Sun Shadows: New Photo Works by M.L.Holton

Please join me Thanksgiving Weekend at the historic Sovereign House, in the picturesque lake-side village of Bronte/Oakville. I will be showing recent pinhole, photo-montage, and photo-collage image works, and will have several of my pinhole camera 'on deck' to demonstrate how it all works ...

THANKSGIVING WEEKEND! 

Saturday Oct 7th, Sunday the 8th & Monday, Oct. 9th.

 Afternoons ONLY. From 1 to 4pm. 

Hope to see you then!

 Map below and/or link here for directions.

Sovereign House, Photo Credit - M.L.Holton

Gratefully acknowledge funding from the Ontario Arts Council

 UPDATE: Super weekend. Incredible weather & EXCELLENT turn-out (plus sales!) So great to see everyone.

Exterior shots at Sovereign House

 Also managed to catch some shots before the festivities got underway, made a short video of Bronte Harbour locale and Sovereign House location.  Fun stuff. Watch HERE.

Exhibition Prep by M.L.Holton, 2017

New Photo Collages: 'Colonial Heritage' by M.L.Holton (2017)

The following works are a Tribute to my Dear Dad. 

When I was starting out in the 'Canadian fine furniture design & making' trade eons ago, my father gave me a monthly subscription to 'The Antiques' magazine. I just LOVED it, and I have been saving decades worth of that subscription ever since. The time has come, however, to finally purge this coveted magazine inventory. To that end, I wanted to do something that honoured my Father - and his wonderfully inspiring gift to me - all those years ago. 

Colonial Heritage - Panel 1 - ORIGINAL - by M.L.Holton (2017)

These cut-outs mounted in photo-collage form, then lightly painted over by me, (series of 4 panels), were culled from the editions. Artists' - mostly American - like Sargent, Whistler, Wyeth, Marsden, and Avery, etc., with some - mostly anonymous - outstanding 'craftsmen' demonstrate the outstanding art work and finesse of a very specific time period (mostly): the colonial period in North America.

In some respects it is amazing to consider how far we've come. We've now got electricity, gas-powered engines and feminism. And yet, in most instances, the actual level of craftsmanship and SKILL that produced the above art and artifacts has diminished, ten fold. Too few today truly appreciate the time, apprenticeship and discipline needed to do this kind of mind-linked eye-hand-heart skillful work. It's just not much done anymore - in North America anyway. 

We live in the digital age  ...  In response, I've zapped the above ORIGINAL with a few easy clicks of a photo app to achieve 'alternate representations'. In some ways, these 'abstractions' are better - more 'contemporary' - of the 'here & now' - circa 2017.  To be sure, the photo-REALISM of the original photo-collage stands as a somewhat sad reminder of how much has really been lost. (Better to forget, no? and just doodle with simple straight lines, busy circles & bright colours ...)

Let me know if you have a preference from the following ... Thanks. mlh

Colonial Heritage - Panel 1.1 - by Canadian artist, M.L.Holton (2017)

Colonial Heritage Panel 1.2 by M.L.Holton

Colonial Heritage Panel 1.3 - by M.L.Holton

Colonial Heritage - Panel 1.4 - by M.L.Holton

Colonial Heritage - Panel 1.5 - by M.L.Holton

Colonial Heritage - Panel 1.6 - by M.L.Holton

Colonial Heritage - Panel 1.7 - by M.L.Holton

Kindly note, there are 3 more panels in this 4 panel series. 

All Reproduction Rights are RESERVED.

If interested in one of the abstract prints, signed and dated by me, let me know.

Some of this collection is now available on my Fine Art America Retail site, 
consider a print and/or consider as pillow or tote bag! Looks pretty sharp!

(I will be retaining the originals photo-collages, in memory of my dad.) 

TIME WARP - Spring 2017 Exhibit by Margaret Lindsay Holton

Please join me, in the evening, 7-8pm, during Hamilton's April Art Crawl - Friday, April 14th.

Exhibit will be up starting from April 11th & runs until May 7th. 4pm.

A selection of pinhole photography, (with one large photo-collage thrown in ... ) 

M.L.Holton with one of her hand-made pinhole cameras. Photo Credit: M. Sui. 

Showing in the Defacto Gallery, at the famed  

- Mulberry Street Coffee House-

193 James Street North,  

Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

Swing in for a peek & brew!  

Samples of pinhole cameras made by M.L.Holton, Canada. - Photo Credit: M.L.Holton

UPDATE: May 2017 - Great Exhibit! Thanks for coming everyone! 
Here's moi during 'installation' mid April ... 

Learn more about pinhole photography HERE

OFFA-Oakville Festivals of Film & Art: June 26-28th

   June 26th -28th

WITH a PHOTO FOCUS    

--- See: UP COMING  FILM LIST.

And, JOIN US at the GALA - Saturday, June 27 at 8pm

Photo Art Fête is an exclusive celebration for VIP OFFA supporters to meet, hear, and celebrate the works of curated local and international photographers. This portion of OFFA 2015 is what sets us apart from any other film festival in the region. But more importantly it follows OFFA’s mission to “Breath new life into the Oakville Community.”

Photo Art Fête begins Saturday June 27th at 8pm with drinks and hors d’oeuvres. The night continues with live art, live music and live performances throughout before a riveting discussion with a few of the 16 featured artists - including yours truly :)  I will speak about my evolving photo-collages, and about a new MLH film project in the works .... 

