsequent development of corporate chains such as Canadian Tire and later Wal-Mart shut down what was left of locally owned businesses and the proverbial “Main Street” storefronts were abandoned.  Hardware stores, clothing shops, and the local five and dime store were no longer viable. Even grain elevators, historically the essential visual signifier of rural Alberta, were replaced with large more efficient, centralized systems.

 


Grain 01
Grain 02
Grain 03

Sky & Sea: Train on Landscape with Floating Window
Sky & Sea: Train on Landscape
Sky & Sea: Main Street Legion

Sky & Sea: Main Street Legion Alley
Sky & Sea: Midnight Main
Sky & Sea: Night House

Sky & Sea: Midnight Midnight Cruise
Sky & Sea: Midnight Midnight Headlights
Sky & Sea: Main Street: Capital Theatre

Sky & Sea: Main Street: Now Open