Barn Quilt

Barn quilt and bonus dog, Harvey.

Some time last winter I got an email from Pat Dubyk telling me that she was trying to start up a barn quilt trail in Prince Edward County. I had never heard of barn quilts before, but a quick image searched turned up hundreds of examples. A barn quilt is a large piece of wood that is painted to look like a quilt block and mounted on a barn or other building.

I ran into Pat this spring and during the course of our conversation I started thinking about a quilt that was made by my maternal great-grandmother, Luella May Dutton (Barker). I remember this quilt as a staple object from my childhood, my mother tells me it was given to us around 1973. 

Sitting on great-grandma's quilt, left to right:
Me, my cousins Aaron, Joelle and Christopher,
family friend Kristen(?),and my cousin Deanna.
I suspect this may have been at a birthday party.

After not having seen the quilt for a decade or more, it recently turned up in my life again. My youngest sister Caitlin gave it to me last year, as she was moving to Sweden and didn’t want to take it with her. The quilt is in pretty bad shape now, with almost all of the patches missing. My mother explains, “Some of the fabric was decades old, some of it belonging to my Great Grandmother, Lillian May Barker (Luno) which was why some of the fabric sections did not hold up well, and deteriorated rather quickly. It was customary in “those days”, to stock pile fabric, as there was always a quilt on the loom being worked on. Some fabric could sit for many years before being worked into a quilt.”

It turns out the pattern on the quilt is known as Grandmother’s Fan. I had a pattern. We have a barn. We clearly had to make a barn quilt!

Milé designed the pattern in Photoshop:

Although many barn quilts are only one block, we thought it would be more interesting to do a 4-block square due to the large amount of negative space in the design. I primed the 4’ x 4’ board with exterior paint, and Milé penciled the pattern in.

I used green painters' tape to mask off all the square lines. Although I’m pretty good painting freehand, I wanted the lines to be really crisp. We always have lots of latex paint on hand, so that’s what I used, doing several coats of each colour. Finally I sealed it with a spray sealant.

The finished quilt, installed on our barn.

This photo of my great-grandmother was taken by the garage of her home in Mt. Elgin, Ontario. I remember playing at her house as a small child. I loved banging away on her piano and sifting through her tin of buttons. Her house had such a distinct smell, and there were always interesting things to discover: wind-up toys, shelves of Reader's Digest magazines, a crocheted Barbie toilet paper cover, and a tin of date squares or cookies awaiting appreciative visitors.

My great-grandma passed away in 2001. Our barn quilt is dedicated to her.

We're quite happy with it, and I think my Great-Grandma would be proud.

Barn

Kris Ellestad rocks out.

On July 10 Small Pond Arts played host to Calgary's Kris Ellestad for the Picton Picturefest Afterparty, closing out four days of film screenings, youth workshops, parties, and merriment. Kris and his awesome band played in our Art Barn which had seen (and heard!) fabulous music nearly a year ago during Splashdown! --but this time it was on a fresh new cement floor. This renovation was a long time coming and involved a lot of very hard work by many helpful folks.

The Art Barn in the spring of 2010.

Prior to the reno, the barn (which hitherto housed horses) had already been put to use in several artistic ways: it was studio space for painter Amitesh Verma, it became a museum during Stickfest, and Krista held a lantern-making workshop in there during Culture Days last fall. The space was great, but the floor was uneven, having been chewed up by hooves and horeshoes over many years.

So we enlisted our friend, David Riley, for his expertise in construction and he told us the first thing we had to do was dig a channel around the inside perimeter of the barn. Great! How hard could that possibly be? How long could that possibly take?

As noted in this post, the soil in much of Prince Edward County is incredibly rocky, and digging deeply with mere shovels isn't always an option since you're likely to hit bedrock after only about two feet. So, to answer the first question above: pretty hard, buddy; and to answer the second: seemingly forever.

Honourable Barn Channelers.

Above is a montage of most of the helpful people who helped us dig the Barn Channel. Clockwise from top right: Krista, me, artist residents Nina Hartt and Kris Forge (Toronto), artist residents Urs (Germany) and Kim Thompson (Toronto), a few young ladies from the Otesha Project that camped overnight, and, dead centre, artist residents Catherine Mellinger and Joel Brubacher (Toronto). We thank you all.

Many of the rocks excavated from the channel were hauled over to our new outdoor bake oven site (more on that in the future).

Kingbirds freak out.

Babies need feeding.

Unbeknownst to us, a pair of Eastern Kingbirds (Tyrannus tyrannus (I'm not kidding!)) had made their nest in the downspout of the barn's gutter, but we decided to let it stay just in case there were eggs in it. Needless to say, that whole family (now with three chicks!) put up with a lot of noise during the reno.

