Cherie Harte
Residency: Toronto
Cherie (b.1973) is a self-taught artist following in the tradition of Art Brut . Harte utilizes gestural painting techniques that juxtapose a character’s complex inner life with tangible expressions of naïveté and innocence. Her paintings trigger a blending of feelings that express the full gamut of emotions. She accomplishes this feat by tapping into her own life experiences, from the saddest to the most uplifting.
Harte’s characters are presented as childlike and playful; created through a meditative process that engages in an inner dialogue with the artwork. Although initiated by an arbitrary approach, Harte is methodical in her use of mark-making as a tool, she boldly scratches the surface of work.
Cherie Harte’s paintings present a cast of characters reminding us of our own fragility and strength.
Her ability to stir the rawness of our emotions, if we dare to engage, is the gift Harte has offered generously through her artwork since she began painting professionally over 10 years ago. Her characters invite us to connect with our inner selves, confront our discomforts, demand empathy and offer a sense of hope.
“My work transports me to this magical place. A space where social constructs and labels dissolve and all that remains is the essence of love, vulnerability and deep abiding connection often felt in childhood. It is a place where my memory and life experience meet my inner child and all of me can come out to play. A place where I can dive in and explore love, unity and the power of transformative work.
My deepest desire, my dream, my promise to myself, is to make the world a more inclusive and loving place. I believe love is contagious and creating art allows me to explore and amplify that love both in and out of the studio!”
Cherie’s work is held in collections throughout Canada, the USA, England, Australia, China, Korea and Japan.
Jessica Lin
Residency: Toronto, Portugal, Paris
Jessica Lin is a photographic artist with a love of travel and adventure. She has spent the past 9 years developing her unique abstract landscape photography style, where she extracts elements from her various photographs and recomposes them to create whimsical scenes.
She has participated in three Artists’ Residencies – Alchemy at Artscape Gibraltar Point on the Toronto Islands, Once Upon Water on Pico Island in the Azores (Portugal), and most recently L’AiR Arts Research residency in Paris, France – all of which have had a lasting influence on her art practice.
Over the course of months of varying degrees of pandemic lock-down in Toronto, Jessica and her husband found themselves deeply considering the concept of “home”, and the sort of life they wanted to create moving forward. This led to a major life shift, and a move to a large country property about 4 hours NE of Toronto, after nearly 4 decades of city living. A place on 42 acres of land. A new project, where the plan is to build a handful of small cabins in the woods, and create a collaborative, multi-year art installation where they can host artist residencies, retreats, and Airbnb guests wanting to immerse themselves in the magic of the place. A combination of garden, forest, art, food, and community, where their lives will become a bit of an experiment in sustainable living.
Vicki Carruthers
Residency: France
“I see the world in shapes”
As a painter Vicki delights in a life of creativity. Through her vibrant themes and hard edge compositions Vicki has captured the beauty of the world around her.
The foundations are simple. A sketch a photograph or a memory. From that visual she has transformed the majestic beauty of the Canadian landscape into art forms that are fun and energizing and inspiring. Vicki has chosen acrylic paint to be the prime medium by which she breathes life into each piece. The flat smooth surface bustling with vibrant colour in a very stylized form has become the signature of her work. Her dedication to art is unwavering and she uses the commitment to fuel her enthusiasm and spirit. Vicki’s works are featured in group and solo shows, corporate and private collections across North America and Europe as well
as numerous requests for commissioned work.
“My paintings encourage a conversational experience by acknowledging that everyone sees the world differently”
vickicarruthers.com
Laraine
Moderator