DO IT AT THE GLADSTONE!

An open exhibition created in the spirit of the "crawl" showcasing a diverse group of artists who reflect the incredible spectrum of talent that makes Queen Street West so vibrant.

Where: Gladstone Hotel - 2nd Floor

Exhibition Dates: Friday Sept 15 - Sunday Sept 17, 2006

Exhibition Hours: 12pm - 6pm Saturday and Sunday

Reception: Friday September 15, 7:30pm - 9:30 pm

Participating Artists:  Talia, Heather Dunn, Julian Calleros, Erick Jerezano, Anita Markert - TheMindsEyeStudio, Cynthia Cooper, Mitchell Chan, Bruno Billio, Allyson Mitchell, Andrew Cheddie Sookrah, Heather Collins, Dianne Collins, Dale M Reid, and Helena Frei.

201 Talia - Mixed Media

Talia is an environmental artist   who works out of a Toronto island studio in a variety of media. A graduate of the University of Toronto (B.Sc.) and The Arts Centre in Toronto (Dip.Art),   Talia has studied ecological design internationally and experimented widely with materials and techniques.

She has been commissioned by arts and environmental organizations for various projects and installations and is currently the artist-in-residence for the Toronto Green community. She believes in the wisdom of seeds and quiet acts of transformation.

202 Heather Dunn - Paintings

A self-taught artist, Heather Dunn has brought a unique sense of color and texture to canvas and one-of-a-kind furniture design for more than 12 years. Heather's outlook and her works are heavily influenced by her passions for richness in life and travel. Her works seek to find a balance of depth, whimsy and elegance, reflecting her enthusiasm for history, popular culture, and classical and modern art and design.

Heather has lived and travelled throughout The Middle East, Africa, Asia, Europe and Canada and her works are held by corporate and private collections around the world. Heather lives in Toronto.
MORGAN DUNN STUDIO
morgandunnstudio@rogers.com   
(416) 805-6740

203 Julian Calleros and Erick Jerezano - Mixed Media

204 Anita Markert - TheMindsEyeStudio - Paintings

TheMindsEyeStudio.com was designed to serve as a virtual gallery to display paintings available for sale by Canadian artist Anita Markert.Anita's abstract paintings reflect subconscious images given outward expression.   The initial version of each piece is created through a process similar to automatic writing in which Anita takes pencil to paper and simply allows her hand to move around the page without consciously directing what's drawn.   From the swirling mass of lines that result, Anita is able to discern and accentuate clearly defined shapes and forms that create the subconscious story.   The drawing is then smoothed out and perfected until the mass of lines morph into the final image to be painted.   Once the image hits canvas, it is painted and re-painted top to bottom a minimum of three times in thin coats of acrylic to give it the smoother, poster-like look and depth of colour desired.

Web Address: www.TheMindsEyeStudio.com

Email:               info@TheMindsEyeStudio.com

205 Cynthia Cooper - Paintings/Prints

The Dali Lama of Tibet has declared that "The 20th Century has been one of violence, the 21 st Century needs to be one of dialogue! "

My work intends to put words and thoughts in the mind of the viewer.   It attempts to dialogue with the viewer's mind offering a vision of art as symbolic communication. Technology has created an environment of constant communication and information. Psychology teaches us that the psyche of a human being is filled with symbols representing thoughts, and a thought is not words in the mind, but actually a visual image.

After studying at the New School of Art in Toronto I went on to earn a B.F.A. at York University.   Most of my adult life has been devoted to the pursuit of the arts.   My work has been widely exhibited and hangs in both private and corporate collections.

206 Mitchell Chan - Paintings

Mitchell will debut two new series of oil paintings rendered in his trademark visceral red textures: one is a series of highly constructed collage; its counterpart is a series of paintings which have been burnt, sledge hammered, and blasted at close range with shotguns. Mitchell F. Chan's passionate oil paintings explore the blurred boundary between the artist's creative and destructive tendencies. 

A very recent addition to the Queen West Arts scene, Mitchell has earned representation in Toronto, Ottawa, and Vancouver, and has created this most recent work at the studios of the Gladstone Hotel.

207 Allyson Mitchell - Mixed Media

Allyson Mitchell is a maximalist artist living in Toronto Canada. She creates large scale sculpture and installation with fun fur, found objects, reclaimed textile and abandoned crafts. Straddling craft and fine art traditions, Mitchell melds feminism and pop culture to critique and play with contemporary ideas about sexuality, autobiography and the body.

