PRESS: To interview the artist, or to reproduce works from this site,
kindly contact M.Lindsay Holton at 'mlhpro' at 'hotmail' dot 'com'
to obtain private biz phone number. Thank you.
Review my past exhibitions HERE
OR
consider the following wonderful review below by Jeff Mahoney
of the Hamilton Spectator about my solo show
'Memory's Shadow' at the Art Gallery of Burlington in 2010.
OR
consider Wikipedia (also below)
The Hamilton Spectator, Summer, 2010
Memory's Shadow by Jeff Mahoney, Art Critic at the Hamilton Spectator
Perhaps more than any of the other arts, photography is the horse that memory rides on. Music can take us back, but it is not documentary in nature. And literature, for all its reach, precision and poetry, remains essentially abstract, from a sensory point of view, everything left to the imagination. Memory likes to have its feet in the stirrups of something concrete, like a physical image. When we make albums and scrapbooks, we use photographs. But still a picture is not a memory. They're not the same thing. And that is Margaret Lindsay Holton's point, or one of several, in Memory's Shadow, her thought provoking and richly evocative new exhibition at the Burlington Art Centre. Memory is more important to some people than to others. For Holton, it's critical. She feels her life, her character and her art were largely shaped by her relationship to both the land she grew up on and the house on it. The homestead is still in the family, and even now Holton's recall of playing in and around its ponds and woods is vivid. The house was restored by her late father, Luther Janna Holton. He was a well-known furniture maker, owner of Holton's Fine Furniture Store on Canada Street in Hamilton. She grew up watching him make tables, cabinets, chairs, and became a furniture designer herself. But she is also a writer (novelist, poet, essayist), an artist, a photographer. The poet in her came up with the title of the show, which is just right.
What Holton is getting at is the idea of texture, layering and removal. A memory is not what happened, it is not the thing that is being remembered. It is a shadow of what is being remembered, and a picture is a shadow of that shadow.
We try to get at memories to get at the life, the time, the emotion behind them. But the sources are no longer available and immediate to the direct senses. Their residue in the brain gets mixed up with static; extraneous feelings, psychic noise, dream and mental error. We use pictures and other media to get at memory, to fix it. And that confuses an already confused issue even more. Pictures are partial stories, subject to perspective and quality of light, leaving out much -- smell, sound, touch, temperature, heart rate, context.
How are all these ideas contained in Holton's art? In two ways. Computerized photo collage and pinhole photography. In the first, the collages, Holton uses computer manipulation to layer several colour photographic images, sometimes of the same subject taken from different and/or overlapping angles, sometimes of different subjects. Now this is what memory looks like. Or at least feels like. The results, as in Wolf Eye and Mind's Eye, are textured-depth compositions, often swirling with colour. They're at once recognizable, yet disorienting. They have both the confusing dreamlike quality of memory and the clarity and rootedness of something real and immediately present, though the presence is only an illusion of what is remembered. Wolf Eye is one of my favourites in the show. It is a tangle of brush and wood, branches and trees, with a shifting tonal palette, that draws the eye into receding layers of interrupted transparency. The effect is like walking through a thick wood and peeling away branches as one goes. "What does it make you think of," asks Holton. "Being lost in the woods as a child," comes my answer. But the title, Wolf Eye, is a hint at a more specific suggestion -- the way the experience might appear to an animal. "That's how I felt," Holton remembers. Going through the woods as a child, almost in an animal state. Holton says that as she worked through the pieces for the show, she became more engaged by the land than the house.
The land held the strongest, most animal memories. "I want to re-route the viewer through the dump of media back to first moments," says Holton. "Using photography, I want to force us away from photography." The house is rendered mostly through black-and-white pinhole photography. These are very well done, Holton having established herself in that interesting subgenre, but perhaps not quite as lyrical and multilayered as the collages. The collage works have an almost abstract feel in places, they are so mediated and multiply exposed. But they are beautiful, hauntingly so, more so for this strange unreality, and for the judicious phrasing of the colours. Sleeping Apple, for instance, is wonderful with its dramatic action of shadow and wash.
Perhaps more than any of the other arts, photography is the horse that memory rides on. Music can take us back, but it is not documentary in nature. And literature, for all its reach, precision and poetry, remains essentially abstract, from a sensory point of view, everything left to the imagination. Memory likes to have its feet in the stirrups of something concrete, like a physical image. When we make albums and scrapbooks, we use photographs. But still a picture is not a memory. They're not the same thing. And that is Margaret Lindsay Holton's point, or one of several, in Memory's Shadow, her thought provoking and richly evocative new exhibition at the Burlington Art Centre. Memory is more important to some people than to others. For Holton, it's critical. She feels her life, her character and her art were largely shaped by her relationship to both the land she grew up on and the house on it. The homestead is still in the family, and even now Holton's recall of playing in and around its ponds and woods is vivid. The house was restored by her late father, Luther Janna Holton. He was a well-known furniture maker, owner of Holton's Fine Furniture Store on Canada Street in Hamilton. She grew up watching him make tables, cabinets, chairs, and became a furniture designer herself. But she is also a writer (novelist, poet, essayist), an artist, a photographer. The poet in her came up with the title of the show, which is just right.
