Circular Biologic
My newest work is a result of 2 ½ years of isolation and deep reflection on the state of our world and ourselves.
I make my home on 5 acres 30 minutes southeast of Ottawa and share this miraculous place with a continuing circle of animal life. From birds to foxes to bears they all make an appearance here to my great delight and the delight of my trail cameras.
For the past two years I have inhabited this place with a more tangible and steadfast connection. I spend every possible minute outside in my garden and forest with my horses, my dog and the birds that have come to shower their beauty on its environment. During this time, I have been struck by the changes I see in which creatures arrive here. As much as human behaviour has disrupted everything on this planet, adaptation is the baseline of all animal life. Either learning to cope or petering out. The seasons circle around us bringing us new arrivals and sending others to more palatable climes.
Things are changing. We continue to decimate habitats. Storms are more violent. Seasons more unpredictable, life more tenuous. For people, we must contend with the suffering of others if we are empathetic enough to pay attention to more than ourselves.
As things in nature present themselves in circular rhythms, the circle is a recurring touchstone in these sculptures. We watch out planets orbit in their imperfect revolutions and rotations. We watch the seasons demonstrate surrender and rebirth. Consider the fine work of a bird’s nest. The acquiring and shedding of protective fur and fat in mammals, the rings in the growth of a tree, the intricate housing of wasps and bees. The ever-continuing journey of everything we know from life to death to life. From love to loss to love again. My disappointment is that we seem as a species to continue to make the same mistakes throughout history after we’ve learned them.
This is a more personal show for me than I’ve ever done. The figures are representative of my love for all things in the animal realm and my hope for fulfilling human connections and diving within ourselves to reflect and to pay attention. Yet they are also meant to invoke the sadness of how much we’ve lost during a pandemic, a deepening divide of political ideals and an environment in crisis.
My wish is also that it conveys is a sense of hope. Of home, of connection and care to those that need us.
Colette Beardall
My newest work is a result of 2 ½ years of isolation and deep reflection on the state of our world and ourselves.
I make my home on 5 acres 30 minutes southeast of Ottawa and share this miraculous place with a continuing circle of animal life. From birds to foxes to bears they all make an appearance here to my great delight and the delight of my trail cameras.
For the past two years I have inhabited this place with a more tangible and steadfast connection. I spend every possible minute outside in my garden and forest with my horses, my dog and the birds that have come to shower their beauty on its environment. During this time, I have been struck by the changes I see in which creatures arrive here. As much as human behaviour has disrupted everything on this planet, adaptation is the baseline of all animal life. Either learning to cope or petering out. The seasons circle around us bringing us new arrivals and sending others to more palatable climes.
Things are changing. We continue to decimate habitats. Storms are more violent. Seasons more unpredictable, life more tenuous. For people, we must contend with the suffering of others if we are empathetic enough to pay attention to more than ourselves.
As things in nature present themselves in circular rhythms, the circle is a recurring touchstone in these sculptures. We watch out planets orbit in their imperfect revolutions and rotations. We watch the seasons demonstrate surrender and rebirth. Consider the fine work of a bird’s nest. The acquiring and shedding of protective fur and fat in mammals, the rings in the growth of a tree, the intricate housing of wasps and bees. The ever-continuing journey of everything we know from life to death to life. From love to loss to love again. My disappointment is that we seem as a species to continue to make the same mistakes throughout history after we’ve learned them.
This is a more personal show for me than I’ve ever done. The figures are representative of my love for all things in the animal realm and my hope for fulfilling human connections and diving within ourselves to reflect and to pay attention. Yet they are also meant to invoke the sadness of how much we’ve lost during a pandemic, a deepening divide of political ideals and an environment in crisis.
My wish is also that it conveys is a sense of hope. Of home, of connection and care to those that need us.
Colette Beardall
The Colour Has Faded
The colour has drained from our lives for the past two plus years. For some of us it maybe a condition of some permanence. For others we may ease our way back and the the colour with resurface. |
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Ceramic. Multi Fired red stoneware finished with
homemade slips and colourants, glazes and engobes.
15"h x 10" w x 8" d
homemade slips and colourants, glazes and engobes.
15"h x 10" w x 8" d
Nightingale Whisper
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As the war in Ukraine languishes I imagine the soul leaving the people as they try to desperately save their children, their identity and their homeland. A mockingbird (national animal of Ukraine) visits a young man to assure him the world is watching and life will return. It may be a very long road, but life will return. |
I am your Shelter
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As my world shrinks due to the pandemic I've spent much more time among the animals, both wild and domestic, that I share my home with. They will always have a safe shelter here as long as there is breath in my body. |
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Introverted Extrovert
Ceramic. Finished in slips and glazes. 11 1/2 h x 9 1/2" w x 6" d. |
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I used to be a gregarious extrovert and enjoyed the company of my friends. I've lost a lot of my ability to talk to people as there has been so little opportunity while living through pandemic times for the past 2 and a half years. Will that correct itself over time? None of us has lived through a pandemic of this magnitude before. I still don't have an answer. |
Blame it on the Moon
I've been so lucky to have families of foxes share their own families and their domain with us. It's a joy to see them and a much bigger joy not to. At night in my bed I can hear their cries and sounds as they interact with each other. I am a grateful listener. On the trails throughout my forest that I have water stations set up. Sometimes I've caught a glimpse of them watching me from beyond the fence line. Hiding and as quiet and still as magic. My trail cameras provide me with lovely images and I don't bother their day to day flow out there. |
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Ceramic and Steel hollow sculpture finished in underglazes and coloured slips.
