Opening Reception: April 6th from 2-4 pm. You can see “Urban Legends” Tuesday to Saturday between 10 and 5pm at the Alex Dufresne Gallery (107 Lansdowne St. E.) in Callander until May 4th. You can reach the gallery at 705-752-2282 or museum@callander.ca for any questions or inquiries.

In “Urban Legends” Van Doleweerd tackles themes of exploring ancestral roots and lifeways, our relationship to the land on which we find ourselves, and the stripping away and shaking off of destructive conditioning and harmful messaging from the broader culture, in favour of returning to a closer relationship with nature and each other.

Van Doleweerd moved to Northern Ontario from the GTA more than 20 years ago and it has profoundly affected her worldview and her work. She has shown in 18 group exhibitions, and has been on the boards of the White Water Gallery, Nipissing Region Curatorial Collective, and CBACH (now Creative Industries). This will be her second solo exhibition.

Van Doleweerd says, “This show, Urban Legends, celebrates people in my community who embody a love of nature, who challenge outdated societal norms, and who share my vision for a unified culture that respects and embraces both the differences and similarities between us.”

We would like to acknowledge funding support from the Ontario Arts Council and the Government of Ontario for their support.

It’s the first minus-thirty-something day of the winter, so it’s as good a time as any for a website update.

For me, the highlight of 2022 was having my art chosen to decorate a traffic box at the Olive and Cassells St. intersection. It’s a real treat to drive past this corner and see my work standing out; my urge to use all the crayons in the box pays off, because it’s the most brightly-coloured thing in the landscape.

In 2022 I finished one painting which I’d had in the works for a couple years. I painted this one on an incredibly unforgiving wooden panel, so there was no time for blending. I had to just slap the shapes down and hope for the best. I’m very proud of it. Fans of The Cure will no doubt recognize it.

I also discovered round canvases, after building a website for Judy Gouin. I’ve finished two and have two in progress:

Last year I did a painting featuring rainbow (pride) roses, and raffled it off to support OutLoud North Bay. I wanted a similar one for my own house so I thought I’d tackle another, similar one. I also submitted this to North Bay’s Public Art program, hoping they may choose it to wrap a traffic-control box in downtown North Bay. We’ll see!

This past year was one for the record books; I have a partner who is considered high-risk if he catches Covid-19, so we’ve had to be about as careful as it’s possible to be. Which means we’re coming up on a year of barely leaving the house.

I have not visited my art studio much, but I brought home my more portable easel and my supplies and set to work on a few large-scale pieces. Here they are: