Spring Sprang

Our eighth spring at Small Pond Arts has come and gone. It was the rainiest spring we've experienced since moving here in 2010; while many people on our island experienced flooding, we are high up on a hill and lucky that the worst outcome has been having to mow the grass every five minutes! 

We kicked off the season with our annual banner-raising silobration.

Photo: Melanie Dailey

The symbol on this year's banner is a hobo sign; from the 1880's to WWII, hoboes placed markings on fences, posts, sidewalks, etc, to aid their fellow travellers in finding help or steering them clear of trouble. We found this symbol especially poignant - a message of encouragement from one person to another.

We have been overrun with rabbits this spring; we easily spot a dozen bunnies a day, with lots of adorable babies running around. This cuteness just doesn't get old!

We also had a very special visitor pass through: a snapping turtle moseyed across the lawn one day.

We've had a few artists in residence so far, and the busy season is upon us with some 20+ more artists passing through in the next two months.

Montreal artist Stéfanie Meunier works mostly in digital formats, but spent two weeks at Small Pond working analog with sketching and painting, and enjoying bunnies appearing at her feet while working outside the art barn.

We made an outing to Little Bluff Conservation Area to check out this wall of drift wood that the high waters had pushed onshore. Normally it's only pebbles on this beach, so this was quite an unusual site!

We held our second annual Cardboard Camp getting ready for Skeleton Park Arts Festival. It was totally fun and an inspiration to be working alongside such talented artists.

L to R: Chrissy Poitras, Nella Casson, Kevin Merritt, Holly Gilmour, Krista Dalby

This year our theme was Boxtopiaville. We created an urban environment with all the necessities, like a cat cafe...

... A bike shop, with a nod to our cardboard sponsor, Bloomfield Bicycle Company...

...And a Wheel of Fate that was eagerly spun by many.

Artist: Kevin Merritt

I also had the pleasure of working with Aleks Bragoszewska of Bird Bone Theatre to help animate the Porch Jazz Parade.

And furthermore in cardboard news, I received an honourable mention at Art in the County for my sculpture, Corrugated Cohen. Sweet!

Corrugated Cohen by Krista Dalby

Now it's time to eat our Wheaties as we launch into full-on summer mode. If you're in the area, come for a visit!

2016 Residency Recap!

Whaaaat? It's September all of a sudden! Summer was a whirlwind, resplendent with so many delightfully different artists. Here's a look back at just *some* of the eclectic cast of characters that passed through Small Pond in 2016:

We started off the season with our first ever Cardboard Camp, bringing together this awesome group of cardboard enthusiasts.

Nadya Eidelstein built a drawing machine and worked on some botanical designs to be screen-printed later.

This trio of kick-ass-lady-writer-friends converged at Small Pond for a week; Sarah Selecky, Sarah Henstra, Frances Philips stand in front of the naked silo.

Kelsey McNulty worked on some new tunes and could be heard playing our barn piano late into the night.

Nick Di Gaetano spent a month with us while performing in Tale of a Town: Prince Edward County with Festival Players/FIXTPOINT Theatre. Here he is recording a "silo session".

Andrew Foerster is an animator and illustrator, but used his residency to work on some sculpture projects.

Sara Knaus wanted to get some writing done, here she is hard at work in the art barn.

Ying Lee created her own writing studio in the shade of the pear tree.

Creator/performer Bruce Horak came to Prince Edward County on tour with his show Assassinating Thomson. Here he is doing some plein air painting.

Elysanne Tremblay worked on a number of different projects during her residency. Here she is building a tent structure around her actual tent - which she slept in... talk about getting into your work!

Heidi Berger worked on a series of paintings for an upcoming show in Germany.

Larry Eisenstein worked on some BIG drawings in the barn.

Lynn Chidwick is a stained glass artist, but used her residency to create some pastel drawings. A residency is a great opportunity to try something new!

There were lots of interesting outings...

Quality porch hang-outs...

And starry, starry nights.

Photo by Mile Murtanovski

It was an amazing summer! Our heartfelt thanks to all the artists that chose to spend some time with us, bringing their ideas, inspiration and camaraderie.