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Raccoon Rascal
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Another regular visitor is MANY raccoons. Of course I am learning to love them as they get a good head start on the grubs that bring Japanese beetles. Everything has a reason to exist. My first encounters with raccoons was in urban Toronto as a child where they delighted me by coming to feast on my Father's raspberry bushes. As a gift he left them fish from our trips out in hopes of salvaging at least some of the delicious berries. I have wild berries and grapes all over my property here in Ottawa, planted kindly by birds and chipmunks. |
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Rose Breasted Grosbeak
One of my enduring loves is after returning home to my birth province after living in the Yukon and Alberta for 16 years was to see the complex array of birds that call Ontario home. Luckily I have a hardwood forest on my property which provides an incredible variety to enjoy life here in harmony. Rose Breasted Grosbeaks and their families are yearly residents. They are symbolic of so many things including adaptability and good news and are such a welcome sight in spring.
Spring Hare
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Spring Hare
high fired for strength and then down fired for softness finished in various coloured slips 14 1/2 h x 10" long x 5" w |
I rarely see these beautiful animals which is a testament to their mythology of a swift and elusive creature of the night. The evidence of their multitudes are everywhere. And in winter of course what better place to hang out then a horses hay supply?! Their reputation for magic is well deserved.
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Crow Sentinel
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We've always had crows visit. But a change has come this year as they are now emboldened to ask for water and help if they need it. A large murder has been stripped of their home by development in the surrounding area. I feel that will be a continuing story in my neck of the woods. Having chopped up the west and far west the east of the city is in the sights of developers and city council. After amalgamation more and more of my small town and country living is being encroached upon. The current family group come daily and have even started leaving me bits of ribbon and bottle caps.
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Yearling Black Bear First Day Out
3 years ago after being awakened by my dog, Laika,
I was amazed, startled and elated to see a yearling
black bear was the interloper I was being alerted to.
He was looking up at my barking dog right below the
living room window.
I have no doubt they have always been here but they are
so adept at evasion, I had never encountered one in almost
two decades. I felt so sorry for him as I saw him struggle to
find out why everyone was mad at him.
He deftly missed every strand of electric fence as he decided to go
through the horse paddock. Not the smartest move when you
understand that I have the bravest 4 foot high miniature horse who went
after him defending his much larger (full sized Polish Arabian) mare
in true mini fashion. Chasing him through the back of the
paddock to the woods. He lollygagged around for a few days and moved on
after foraging in my neighbours honey skeps. Who could blame a bear
for trying!
Time Always Runs Out
The sculpture here represents a continuum. A circle of existence.
When our dog (my daughter's childhood dog) Skye passed away I felt that I could never do it again. As those of us who have pets know it's a familiar conflict. Of course you know I was then blessed with the incredible Laika. And as sure as I sit here Skye had something to do with that.
I had this old outdoor clock kicking around for years waiting for a repurpose and I had made a small sculpture of Skye for another piece that I edited from the show. I had also impulsively made a sculpture of Laika. Playing in the studio an idea was born of time passing in circular rhythm like the planets move. Like a bird's nest is created. Like the rings of a tree grow. Like a child becomes an adult becomes a caregiver becomes a child.
While I was mounting the show yesterday my friend's beloved first dog passed and I've been so sad for her for this large loss in her life.
I want to tell her not to say I can't do it again. I understand that so intimately. Don't all of us who have said goodbye to pets. Today also happens to be the 8th anniversary that my son's dog, our beloved Will passed. Today those memories make me happy and are precious reminders of that damn circle we're in.
"Please never say never again"...
When our dog (my daughter's childhood dog) Skye passed away I felt that I could never do it again. As those of us who have pets know it's a familiar conflict. Of course you know I was then blessed with the incredible Laika. And as sure as I sit here Skye had something to do with that.
I had this old outdoor clock kicking around for years waiting for a repurpose and I had made a small sculpture of Skye for another piece that I edited from the show. I had also impulsively made a sculpture of Laika. Playing in the studio an idea was born of time passing in circular rhythm like the planets move. Like a bird's nest is created. Like the rings of a tree grow. Like a child becomes an adult becomes a caregiver becomes a child.
While I was mounting the show yesterday my friend's beloved first dog passed and I've been so sad for her for this large loss in her life.
I want to tell her not to say I can't do it again. I understand that so intimately. Don't all of us who have said goodbye to pets. Today also happens to be the 8th anniversary that my son's dog, our beloved Will passed. Today those memories make me happy and are precious reminders of that damn circle we're in.
"Please never say never again"...
Hummingbird Madness
They great me each and every morning and as soon as I see the first one all the cleaned and
sterilized feeders come out and I'm on constant hummingbird nectar making duty.
It's an easy job but as August comes along you have to really be careful of those darn
wasps that want to share in the sweet bounty.
Imagine this tiny bird on its yearly migration from Ottawa to South America. And they
travel solo. Not in flocks. Sometimes traversing a different route to their final
destination than what they took to get here. They LOVE to travel!
I dug up this ring of metal farm implementation on the property this year. I immediately
saw these little striking fliers circling around it being properly kept apart
by the various metal attachments. They are a very territorial bird!
These are life sized hand painted high fired ceramic with inks.
Individually for sale but without the ring. I'm loving this as a display piece too much.
sterilized feeders come out and I'm on constant hummingbird nectar making duty.
It's an easy job but as August comes along you have to really be careful of those darn
wasps that want to share in the sweet bounty.
Imagine this tiny bird on its yearly migration from Ottawa to South America. And they
travel solo. Not in flocks. Sometimes traversing a different route to their final
destination than what they took to get here. They LOVE to travel!
I dug up this ring of metal farm implementation on the property this year. I immediately
saw these little striking fliers circling around it being properly kept apart
by the various metal attachments. They are a very territorial bird!
These are life sized hand painted high fired ceramic with inks.
Individually for sale but without the ring. I'm loving this as a display piece too much.
