Barbara Kendrick

October 17 to November 5, 2023

Location:   Parkview Gallery

Presented by: Barbara Kendrick

Reception: Saturday, October, 21, 2023, 2 pm to 4 pm

In this exhibit,  Barbara has brought together both painting and printmaking to challenge our hubris and create a sobering reminder of our fragility. Like most artists, Barbara felt a compelling need to respond to the emotions that accompanied the challenges of the pandemic and subsequent isolation. As part of her exploration of nature Barbara has often worked with bird images and has been deeply concerned over the ecological loss of bird populations. In 2021 she found herself working more and more with avian iconography to express her feelings of loss during a time when the human race was also being challenged by the prospect of mass losses.

In 2020/21 she created a diptych titled “It starts as one”, an award winning submittal to the Blue Mountain Foundation for the Arts Juried Exhibition in Collingwood, Ontario in the spring of 2022. There was no question in her mind that she had to produce a solo exhibit using the scientific collection of data on bird species as inspiration and as a metaphor for our own human plight. This approach enabled her to explore not just the sense of sorrow and loss but also our reactions when faced with a bombardment of messages that challenged our sense of security. The bird was a perfect metaphor for that fragility.

“Unaccounted for” contains some large scale, message oriented works of art but is tempered by the inclusion of some nature inspired abstracts to provide moments of reflection throughout the exhibit. Hanging on scrolls, like the unfurling of future hope, these pieces provide a reminder that nature despite challenged does survive and flourish.

This exhibit also includes Barbara’s first explorations into assemblage sculpture. Found objects are combined with printmaking and collage into assembled 3D artworks.