This exhibition is in one my favorite Ottawa locations, the Manx Pub. A trip to the Manx is a carrot we dangle at the end of a busy week or when a life event needs debriefing, when we think it is time to connect with friends.
A good tool is profoundly satisfying. I love the weight of a wrench or a heavy kitchen knife. But I get a similar satisfaction from old telephones or a solid bicylce, even seeing an instrument hanging on a wall.
I put a call out to my mailing list/facebook for favorite tools–of any kind, and any stories to go with them.
This painting was inspired by Almonte resident Wendy O’Keefe Rampton…(admittedly a Geuer in my head–maybe they can’t get around that). Wendy’s late husband David died in 2008.
“My husband, David, used to collect these. The pulleys he collected were typically pulleys that were used to move things (hay, equipment, and so on) up to lofts in barns in bygone days.
My kids have come to see them as kind of a special memento of their dad. He was a man who didn’t put much value on “stuff” but the idea of these beautifully crafted — but practical — items appealed to him.”
