I have one last treat of a post for you before I take a month off making things! But despair not, I will resume making and writing later in October/early November. Meanwhile, if you haven’t yet signed up for my non-spammy newsletter, please do so. At the moment, I don’t use social media; so my blog and my newsletter are the ways to keep updated with my work. Thank you so much!

My husband and I did another fun outing for our anniversary and headed to downtown Halifax to explore on another gorgeous, sunny, warm day. First we went to see (well, HE wanted to see, haha, as did our son who was home for a few weeks and met us there) the Stanley Cup as it was paraded through the streets. #hockeywidow After that, we said goodbye to our son and headed for the Farmer’s Market area. Along that walk are many shops to poke into, as well as the Mary E. Black Gallery in the Centre for Craft Nova Scotia building. We walked in, not knowing what the current exhibit was (because we hardly ever have a chance to go there), and WOW, hello colourful, once again!

The whole exhibit was paintings and papier mache works representing memories of beloved objects frozen in time by the immigration experience. I can’t remember what this pink painting was, but I am thinking it was a blanket or a curtain. To me, it looks covered in running stitches and knotted stitches.

The photo of a red clay flower below is a closeup of what I think is a papier mache cooking pot in front of the pink painting. Numerous clay flowers encircled the pot. The display made me imagine someone’s cheerful home cooking area.

I should also mention that these paintings were several feet tall; they were hung from ceiling height. This bright green one with pink and oranges fruits and vegetables really caught my eye from the very back of the gallery! My eye is particularly drawn to the shapes within each rose and in each citrus slice.

This red papier mache bowl was placed in front of the green painting. The bowl shape, colour, and simplicity fascinated me; so I crouched to get a closeup photo. That’s when I noticed the simple dot flowers. Inside the bowl rested several pieces of felted wool fruit!

In this last display, I couldn’t figure out what the brown square objects were. It was hot in the gallery, and I couldn’t focus on reading the small print explanations. However, the bold graphics and colours of this painted image of what I think is a rug captivated me, too!

The whole exhibit was done by two artists after interviewing ten newcomers about their immigration experience. I’m thinking they really enjoyed spreading out these huge pieces of paper and laying out the big and bold designs. For me the whole experience of looking around was quite refreshing. I’d like to visit museums more often, and we have several art galleries in the area. How about you? Do you have some favourite galleries you’ve visited? What and where are they?

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