String Theory in practice.

Several weeks later (we worked hard but intermittently...and we also concurrently began work on our bake oven!) we were ready to install the foam forms that would contain the concrete as well as insulate the floor against winter frost. Dave and I used a laser level to mark lines around the inside so we would have a consistent point to measure down from, ensuring the tops of our forms would be at the same height. String was strung to help with these measurements.

Formed forms.

This stage didn't take nearly as long as the digging, but it did require a relative degree of accuracy, if not absolute precision. I left the mathematics to Dave.

14 yards.

Believe it or not, after weeks of taking out dirt, we now had to put it back in. To stabilize the foam forms and provide a ground the cement can grab onto, we ordered a bunch of screenings (i.e. gravel) from local suppliers C.B. Fennel. That pile is 14 yards (I'm still confused about that measurement) and, apparently, too much --but we used lots around the outside of the barn (with cardboard underneath to prevent vegetative growth) and some will go into our bake oven, minimizing wastage.

In the last shot you can see the right hand door that we had to remove so we could get a good pour without having to over-customize the forms. This door slides inside the barn (the other on the outside) and will have to be cut shorter before we put it back.

The gravel channel.

Not shown above is all the gravel that had to be brought in and raked to cover the floor's surface, bringing the top of the gravel four inches down from the tops of the foam forms (minutes before the cement truck arrived, this was changed to three inches, requiring less concrete).

Here we go...

I can't remember the yardage on the cement, but it was significantly less than that of the gravel. Once again, Fennel's came through with the delivery.

Maximum insertion.

This is as far as Dennis, the cement delivery guy, could get into the barn, requiring somebody to haul the cement to the far corners of the barn in a wheelbarrow.

That somebody was me.

I'm not complaining, but a wheelbarrow full of wet cement is heavy --but it had to be done and I was up to the task. Another friend, Peter Blendell, came by to assist in the pour because he had even greater expertise in this than Dave. It was a day of glorious teamwork.

Action!

Cement waits for nobody so you have to work quickly, spreading it around to the desired areas, making sure it gets into all the nooks and crannies of the gravel. Dave and Peter did most of this, ankle deep in cement, but Krista (in the green boots) was there with a ready shovel, helping out.

Smooth operators.

Dave and Peter run the screed across the cement, smoothing it out. It's not as easy or as fun as it looks because wet cement is heavy and hard to push around.

Cemented into a corner.

We split the floor into two halves, making the pour more manageable; we did the far side first, then the near. It was actually kind of fun watching both Peter and Dave Spider-Man their way out of the tricky corners.

Almost done?

Nope. Although the floor looked pretty good even at this point, there was still one more task to perform...

Smoother operators.

Peter and Dave started, to  show us how, then Dave, Krista, and I continued, then Krista and Dave finished the floor by trowelling the cement into as smooth a finish as we could manage. We're quite happy with the slightly imperfect, handcrafted finish.

Finished, but for the decorations.

The finished floor is more reflective, giving the space a brighter look. Also, removing the three non-supporting posts in the middle gives us more room to play with. Here Krista readies the stage for the band with her wonderful patchwork banner and paper lanterns.

My apologies for this hastily-patched-together panorama and for the lack of proper "before and after" shots, but you can click here to see the space as it was the last time we had musicians play in the barn.

Kris Ellestad rocks out (reprise).

The audience was outside and the weather was amazing (if buggy).

Beautiful music.

Seriously: go to his website and check out some tunes.

Low-tech music videos.

Local illustrator Carl Wiens had recently acquired a few reels of 8mm home movies and brought them (along with his gorgeous vintage projector) to show them on a makeshift screen on the sliding door to the right. The band couldn't see the images, but it was uncanny how, quite often, the music seemed to sync up with the movies, creating a score to decades-old memories, sometimes funny, sometimes poignant, always fun.

One small step.

We had about a wheelbarrow's worth of cement left over from the floor pour, so I quickly made a form out of some leftover wood and made a step to make climbing up to the Silo Patio a little safer.

Unacknowledged Legislators of the World

Things are really going gangbusters here at Small Pond.  Between Milé's multitudinous art openings (Field to Canvas featuring prominently amongst them) we’ve had some very cool residents coming through.

Portrait of George Emlaw, part of Milé's Field to Canvas exhibit,
on now until the end of 2011 at Angéline's Restuarant, Bloomfield

Négar Mokhtassi and Kori Okamura are a couple of musicians who came to Small Pond with the intention of writing some new songs and enjoying some R & R as spring blossomed in The County. They enjoyed the intense acoustics of playing music in the silo, and were even inspired to write us a theme song! When not jamming, they cruised around enjoying the beach and some of our favourite antique shops.