What Holton is getting at is the idea of texture, layering and removal. A memory is not what happened, it is not the thing that is being remembered. It is a shadow of what is being remembered, and a picture is a shadow of that shadow.
We try to get at memories to get at the life, the time, the emotion behind them. But the sources are no longer available and immediate to the direct senses. Their residue in the brain gets mixed up with static; extraneous feelings, psychic noise, dream and mental error. We use pictures and other media to get at memory, to fix it. And that confuses an already confused issue even more. Pictures are partial stories, subject to perspective and quality of light, leaving out much -- smell, sound, touch, temperature, heart rate, context.
How are all these ideas contained in Holton's art? In two ways. Computerized photo collage and pinhole photography. In the first, the collages, Holton uses computer manipulation to layer several colour photographic images, sometimes of the same subject taken from different and/or overlapping angles, sometimes of different subjects. Now this is what memory looks like. Or at least feels like. The results, as in Wolf Eye and Mind's Eye, are textured-depth compositions, often swirling with colour. They're at once recognizable, yet disorienting. They have both the confusing dreamlike quality of memory and the clarity and rootedness of something real and immediately present, though the presence is only an illusion of what is remembered. Wolf Eye is one of my favourites in the show. It is a tangle of brush and wood, branches and trees, with a shifting tonal palette, that draws the eye into receding layers of interrupted transparency. The effect is like walking through a thick wood and peeling away branches as one goes. "What does it make you think of," asks Holton. "Being lost in the woods as a child," comes my answer. But the title, Wolf Eye, is a hint at a more specific suggestion -- the way the experience might appear to an animal. "That's how I felt," Holton remembers. Going through the woods as a child, almost in an animal state. Holton says that as she worked through the pieces for the show, she became more engaged by the land than the house.
The land held the strongest, most animal memories. "I want to re-route the viewer through the dump of media back to first moments," says Holton. "Using photography, I want to force us away from photography." The house is rendered mostly through black-and-white pinhole photography. These are very well done, Holton having established herself in that interesting subgenre, but perhaps not quite as lyrical and multilayered as the collages. The collage works have an almost abstract feel in places, they are so mediated and multiply exposed. But they are beautiful, hauntingly so, more so for this strange unreality, and for the judicious phrasing of the colours. Sleeping Apple, for instance, is wonderful with its dramatic action of shadow and wash.
Memory's Shadow confirms our impression of Holton as an important mixed-media practitioner, with a genuine artist's eye and a probing intellect.
The show, which runs at the Perry Gallery of the BAC, 1333 Lakeshore Rd. in Burlington, until Aug. 19, 2010, is accompanied by a book. Memory's Shadow (hard cover) has 55 additional images not in the exhibit, and includes a foreword by famed Canadian documentarian Peter Wintonick. Only 50 copies are available. Order HERE.
- - -
Another nice piece of press by Jeff Mahoney, from The Hamilton Spectator, Nov 18th, 2014
- The Complex Beauty of Living on the Beach
- - -
Another nice piece of press by Jeff Mahoney, from The Hamilton Spectator, Nov 18th, 2014
- The Complex Beauty of Living on the Beach
And, again, from The Hamilton Spectator, July 8th, 2015, in a 'Pan Am Games Special' insert about my panel production for the Mattamy Velodrome Mural in Milton.
2015 - MLH profiled by Carol Soucek King, PhD, for Brick Books of Canada's 'Celebration of Canadian Poetry.
2016 - Review of short film, #TheFrozenGoose via Canadian Short Film Fan.
- Review by TIFF reviewer, Rachel Moore, about my Canadian film, The Frozen Goose
-- Review fed into Metroland's newsfeed, including The Hamilton Spectator.
Review of the The Frozen Goose, (with front cover), via The View Magazine, (pg 13).
Review of MLH Pinhole photgraphy via Milton Champion / Full Page
2017 - Review of my new spoken word & musical CD, CANADADA: TAKE TWO,
by Glen Brown, Founder & Editor of Greater Hamilton Musician
- Review #2 of CANADADA: TAKE TWO by Ryan McGreal of Raise the Hammer
- Portfolio II: Artists in their Studios, by Jeff Tessier, in HAL: Hamilton Arts & Letters
- VOTED 'Arts Person of the Year' by City of Burlington's BEST Committee in May
2018 - Great interview about my pinhole passion with David Ellis on his UK blog.
