Exhibition
August 01 – 31, 2022
Reception August 06, 1-4 pm
Artist Statement
”Contemplating the enormity of deep time fills me with awe. The expanse of millennia is beyond our frame of reference. What existed in the world through the eons? What countless generations of life have come into being? Discovering a clue – such as an ancient fossil – is a source of astonishment. This feeling drives my art practice.
My current body of work explores the incredible longevity of nature. The gingko, fern, and magnolia are archetypes of persistence. They exist today in a similar form to their ancestors who lived over a hundred million years ago. These plants are presented in two strata. In the initial layer, they are two-dimensional icons carved and painted: simultaneously ancient fossils, contemporary objects, and artifacts for the future. They are reliquaries containing precious potential for continuation. In the succeeding layer, these plants are captured in linear drawings symbolic of the ages they have seen. Incorporated into the ancient form of scrolls, these drawings could be construed as fossils. They are transmuted from their original form. The marks are made by interaction with the initial layer: the carved paintings. The carvings provide a surface that is captured with pressure and wax crayon on paper. There is tangible intangibility to the original thing. Motifs are repeated and transformed by repetition – such as nature does cyclically through the succession of generations.
Through appreciation of nature that was, I endeavour to inspire thoughts on how to ensure the iteration of nature to be.”
— Linda Suffidy
Linda Suffidy was born in 1967 in Trenton, Ontario. Originally from Ottawa, she spent her formative years in St. Louis, Missouri. She graduated with a Diploma in Painting from Emily Carr College of Art and Design in 1990. Her prints have been shown internationally. In 2016, she received the Opus Prize at the Biennial International Miniature Print Exhibition IX. She was a member of the Printer media Residency Program at Malaspina Printmakers from 2019-2021. Linda lives and works in Vancouver, Canada.