The nights are cooling down, and the residency is open for just one more month this season. We'll start accepting 2017 applications or our artist residency December 1, 2016. Can't wait to see what next summer has in store!

2015 Resident Artists

As 2015 draws to a close, it's time for us to take a deep breath and look back on an incredible year. Small Pond wouldn't be here without the scores of artists who have invested in themselves through our residency program. The presence of these wonderfully diverse creators has enriched our lives beyond measure. A huge thank you to everyone who joined us in 2015!

Suzanna Lebec's residency was focused on writing. Hard work deserves to be rewarded, and we went on some spectacular outings, including cocktails at the Al Purdy A-Frame with writer-in-residence Kathryn Maclean.

Kath and Suzy at the A-Frame

Pamela Schuller had a productive residency making and painting masks.

Peter Paylor worked on a large sculpture carved from old cedar rails he found around the property, and demonstrated his carving at a Creative Rural Minds gathering.

Ginna Wilkerson joined us from Florida to work on some writing and a host of visual art projects. We went to an art opening at Blizzmax Gallery and she enjoyed getting to know the community through attending many local yoga classes.

Ginna at Blizzmax Gallery

Zach Van Horn came to us from Ohio and successfully completed a whole series of paintings.

Mieke Van Geest visited us for the second time to work on her book of photos.

Photo by Mieke Van Geest, taken during her 2014 residency

Alison Broverman and Katie Swift called Small Pond home while working on The Tale of a Town - Canada. I was thrilled to collaborate with them on this beautiful endeavour. We interviewed 60+ people about their memories of Main Streets in Prince Edward County, culminating in a theatrical presentation and podcast, which you can listen to here.

Katie and Alison in the Wellington Times, photo by Alison Broverman

Liane Décary-Chen came from Montreal to work on some graphic design, and learned how to play Kubb, the Swedish game of champions.

Animators Ruth Taylor and Auke de Vries came to us all the way from Amsterdam, but Small Pond was just one stop on their 'round-the-world residency adventure. 

Auke at Point Petre

Ruth tries her hand at axe-throwing on Jobs' Island

Some of our regular puppetry collaborators stayed with us while working on our latest shadow puppetry play, Unjustly. 

Guy Doucette and Craig Morrison, puppet designers

Andrew Young, head puppeteer and woodsman

Thank you to all these wonderful artists for making this a summer to remember.

If you're interested in joining us for a residency in 2016, we're now accepting applications. Please visit our website for details.

Peter Paylor and another Sticky Story

Earlier this month Belleville sculptor Peter Paylor undertook a 1-week artist residency at Small Pond. He showed up with his tools and started looking around the farm for inspiration.

He quickly found it in a stack of old cedar rails. Soon the cedar shavings were piling up on the barn floor, perfuming the air with that fresh-hamster-cage smell.

He was working on something… something big!

During Peter’s stay I was hosting a Creative Rural Minds event at nearby Loch Sloy; Peter came along and did a carving demonstration.

Here's Peter with part of his finished sculpture, Community. It is built from eight pieces of  cedar rail fence found on the property; it forms a single piece representing a community of ravens. Behind him you can see another carved fence rail he left as a gift to Small Pond. 

But Peter had one more gift to give us. It was a story. I recorded his telling of the story one night over dinner:

“It was the first Stickfest, in 2010 (an annual festival at Small Pond). I sat at the firepit and I was carving a piece of Hesperus (one of our trees that had fallen down), and Lisa sat down and started twisting some wire and making some jewelry. Another woman came and sat down and started knitting, and eventually the circle was filled with people, but we didn’t know anybody. I was introduced to this young kid, who was maybe about 13 at the time, and I was told that he did some carving, and he was curious about me carving this stick. I asked him if he’d ever carved sumac before. He hadn’t, and I had a sumac talking stick in the car so I got it and we talked about carving sumac."