Joel Brubacher and Catherine Mellinger were the next residents to arrive. I know Joel from the puppetry community in Toronto. He came to Small Pond with the goal of making a whole bunch of new puppets, and his lovely lady Catherine spent her time writing (on a typewriter!) and working on some amazing collages.

Joel working in the great outdoors - the best studio of all!

 

Catherine collaging in the garage a.k.a. puppet studio

Joel and Catherine did some bike-riding (we've got a few loaners), enjoyed some tranquil moments in the hammock, and in the evenings taught us some awesome card games that got very intense… despite which we were still friends at the end of the week. They made a really cool installation on our artists’ trail; my prediction is that their “Theatre of Possibilities” will become a favourite photo spot on the property.

My sister Meagan in the Theatre of Possibilities

This past weekend we held a banner-raising party, and had a full house of people staying over, plus a good forty visitors. Friends, family and visiting artists enjoyed the celebratory atmosphere as we watched our young friend Jacob Wiens help raise the new banner by shooting arrows into the silo with the top ropes attached (read about last year’s banner here).

Jacob and the newly-raised banner

The banner raising was followed by a barbecue, an impressive and delicious silo-cake, and a very satisfying and hilarious piñata-smashing!

Silo cake by Vicky Roy of Chesterfield's Homegrown Cafe

After giving the little ones a chance...

... illustrator Carl Wiens successfully decapitates
the piñata with his mighty swing.

Last night 14 cyclists from The Otesha Project camped out in our woods. This group of young volunteers are spending their summer riding all over Ontario, living as a sustainable community and performing a play on environmental and social justice issues to schools and other community groups.

The Otesha Project rolls into the Pond

They helped us out for a bit with two of our current building projects: digging the foundation for our outdoor cob bake oven, and putting a new floor in the Art Barn, which will dramatically improve the building as studio and performance space.

Dig this: The Otesha Project crew digging the bake oven foundation

 I love how people seem to universally connect with Small Pond. It’s a gorgeous spot, to be sure, but I’d like to think that they are drawn to the place for more than the wildflowers and the fresh air; I think creative people are drawn here because we freely grant them permission to be themselves, to find inspiration, and to be what they cannot deny: artists, creators, the unacknowledged legislators of the world. Being an artist is not always an easy path, but one that we fully celebrate here. No one is an oddball at Small Pond; we are a collection of beautiful misfits, and in our togetherness we discover that there is simply no other way to be.

Our Cousin Amitesh

Thank you, o miraculous internet.  Thank you for connecting us with Amitesh Verma, Small Pond Arts’ first international resident, who is spending two months with us on the farm, making art.

Amitesh comes to us all the way from New Delhi, India, where he is a full-time painter.  He is one of India’s most exciting young artists; his work has been exhibited in some of the country’s most prestigious galleries, and has been sold at auction houses including Christie’s. 

Amitesh has taken over our horse barn as his studio space, and the suitability of this locale is not lost on this artist who is so well known for his paintings of horses. 

We recently visited The Academy Gallery in Bath.  Amitesh enjoyed the picturesque ride on the Glenora Ferry.

Amitesh brought with him a large selection of drawings from his personal collection, drawings that were created over the last four years during his travels in Turkey, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, France, Italy and Russia.  These works were displayed for two weeks in the Small Pond Gallery, alongside Milé’s work, for a two-person show they called Cousins.  The title of the show reflects the familial bond that was created between the two from the moment they met.

Starting August 21, 2010, Small Pond will be showing From Chapra to Canada, a series of new paintings that  Amitesh has created during his residency.  They will be on display until September 6, when Amitesh heads home.

This 5'3" x 5'3" oil on canvas is one of many works created during Amitesh's residency

Undertaking international artist residencies profoundly informs and influences Amitesh’s work, as new locales and relationships fuel his imagination. After a brief stop back in New Delhi, he’ll be heading to California State University in October, where he will be a visiting lecturer/artist and will have a solo show in Sacramento.

No trip to Prince Edward County is complete without a visit to Sandbanks Provincial Park

Amitesh is not only a magnificent artist, he is also a fabulous cook, an excellent dancer, and quite possibly one of India’s most eligible bachelors.  We are lucky enough to call him our friend, but also the newest member of our eclectic artistic family.  If you are in our area in the coming weeks, please make sure to stop by and meet Amitesh and see some of his wonderful work.