MARNEY McDIARMID PLAY: hand-built porcelain
JACOB ROLFE THE ALL-SEEING EYE: new silkscreen prints
October 4 – November 13, 2016 at GENERAL FINE CRAFT – 63 Mill Street, Almonte
Opening reception: Sunday October 16, 1-3pm
Jacob Rolfe is known for his illustrative prints depicting some of life’s more important issues including: literacy, the environmental, organic farming, dreams and… cats. He spends his days between Canada’s east coast and Ontario, and travels to distant lands with a backpack when he can. His experiences and observations of the world are the inspiration for his work.
Rolfe uses a multiple silkscreen technique to print colourful images on archival papers. His work is distinctive in its use of cartoon-style anthropomorphism, complex patterned backgrounds of inter-twining plants and organisms, poignant slogans and dream-like landscapes. The series presented for this exhibition explores the subjects of meditation and trans-personal consciousness – not without a sense of fun.
Marney McDiarmid lives and maintains an active studio and teaching practice in Kingston, Ontario. She has been working with clay since the mid-1990s and is largely self-taught.
Marney hand-builds using porcelain impressed with pattern, painting and drawing. It is a careful process but one that is full of possibilities. She creates unconventional bowls, vases and lidded vessels with contrasting decorative surface treatments, patterns and decal images, usually following a theme in small series or work.
In many of Marney’s series, the element of play is prominent. As she explains, “Play is a moment of possibility. It is a state of engagement that asks ‘What next? What else? How about this? It opens up a dialogue about what is possible, and it posits how things can be different. Embedded in this is nostalgia for a time in which play was closer at hand.”
For more information, please contact the gallery: 613-461-3463 email: generalfinecraft@gmail.com
General Fine Craft – 63 Mill St., Almonte ON K0A 1A0 www.generalfinecraft.com
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