Finally, the first ever Oakville Festivals of Film & Art’s People Choice Award: Best Photograph will be presented preceding a great night of socializing and fêting. The event will be hosted by SavvyArt Market, one of Oakville’s leading art distributors.

If you are on Instagram, you can vote, if you like, (and I would appreciate it if you did!) for either one of my two favourite photos collages in the exhibit: 'Wolf Eye' - here, or  'Apple Sleeping' here

PHOTO ART Fête 2015 will take place at Aroma Espresso Cafe in Downtown Oakville,

 at 321 Lakeshore Road E, (Lakeshore and Reynolds, one East of Trafalgar.) and remain 'up' throughout the month of June.

Join the Photo Art Fête! 

See you there! - 8pm, Saturday, June 27th.

Update: A great occasion - albeit the weather was TERRIBLE. Kudos to all who braved the elements!

Cabin Fever: Photo Mashups

 Note: None of these photo collages are 'for sale'.

It's very cold out there - with a blistering BRIGHT light. 

It's Cold. And Very. Bright.

'MEMORY'S SHADOW' @ The Burlington Art Centre, Summer 2010

MEMORY'S SHADOW:

Pinhole & Photo Collage Photography
 by Margaret Lindsay Holton

 

Exhibiting in  The F.R. Perry Gallery 

Opening: JULY 15th  Closing: AUGUST19th. 

Artist's Reception: SUNDAY, July 18th, 2-4pm.

Artist's Talk: Monday, July 26th, 6:30pm

Gallery Hours: M-Th, 9a-10pm, Fri&Sat 9a-5pm, Sun 12a-5pm

Exhibition Catalogue by David Macfarlane

Excellent REVIEW by Jeff Mahoney, 

Art Critic of the Hamilton Spectator - here.

MEMORY'S SHADOW,
the complimentary hard-cover PHOTOBOOK -
with foreword by award-winning 
Canadian documentary film-maker, 
Peter Wintonick O.C. 
- is NOW available - link 'here'.

Artist Statement:

I have long been fascinated by how the human mind ‘records' things, events and moments in time and how those memories are later evoked thru the means of storytelli ng. The emotional tonal value of memories often shape-shift until they calcify into a ‘story' worth telling. These tales, in turn, provide us with identity. They act as cohesive glue and connect us as families, friends, group-tribes, and even, nation states.

We all carry emotional connections to past incidences. These emotional connections often ‘exist' in a fuzzy zone that swirls between fact and fiction. What ‘authenticates' a memory is often a physical thing, some kind of talisman or ‘keepsake' – like a piece of furniture or jewelry, a familiar landmark or a photograph. The physicality of these items ground the story and sets the tale in Real Time and Place.

However, our current superabundant capacity to photo-document EVER YTHING has begun to dramatically alter and even replace the other means by which we do ‘record' our own individual human experiences. For example, we all know that television is omnipresent in every North American home and is often the ‘focus' of family life and early education. There, we are inundated with an assortment of ‘crafted' memories that are primarily designed to induce us to buy stuff. Interspersed throughout these commercials is ‘entertainment' or ‘news' that supposedly inform us of all that goes on in the world outside the realm of our own experience. As a net result, OUR memories are increasingly ‘built' by producers/directors, writers and photographers that have absolutely NOTHING to do with the day-to-day evolution of our own physicality in our own naturally evolving landscape. Most now willingly accept this as ‘the norm'. Collectively, we have allowed external manufactured memories to define, and bind, us. Friends now ‘connect' when they talk about their favourite ‘tell-a-vision' shows …

Lately though, within the past decade, there has been a major shift in our memory or image consumption because, increasingly, through the internet, and with such distribution channels as YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, and Facebook, we are no longer at the mercy of bulk mass-produced corporate image-makers of memories. We are now telling our OWN quirky stories, yet using the SAME tools. We too can now ‘play back', ‘rewind', ‘fast forward' or simply ‘surf'. We can drag a past moment forward into the present, and then, if we like, physically reshape that moment to have a future ‘life', as a ‘new' image. We can now manipulate and EDIT our own recorded photo images with ease. We have all BECOME our own producers, directors, writers and photo editors. We can all technologically manufacture our own memories.

My own sense though is that this heavy emphasis on the technology to actually re-PLACE our authentic Selves in time and space acutely undermines our own INNATE capacity to ‘remember' who and what we have been and are doing. We have FORGOTTEN that photography is ONLY a tool to document a memory - not the ‘memory event' itself.

With this book (and exhibit), it is my desire to stimulate a deliberate ‘dissonance' and force the viewer outside the seamless ‘comfort zone' of contemporary ‘DOC-U-ME photojournalism'.

I want to re-engage the viewer's Mind's Eye using the INNATE memory mech anisms OF OUR OWN MINDS to re-awaken the inner Self to the essential non-chronological components of our individual capacity for ‘memory making' and authentic self-expressive ‘story telling'….

I have done this by juxtaposing the eerie grounded Black and White ‘realism' of pinhole photography with the ephemeral capriciousness of heavily edited transparent collage colour photography.

I think it works - IN THE MIND ... What do YOU think?

- 78 images have been published in this COLLECTOR'S EDITION
- 22 images will be in Exhibition. Opening July, 2010

...

I'm READY! Come on over!!

Keep me posted of Lindsay's up-coming events -

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