2023 SPRING

---

MICHELE KARCH-ACKERMAN

TANYA ZARYSKI

April 15 - June 30, 2023

Opening Reception

Saturday April 15 from 1 until 3 pm 

Meet and Mingle with the Artists in the Exhibition Gallery. 

Rewilding - "The Back Story" 

courtesy of Michele Karch Ackerman 

Twenty eight years ago the artist, Michele Karch-Ackerman, a young mother had just begun her artistic practice ‘sewing clothing for ghosts’ in an isolated century old tin midwife’s house in the wilds of Coe Hill, Ontario when she invited a neighboring artist friend for dinner. This artist friend was a professor of glass at Sheridan College and brought with him his young student (who was helping him roof his old country house). The young student was Tanya Zaryski. Michele brought Tanya for a tour of her bedroom studio and showed Tanya her newest work; ethereal dresses stitched from silk organza and embellished with the ‘flotsam and jetsam’ of artifacts (natural and manmade) from her century farmstead stitched on to the dresses with her own hair and inspired by nature, settler lore and her own offspring.

Tanya was inspired. Very inspired.

Fast forward to 2020 when Michele’s ‘empty nest and migration’ inspired show ‘Bluebird Dress Factory’ was exhibited at the Tom Thomson Gallery (near Tanya’s home) and Tanya attended and was again inspired. Even more so. Tanya reached out to Michele to tell the story of their meeting.

Michele was astonished and upon deep reflection remembered the dinner (rotini with tomato sauce and chick peas, a little too dry) and the quiet attentive young artist. And when she saw Tanya’s stunning nature and fairy tale themed artwork it was her turn to be inspired. Very inspired.

A friendship was formed between a slightly older artist and a younger one. Both women, both mothers, both deeply committed to an artist practice that tugs at the heart strings and explores love, nature, memory, narrative and life ‘full on’.

‘Rewilding’ is a compilation and weaving of both artists works: The Library of Dresses being a year long exploration that involved stitching a wardrobe of dresses to honour the dead female authoresses that inspired Michele as a young girl and woman and influenced her life as an artist and has become an actual working library. And the bountiful painting exploration of Tanya’s covid fueled quest for her friends, fairy tale lore, imagination and the ‘rewilding’ of her childhood and self.

Together, patrons will delight in the conceptual experience of visiting the ‘Library of Dresses’ AND all the while gaze at the surrounding paintings of girls, antlers, flowers and a mysterious fairy tale world.

There will be readings. There will be joy. There will be play. Life is complex and full of joy and despair and daily difficulties of wonder and confusion. These two artists throw caution to the wind and CELEBRATE life, inviting art goers on their creative journey.

M. Karch Ackerman, 2023

Image shown: 

"Michele and Virginia (the Artist, aged 59, in a Dress Stitched for Virginia Woolf, Adrift in an Autumn Garden)" by Tanya Zaryski, acrylic on cradled wood panel.