Shimmering with Living Color
A Lake Story Color Story!
Following the recent announcement of my upcoming project, A Lake Story, presented by the Bentway in Toronto on September 27 and 28, I’d like to share some moments of the world of vibrant living color that I have been immersed in over the past 6 months with my dear friend and collaborator Jason Logan of the Toronto Ink Company.
This project celebrates Lake Ontario’s life-force and the vital interconnected relationships above and below the waters expressed through the lake’s own vocabulary of natural color.
Jason and I gathered and worked with colors sourced from the lake’s waters, shoreline, and along hidden and buried rivers. They will author this vivid color story with 200 shimmering brush strokes dancing in the wind above A Lake Story’s epic canoe procession, writing it across the sky and water and amplifying the lake’s voices of vibrancy, ecosystem, and community.
Out into the lake, we were guided by Rick Portiss, Senior Manager of Environmental Monitoring and Data Management with Toronto and Region Conservation Authority. He reflected about the changes he has experienced over the past 33 years doing this work. Despite many challenges, it was striking and uplifting to hear him speak about a wide range of positive impacts brought about by the dedicated efforts of the TRCA and their network of partnerships near and far. The TRCA combines the work of many disciplines within their organization such as environmental science, ecology, hydrology, water resource engineering, geology, geomorphology, urban forestry, climate science, archaeology, education, community engagement, and more. He explained that at the TRCA, “No one works in isolation. We all work together.”
As you see notated in my work above, each of A Lake Story’s colors is really a map itself, an ecosystem. The form of the brushstroke is referenced in the way the long silky color field paintings dance in the wind in A Lake Story.
Guided by our waterways, color and friendship
Jason drove from Toronto with a car full of Lake Ontario color to my studio in Beacon, NY and we immersed ourselves in an intensive workshop in preparation for A Lake Story.
The first thing we did was bring one of the color field silks to the Hudson River, connecting watersheds.
Lake Ontario with her tributaries, rivers, streams and underground waterways generously provides a wide range of color sources including black walnut, nettles, lake clay, iron railroad spikes, algae, red brick, wood char, elderberry, mulberry, Russian olive, willow, tansy, goldenrod, wild grape, wild rose, copper, chicory, acorn, iron bed spring, yellow brick, buckthorn.
Each color is lovingly made with water collected from different parts of Lake Ontario in Toronto, including the mouth of the Don River, Gibralter Point, Sunfish Cut, the Humber River, Leslie Street Spit, Trillium Park, Cherry Beach, Sugar Beach and more.
Our Niagara Street studio in Toronto shimmered with color
All of this preparation and work came together a few weeks ago when the wonderful Bentway team found us a dreamy space (thanks TAS!) on Niagra Street in Toronto, filled with light and so well suited as we colored all of the silks (sourced from a regenerative farm) that had been prepared for the project meticulously by Robin Akitt.
The studio was filled each day with vibrant color, great energy from the Bentway team and our assistants from OCAD (Ontario College of Art & Design University) and daily doses of Vietnamese food and coffee from our favorite nearby spot, UFO Restaurant (thanks Jeremy!).
Video: Trida Simone Easey
Video: Trida Simone Easey
Jason has been the most wonderful collaborator, thought partner and friend through this entire process. A rare and precious alignment, full of joy and harmony.
I am grateful to the Lake Story’s Bentway team: Alex Rand, Dave Carey, Ilana Altman, Jeremy Forsyth, Liana Shaw, Megan Kammerer, Renee Castonguay, and Stephanie Dudek. Their thoughtful dedication, care, expertise, enthusiasm and support shines through this project.
With these beautiful colors ready to fly, we begin rehearsals and preparations for A Lake Story, which will take place on September 27 and 28th in Toronto. I have so much more to share with you about this project, these colors, this process, and many reflections so I hope you will stay tuned!
Thank you for being here with me.
With love and living shimmering, dancing, vital, awe-inspiring color,
MM
Vibrant, exciting and beautiful. The display photos of ingredients for the dyes are amazing. I loved that you shared this preview with us.
beautiful!