"The woman sitting beside me asked about the stick and I said that it was a talking stick and told her that they’re used in groups and sometimes used in storytelling circles, and I said since you’re holding it, why don’t you tell us a story? Without hesitation she did. She told this cool story, and it was about a tree. And then she passed it to the person sitting beside her, it was a young guy, and he told a story about falling out of a tree; there were a couple of tree stories. There was a very young kid, and I thought that there’s no way that the stick is going to get to him and beyond him, but sure enough he had this great story. All the time this was going on there was a woman sitting there, and again, we didn’t know anybody. She was sitting there signing (American Sign Language). We weren’t sure if she was signing to someone. It turns out it was Mary Tiessen who we’ve since become friends with and she was actually signing for her husband, Jeff, who was sitting beside her."

"When Mary passed the stick to Jeff she signed to explain the whole process of what had been going on and he grabbed the stick and held it against his chest and thought for minute and put the stick down on his lap, and out of his hands and amazing expressive face and out of Mary’s mouth came this beautiful story about how he had gone diving with his father when he was a kid and they had this shore lunch and they had stopped in this cove and it was the most beautiful place they’d ever seen and wouldn’t it be great if we could build a cabin here one day and they thought about it and they went to the province of Newfoundland and they negotiated for years and actually bought this crown land and they actually built the cabin. It was a beautiful story, people were in tears, I was in tears. Then when he was done he got so excited he started giving thumbs up and jumping up and down, and he rushed over and hugged me. And all day at Stickfest he kept giving me thumbs up and hugging me. I asked Mary later, it seems a bit much…? and she said: he never gets to tell a story."

"That was my favourite moment of when I got to use one of my own talking sticks. I actually told this story to one of the organizers of the Ottawa Storytellers’ Group, and last I heard they were planning on arranging a storytelling circle for the Deaf.”

Incredibly, this was the first time we’d heard this story, which happened almost five years ago. It makes me think of the impact you can have on someone’s life when you give them an opportunity to express themselves. And at the heart of it, that is what Small Pond is all about.

After hearing Peter's story, I dug through my photos.
This photo is from Stickfest 2010, and this is some of the
circle of people described in his story.

Wind & Water

This past weekend we kicked off our sixth season at Small Pond Arts with our annual banner-raising party. This year’s banner, Wind & Water, was a collaboration between me and Leanne Shea Rhem, the greatly talented textile artist who created last year’s banner of the pileated woodpecker.

Following her artist residency at Small Pond last spring, Leanne and her partner, artist Zac Kenny, moved to Picton (beware to fellow residents – Prince Edward County truly has an irresistible charm!).

A few weeks ago, Leanne launched the pop-up studio for her company, Gold & Ginger, at The House of Falconer in downtown Picton.

The House of Falconer

Built in 1858, this architectural gem was recently purchased by Alex Fida and will be getting a complete renovation in the years to come. But for now, it is a fascinating trip back in time, peeling wallpaper and all. 

Leanne at work in her studio

It is in this inspiring environment that Leanne and I assembled this year’s banner. We started by laying it out on the floor...

...Then tacked it down by hand...

And Leanne sewed it all together. Prince Edward County is surrounded by water and is rather windy place, and we wanted the banner to have some movement to it to play with the elements. I think it turned out beautifully! 

Up she goes!

In a somewhat bizarre coincidence, I bought this old bike at a contents sale at House of Falconer last May, simply because I liked the look of it. I spray painted it blue and mounted it as an art installation. The bike belonged to Thera Falconer, a former resident and the namesake of House of Falconer.

Following the banner-raising we had a creative potluck; we asked our guests to bring food that incorporated the "six" theme. They did not disappoint!

Six-bean salad, six-fruit platter, six-layer cake, etc... yummy!

Thanks to everyone who came out to the celebration and helped us raise the banner, and special thanks to Leanne for her wonderful work and use of her studio. 

Look up - waaaay up!

Stop by Small Pond this season to check out the banner - especially dramatic if it's a windy day - and if you're in Picton make sure to pop into The House of Falconer at 1 Walton Street and visit Leanne's studio.

UPDATE: Check out the video to see how this beauty moves...