Place and Circumstance: Recent Additions to the City of Ottawa Fine Art Collection

April 2011 to June 2011
Ottawa City Hall

Place and Circumstance: catalogue cover 2010

The City of Ottawa purchased a large handmade linoblock print made by me in 2009.

day by day, week by week, month by month: Ottawa Bus Strike 213cm x 122cm

Entitled day by day, week by week, month by month: Ottawa Bus Strike this print was created as a response to a city-wide bus strike in the middle of winter which everyone was affected by. As a bus rider with no way to get to where I needed to go, I had to make arrangments with anyone who could help me. I wasn't alone. City traffic grew. Cabs were few and far between. Bikes were pushed into service as were snowshoes, and thumbs were extended as last resorts. The strike didn't just effect the bus rider but the families of riders, the drivers who contended with the rise in traffic, business owners whose business dropped off as people spent more time just trying to get back and forth and found themselves getting tired of all the extra effort.

close up of right side


As an art subject it was rich. Images, comments, stories were heated and burst forth without any prompting from friend and stranger alike. I said to myself "what can I do about this?" and a little voice said "You make things, so make something. You'll feel better."




As a cure for my frustration the act of carving and attacking a piece of lino with a metal tool was very satisfying. Capturing the day to day expression of the strike was very interesting and challenging. Seeing how people were coping and how the community was pulling together and helping each other was heartening. Ottawa is a fairly big city, but in this event, we felt more like a small town. It's rare for a single event to effect us all as this did.

close up of left side


Below please find excerpts from the catalogue concerning my print