July 20 2001

This Art show was conceived as an answer to a need.

Janet happened to go to a garage sale and chose one roll of tar-paper and one roll of

shiney aluminum ribbon. At the time she didn't know that she needed them. Suddenly, she

realized that she had just conceived an art show. It would be made entirely out of

industrial materials, and teU her own personal story.

Her mind was already loaded with subject matter. She needed an outlet for the pain of

her disability. A mix of anxiety and hope was much on her mind. Using white paint and

chalk she wrote her heart out in the form of graphic designs up and up the unrolling

black tar-paper.

She called me to come and see. As a sculptor I reacted eagerly to her energy, and

together we planned an art installation. Springbank Art Centre offered an opportunity, and

with its very high ceilings and lack of restraint, seemed the perfect venue.

Between the conception and the birth of a show is the most exciting time of an artist's

life. New exciting ideas flood the mind, a wealth of new materials, forms, relationships, and

tangents offer themselves. An artist gets a real high. Between waking and sleeping a rich

wild mix of ideas presents itself, tempting new directions. In any new experience at this

time some new facet may appear. And in this case, a visit to my friend, the ailing Dick

Qxley, another artist and poet, resulted in my hearing him read his latest poem. It seemed

to me to perfectly express Janet's situation:

I scratched my poem

in the cosmic dust

on the face of the moon.

When I got home, looking back,

It was still there,

But it was fading

The theme of the poem runs through the entire installation.

As a sculptor I made a life-sized ballerina of steel and aluminum ribbon. She mingles

dream-like among Janet's poems.

I made a papier-mache swimmer , because Janet swims hard to keep those sustaining

muscles strong. This swimmer, however seems to be battling the enormous strength of the

sea.

And then I made a fictitious wheel chair, presented to show how she rejects its stifling

security.

And then I made a wood-cut to illustrate the poem. It can also be a poster to advertise

the show.

Janet Burgess , and Pay Morrisey.

905-278-3483 & 905-278-4138

941 778-2846 & 941-383-7325 winter numbers