Recently, her work has exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art and The Textile Museum of Canada (August 2006).   Mitchell has also produced 22 films, published writing and music and performed extensively with the fat activist/performance group Pretty Porky and Pissed Off. In 2001 Mitchell co-edited the 3rd wave anthology Turbo Chicks: Talking Young Feminisms. She is currently completing her dissertation about fat women, power and space and she teaches at York University. Allyson Mitchell's work has been generously supported by the Chalmers Foundation, Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario and Toronto Arts Councils and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

209 Bruno Billio - Sculpture/Installation

Billio is a sculptor and installation artist. His work has been exhibited internationally and involves a magical transformation of everyday objects that signify a deeper meaning while remaining, well….everyday. He customized his parents 1950's Samsonite luggage and turned them into light sources by drilling holes in the case bodies and installing light bulbs. He's turned them into a galaxy in a box on the move. They've become beacons in the second floor hallway - as if they've finally arrived. In many works, Billio stacks things to create a sculpture unto itself. A vase sits precariously on a pile of books that are stacked on a column. Conventional itemsare used in unconventional ways to create new life.

Billio always wanted to live in a hotel and the Gladstone is a perfect fit. Also artistically and creatively there is so much room to grow here.

All of my work is a result of an interview. A passionate connection between the essence of my creativity and that of my subject be it a realistic interpretation of the human presence or the spirit of a landscape, even an abstract thought. A blended, collected free flow of information.

Andrew Cheddie Sookrah lives and works in Toronto. A member of the Arts and Letters Club of Toronto and the Society of Canadian Artists, he has been painting and exhibiting his work for the past 20 years. His work is in corporate and private collections in Canada and the US. Andrew shares an equal passion for the human figure and the lively landscape. He is the president and creative director of Engine Room Creative, a creative boutique serving the marketing and communications stream in Toronto. He is not currently represented by a gallery.

212 Heather Collins - Organic Mixed Media

ORGANIC ABSTRACT

f     l    o    w

my   g r a n d m o t h e r,     my   m o t h e r,     my   s e l f,     my   c h i l d r e n.

my    h i s t o r y,    my h o m e,    my    s p i r i t,     my    l e g a c y

e a c h    g e n e r a t i o n    l e a c h e s    i n t o    t h e    f l o w

d r o u g h t,    l e a c h a t e,    e r o s i o n,    f i s s u r e, a b s o r b,    c l e a n s e,
f i l t e r,    o x y g e n,    l i f e

p r o t e c t,    r e s p e c t,    h o n o u r,    a c k n o w l e d g e

MIXED MEDIA

Heather Collins is a multi media abstract painter living in Peterborough, Ontario that gains her inspiration from sensing history and movement in nature.

Back to the earth

212 Diana Collins - Paintings

"The pleasure of drawing and painting for me is endless. I hope that looking at my work with both the mind and the eye the viewer will experience emotion and the pleasure that I felt while working on the piece."As a younger person Diana saw that her passion for painting was a dream to follow and she does. Diana studied at the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles, California, the Pasadena Museum of Art, the Art School of Peterborough and many workshops over the years.

Right now she divides her time between three mediums; oil, conte and acrylic while focusing on portraits, impressions of the Missions in Southern California and Visual Poetry.

Diana's works are in private collections throughout the United States and Canada.

212 Heather Collins - Organic Mixed Media

213 Dale M Reid - Photographs

After my life partner and soul mate was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in 1985, changes in my outlook on life occurred. One change, I was looking through a different set of eyes. With this new appreciation of my surroundings, I started to capture these views through the photographic medium. Through experimentation, I found myself developing a photographic eye and my own artistic style. To bring an unique feeling/style to my photographs, I look at changing environmental conditions (weather, tides, clouds, etc.); shadows; time of the day that I shoot; the angle of the shot; and elements of activity. I describe this as the scene speaks to me. In 2004 I made a career change by leaving the corporate world to become a professional photographer. My portfolio includes landscapes, industrial, urban, maritime, still life and floral studies.

214 Helena Frei - Textiles

In a playful juggling act with identity, fashion, the place of the fig leaf in contemporary art and Being Canadian, Helena Frei takes two nude paper dolls and the iconic maple leaf, rings the changes with colour, position and texture and comes up with a wickedly diverse series of vignettes.