Busy, busy, busy these days finishing up my semester at school (and my time in Baltimore City!), so there has been little time to write here. One of my major projects right now is a body of work inspired by the story of my father leaving Newfoundland and traveling across Canada before finally settling in Toronto in 1973. It's a wild story that can serve as a snapshot of so many things which relate to Canada's recent history-- the migration of Maritimers to large Canadian cities to look for work in the mid-20th century, Toronto as Canada's "boomtown" in the 1970s, and a look at how working people have been affected by the steady decline of industry.
While I've had papers to write about this topic, art projects dealing with this line of research started out as diversions, but have ended up being an important part of the greater project. An interview with my father was transcribed and turned into a short zine, pictured above. I dedicated the last week to condensing the interview into fragments and using them in a stop-motion animated video (a still from it is included above as well), complete with a soundtrack featuring a rare Gordon Lightfoot song (!) and a book from the late 1800s.
I will post the video here once it's done. In the meantime, here is the link to the project blog.
http://newfoundlandstoriesofleaving.blogspot.com
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