Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Barbara Sprague

I visited my friend Barbara over the weekend. She is preparing an exhibit of her drawings that will open this fall at the Thunder Bay Art Gallery.
Barb and I were close friends when we both lived in Kenora in North Western Ontario. We shared a studio together and traveled back and forth from Kenora to Thunder Bay in order to complete our BFA degrees from Lakehead University. Now Barbara and her husband live in Southampton which is just a ferry trip and a bit away. It was wonderful to see them again.
The exhibit she is preparing is entitled The Dress, and the drawings explore the importance of the matriarchal line personally and within western society. The artist has included portraits of herself, her mother, her grandmother, and also of her daughters and her grand daughters linked to a female skeleton within the format of pattern pieces of her own wedding dress. Inside these dense and well crafted drawings there are many dualities. Strength and fragility, fantasy and reality, dream and determination.
These are details from the last two large drawings. (40" high) I asked Barb if I could show them here and she gave me permission. We checked the Thunder Bay Art Gallery's web site and there is nothing up yet about this exhibit, but the dates are September 14 till October 28. Another friend, Rosemary Sloot, will be showing The Immigrant exhibition at the TBAG during the same time period.

8 comments:

Ms. said...

oh these are truly wonderful wonderful wonderful. The concept and execution shows a real depth of skill and understanding. Thanks for posting.

Valerianna said...

Intenesely beautiful drawings..

Caterina Giglio said...

so beautiful ... and my first thought was that they must be family to be so connected... thanks for sharing these...

ronnie laforet said...

thank you for sharing. they are so ethereal like layers of memories. Lovely to see such work being done with such love.

Gracie said...

These just immediately made me smile- these are beautiful!

Montse Llamas said...

Old friends from the art school are something to get in touch with from time to time...

deanna7trees said...

i love the fragile nature of her drawings. that first one is my very favorite. thanks for sharing.

mansuetude said...

Future, past, present. The fingers, touch, gaze, the baby wrapped to the life tree (within the frame of "mind"), all the interwoven strengthening.

Beautiful and sensual.
.
Rosemary's work is fascinating too, the story of her mother's last words.

thank you