Janice Mason Steeves

Safe Home  42x42" oil/cold wax on panel © 2012 Janice Mason Steeves I am back in the land of the healed!  My arm is out of the cast, my right foot is almost better-whatever was wrong with it, no one still knows-and my eye is totally better.  Hallelujah.  It's been quite a winter.  I haven't been back into the studio yet.  The wrist is so weak and vulnerable still.  But soon.  After a bit of physiotherapy. Meanwhile, I am still getting lots of prep work done for my classes and having interesting email conversations with other artists. Today I received an email from an artist friend in Winnipeg who asked a group of us, "What effect does narrative have on an image?"  He wondered about the value or importance of text to support an image, such as an artist's statement or even a title.    I wrote back to say that  I have found that writing adds another dimension to my work.  My painting is totally intuitive ...

Thoughts of Stones #5   ©Janice Mason Steeves 2011    Yesterday I went with my friend Jane Lind to see the award-winning play, Red , at the Bluma Appel Theatre  in Toronto.  What an experience! Director Kim Collier describes  Red , as 'a play about faith versus doubt-in the artistic process, in ourselves, in our work, and in our place in the world.  I think we all are confronted with the sturggles that faced Mark Rothko: what does my life's work add up to?  How will I be remembered?  Have I been true to myself? These are all questions that eventually demand an answer from us."  Red is set in Rothko's studio in 1958 in New York City where he was working on his mural commission for the Four Season's Hotel.  The play documents a fictionalized account of Rothko's conversations with his assistant, Ken.  We get a look into Rothko's intense artistic vision- to create art that expressed archetypal human emotions and commu...

Sean Scully Exhibition Cut Ground Kerlin Gallery Dublin On my last day in Ireland, October 6th, my friend Mary and I went to see Sean Scully's show at Kerlin Gallery , in Dublin.  It was just opening that day and I was hoping to see it before I left Ireland. I spent some time in the gallery and just as I decided to leave, to my surprise and delight, there was Sean Scully coming up the stairs.  He was to be interviewed for Irish television by the Irish painter, Sinead Ni Mhaonaigh.  Scully is a very tall and imposing figure, balding, with a fringe of short grey hair and a stubbily grey beard, looking every bit his sixty-six years until he begins to speak.  Then his entire demeanour changes and a fire comes into his eyes. I was really privileged to be able to listen to the entire interview as I stood in the gallery.  Scully and Sinead roamed around the enormous white space as the videographer moved the huge rolling camera in and out and aro...