- Book Review by A.Brindle, of TRILLIUM, The Bay Observer, Hamilton
2019 - Author interview with Fiona Mcvie, re: latest novel, TRILLIUM. Another UK blog.
- Book Review, author interview & SILVER AWARD by T. Anderson, Literary Titan
In sum, 31 reviews/interviews about TRILLIUM in 2019 from as far afield as California, Germany, from Scotland to Florida, and, closer to home, Niagara and Guelph. 4-5 Stars!
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Margaret Lindsay Holton, (born 1955) is a Canadian-born artist, author and filmmaker from Burlington, Ontario, Canada.
Lindsay was born at St.Josephs Hospital in Hamilton, Ontario. She attended primary school at Hillfield Strathallan College; then attended high school at M. M. Robinson High School in Burlington, Ontario, with a final high-school year at the Canadian Junior College in Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1973-1974. She graduated from the University of Toronto in 1978 with an Honors BA that included an Independent Study Year at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. Lindsay was awarded The President's Scholarship in the post-graduate Creative Writing Program at Humber College. While there, she understudied with 2x Giller Prize Winner, M. G. Vassanji.
A published poet, for 'On Top of Mount Nemo'(2002), and 'Bush Chord'(2006, with e-edition in 2012), samples of her poetry can be found on the University of Toronto's CanPoetry website, and were reviewed on Brick Books Canada in 2015.
She registered her artist business entity, MLH Productions, in 1978.
And registered her artist's press, 'Acorn Press Canada', in Ontario, in 1997.
1980 - Designer of 'Lindsay'(TM) typeface, hand-drawn pencil templates supplied to Letraset England in a license for the dry transfer 'letter' market. One of the first typeface designs to be digitized using Peter Karow's innovative IKARUS system. The 'Lindsay' typeface was used in collaboration by both Letraset & URW of Hamburg, Germany as a 'demo font' to demonstrate IKARUS's capabilities in the early 1980s.(1) 'Lindsay' was also used as the defining font for the popular board game, Carcassone. Copyright to this typeface design resides with the artist, Margaret Lindsay Holton.
1984-86 Co-producer and director of experimental documentary with Jane Walker Manchee - 'In the Eye of the Hunter' 54 min, 16mm. Colour. Broadcast Rogers Cable 10, Toronto.
1986-2000 Award-winning designer of Canadian Fine Furniture, works in national public & international private collections, including the Royal Ontario Museum, (curio box & display cabinets), the Canadian Film Centre, (library reception), Stanley Ho (bedroom & diningroom suite), David C.W. MacDonald ('Temagami' pedestals, 'Wolf Settee Courting Bench' & 'Thee Mirror' - the 1989 Canadian National Exhibition Winner with Karl Luber, Senior Class, Marquetry & Design), Rosamond Ivey (bedroom suite), Elizabeth Hanson (children beds). All three beds were first published in 'Furniture: Architects & Designers Originals' by Carol Soucek King, MFA, PhD in 1994.(3) Architect Frank Gehry and Margaret Lindsay Holton were the only Canadians included in this internationally distributed repeatedly re-printed publication.
The 'Four Canadian Fireside Chairs' - the subject of her second novel,'The Gilded Beaver by Anonymous', (and subsequent winner of the Hamilton Arts Council Best Fiction Award of 1999) - now reside in a private collection in Toronto. Apprenticed with her father, cabinetmaker, Luther Janna Holton (1922-2002), sole-proprietor of Holton Fine Furniture of Hamilton Ontario Canada, before going into business on her own, under 'MLH Productions'.
In 2015, Holton's film & photographic works were shown in The Worlds's Shortest Film Fest, as part of the Niagara Film Festival, and at the Oakville Film Festival. A 14-minute documentary, 'Harold Dickert: Burlington Luthier', was shown at the Hamilton Music & Film Festival in September 2015. A 4-minute documentary, 'David Lambert: Fastest Knot-Tyer in Canada', was shown at the 10th Annual Hamilton Film Festival in November 2015. Her first 25 minute narrative short, The Frozen Goose, premiered at the Art Gallery of Burlington, on September 11, 2016.(9)
Author of ten book works, (poetry, prose, social history & photography), one musical CD and classic Canadian WW1 film short, Frozen Goose:
1. Economic Sex under pen name 'Ali Janna Whyte', published with Coach House Press, 1984
ISBN 0-88910-279-1
2. Spirit of Toronto:1834-1984, published by Image Publishing, Hamilton, 1985
ISBN 978-0-9691362-0-0
3. The Gilded Beaver by Anonymous, published by Acorn Press Canada, Ontario, 1999
ISBN 978-0-9691362-2-4
4. On Top of Mount Nemo, published by Acorn Press Canada, Ontario, 2002
ISBN 978-0-9691362-3-1
5. Bush Chord, published by Acorn Press Canada, Ontario, 2006
ISBN 978-0-9691362-4-8
- - (2012 E-Edition, available via Amazon.ca -
ISBN 978-0-9691362-8-6
6. Cloud Nine, published by Acorn Press Canada, Ontario, 2010
ISBN 978-0-9691362-5-5
7. Memory's Shadow, published by Acorn Press Canada, 2010
ISBN 978-0-9691362-6-2
8. Canadada: A Painter's Nature, published by Acorn Press Canada, 2011
ISBN 978-0-9691362-7-9
9. WHITE OUT: Photo Erasures, published by Acorn Press Canada, 2013
ISBN 978-0-9691362-9-3
10. Josephine's Garden, published by Acorn Press Canada, 2013
ISBN 978-0-9921272-0-6
11. Summer Haze, Musical CD, published by Acorn Press Canada, 2014
ISBN 978-0-9921272-1-3
12. The Frozen Goose, DVD, distributed by MLH Productions/Acorn Press Canada.
Produced, written & directed by MLH - 2016
ISBN 978-0-9921272-3-7
UPDATE:
13. CANADADA: TAKE TWO - spokenword/musical CD sold out. Now on-line.
14. TRILLIUM, third novel, published by Acorn Press Canada, 2019. Artist's First Edition sold out. Mass market e-book and paperback now on Amazon, Canada, US, and UK.
Reviewed & interviewed 31 times in 2019, ex. radio interview on CFMU, Feb, 2019 > here.
Visuals of early 'mlh' Canadian fine furniture, as well as samples of her 'naive-surreal-folk-abstract' oil paintings, with commentary about her philosophy about the making of Canadian material culture - including illustrations of her CD, DVD and book cover jackets, can be reviewed on her artist's blog - 'http://canadadaPHOTOGRAPHY.blogspot.com
Over the past decade, Lindsay, now a mid-career Canadian artist, has achieved additional national recognition for her pinhole photography, photo-collage photography and documentary shorts. The Homer Watson Public Art Gallery of Kitchener, Waterloo, Ontario and Art Gallery of Burlington, Ontario, have both exhibited her works. 'Memory's Shadow: Pinhole & Photo-Collage Photography', the exhibition & the companion hard-cover book with a foreword by Canadian documentary filmmaker Peter Wintonick O.C, were reviewed by Jeff Mahoney, Art Critic, Hamilton Spectator, in August 2010. (2) The Art Gallery of Burlington also published a companion monograph to the exhibition with an essay by Canadian author, David Macfarlane. (4)
She continues to exhibit regularly throughout The Golden Horseshoe region of Ontario, Canada.
External links
(1) History of the Lindsay Typeface, compiled by Professor Luc Devroye, University of McGill, - http://luc.devroye.org/lindsay.html(2) 'Memory's Shadow' Review by Jeff Mahoney, Art Critic, Hamilton Spectator - http://canadadaphotography.blogspot.ca/p/press.html
(3) Furniture: Architects' & Designers' Originals by Carol Soucek King - http://www.amazon.ca/Furniture-Architects-Carol-Soucek-King/dp/0866362924
(4) Margaret Lindsay Holton: Memory's Shadow: - Exhibition Monograph authored by David Macfarlane, PDF download - www.thebac.ca/index.php/download_file/-/view/352/
(5) Hamilton Arts & Letters Magazine - Fall/Winter 2012/13 issue - http://samizdatpress.typepad.com/fall_winter_201213_hamilt/margaret-lindsay-holton-portfolio-1.html
(6) Brick Books Review, 2015 - http://www.brickbooks.ca/margaret-lindsay-holton-presented-by-carol-soucek-king/
(7) Contributing Author, Raise the Hammer news blog - https://www.raisethehammer.org/authors/233/margaret_lindsay_holton
(8) Niagara Film Festival - https://niagarafilmfest.com/ Oakville Festival of Film & Arts - https://offa.ca/art-fete/ 8th Annual Hamilton Music & Film Festival - http://www.hmff.com/ - 10th Annual Film Festival - http://www.hamiltonfilmfestival.com/
(9) Website for The Frozen Goose film production - http://mlhproductions.weebly.com
(10) Listing at Art Gallery of Burlington - http://artgalleryofburlington.com/the-frozen-goose/
(11) The Frozen Goose REVIEW in The View Magazine, (page 13), Dec, 2016 - http://viewmag.com/issue/issue-49-december-15-2016-december-22-2016/
(12) Women's Art Association of Hamilton - http://www.waah.ca/membersGallery/MargaretLindsayHolton.html