Catch the light

Below is my review in the paper this week of our local theatre company's latest play.

This latest offering from the Mulgrave Road Theatre, in association with LunaSea Theatre, was a pleasant surprise. On the surface, a play about an unknown painter doesn't elicit excitement in the average theatre goer. Once I got past the extreme facial gestures and body movements, which I had forgotten were part of live drama, I settled in for a fun filled evening.

To Capture Light by Mary-Colin Chisholm had its' season opener on Saturday, October 16 at Chedabucto Place Performance Centre. Loosely based on the life of 19th century Nova Scotian impressionist painter, Frances Jones Bannerman, the play imagines the trials and tribulations of a young female painter caught up in the whirlwind of the Parisian art world. While focusing on the stereotypically troubled life of the artist; there is a nod to the added complication of her gender in this male dominated profession and era.

Though a thematically serious work, the cast including Mary-Colin Chisholm, Mauralea Austin, Martha Irving, and Sherry Smith, managed to garner their fair share of laughs from the audience. Smith was extremely amusing in her performance of several male characters including Oscar Wilde. The resurrection of the can-can by all 4 cast members charmed many theater goers as did the augmentation to the cast by the addition of dressmakers dummies which were twirled about as dance partners, stood as silent purveyors of art, and supplied a quick means of costume/character changes.

With all but one actor playing multiple roles, costuming was an important element in creating character. Quick changes backstage, an addition of a hat, and sometimes only an actors face atop a dummy gave the illusion of a much larger cast.

A linen backdrop with images projected upon it served as the set. I prefer something more elaborate and tangible but acknowledge that such a small group could not afford such frivolities. On the upside, this arrangement allowed the audience to view the artwork of Bannerman and her contemporaries.

The play ended with several minutes of applause from an appreciative audience. In this digital age where attention spans are declining, it's good to know that new works by Nova Scotian artists are out there to capture our imaginations and transport us from the 2 second sound bite.

Front Page News

What follows is my first front page story for our local paper:
The Guysborough Journal.

Billy Bond and crew land the big one

By Lois Ann Dort

CANSO- Living by the sea, we’ve all heard the story about the big one that got away, but have you ever heard a tale like this?

Bill Bond of Canso, skipper of the Melissa and Poppa III left last week for the giant blue fin tuna fishing grounds for the two-day season open off the shores of Ballantyne Cove, Antigonish County. He and mate Kenny Snow of Fox Island, set out at 6 am on Tuesday morning, September 28, not knowing the drama that would soon unfold.

About an hour after steaming out of Ballantyne’s Cove, the fisherman were baiting their hook with herring. The baited hook lying across the side of the boat was just too tempting for one fish. It pulled up alongside the boat and swiped the bait and the battle began.

Ken Snow manned the rod and played out the line to let the giant tire himself out, while Bill Bond commanded the wheel. “You have to be sure not to get the line nicked by the boat when you have a fish on; the tension on the line is so great that it will easily break and then you’ve lost your fish and a $300 spool of line,” comments Bill as he describes the one hour and 45 minute ordeal.

Although, the fisherman had seen the fish as it grabbed the bait, it wasn’t until they hauled it up alongside the boat that they knew the size of their catch. Bill Bond explains:

“It didn’t feel any different than any other fish we’d caught in the past. Sometimes a young fish will give you as much fight or more. We were surprised when we saw it.” And well you might be surprised to haul up a fish that weighed in at 1,110 pounds, the largest fish landed in the Gulf to date.

Bill Bond has been a fisherman all his life and has been fishing the giant blue fin tuna for the past eight years. He’s caught fish every season, most of them weighing, on average, between 500 to 600 pounds.

He’s seen some big fish before and heard of some fantastic payouts but things have changed in the industry in the past decade and he doesn’t expect to be buying a new truck on the back of this catch. “Years ago, in the heyday of the fishery, there was a father and son team that got 50 and 55 dollars a pound for their catch. Iexpect Imight get between seven and eight, it all depends on thequality of the fish and the quantity on the market,” says Bond. And the market is volatile.

Blue fin tuna caught in Atlantic Canada is sold by auction to buyers in Japan, where the fresh flesh of the big fish is a prized item on the menu of many sushi bars. This past spring, the market received a shock when the United States proposed a ban on Atlantic blue fin tuna exports to the United Nations wildlife meeting. The proposed ban was quashed but the threat to the fishery in Atlantic Canada has not disappeared. Fishing practices in the Mediterranean, where boats use nets that scoop up entire schools of blue fin tuna, have caused concern about the depletion of stocks globally.

Bill Bond describes the difference between the European fishing model and what happens in Atlantic Canada: Tuna fisherman in Nova Scotia pursue these gigantic fish with rod and reel alone, no wenches or other mechanical devices are used to haul in the catch, just pure sweat and blood manpower. The season in the Gulf is open for two days. In that time, the quota of 50,000 tons is met. We only fish mature tuna, although there appears to be more juveniles year upon year. As for the last of the giant blue fin-Ican’t see it. Everybody should be fishing rod and reel.

Atlantic Canadian fisherman can only hope that the rest of the world will adopt their fishing practices and conserve the giant blue fin while still prospering from it’s tasty flesh. This path will ensure that this is not the last big fish tale you read.

An Artist's Life

As I take these notes I am sitting in a chair watching Bruce Campbell
and Alan Syliboy create a new work of art; acrylic on canvas. There are not many other people in the room and it is as if I was their patron, scrutinizing the work in progress as it develops at my feet. Or it would be like that if I was not in awe of this collaborative painting process.

I first met Alan Syliboy's work when I was in University, the early years. I attended a talk he gave at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia in Halifax and was smitten by his understated manner.

This evening was no different.

He was pleasant, unassuming and chatty. During a coffee break he sat beside me and discussed his work and reminisced about the talk he had given at the Art Gallery that I had attended so many years ago.

Bagpipes and fiddles came floating in through the open window where the blue base on the canvas stood drying before the next layer was applied. Beyond this room commenced the maiden voyage of the Arts event aptly named Antigonight.

This room, on the third floor of an empty downtown building, was the site for one of two painting exhibits in the show. The red and white diamond tiled linoleum was covered by a large drop sheet. Big jars of blue and yellow paint were open on the floor. The canvas, now standing, had been laid on the floor for the application of the blue base layer.

I talked with Alan about working in a new space and with an audience- he didn't mind. It was a new experience and he welcomed those.
In his studio he might work on the floor, a table, on an easel. He had no set parameters.

As he finished his coffee and got ready to paint some more he said, "Caffeine driven painting is always interesting."

Discussing paint and techniques, he said all his paint was bought on sale and as for technique, he used whatever was at hand including his own, to mix paint. Hands, fingernails, and plastic knives were a good means to create texture.

The blue background was still tacky but dry enough to add another layer and the two artist set to work once again. They smeared their hands with red paint and filled the sky with their imprints.

Next, Bruce suggested, they do a frieze of feet on the bottom, all pointing in one direction with one golden foot amidst a path of brilliant pink footprints.

Alan asked, "Why a gold foot?"

Bruce, alluding to a quirk in one of Alan's other paintings said, "It's like a caribou going backward".

The two painters sat and chatted about feet, positioning, colour etc. Then it was time to refuel: pizza.

Bruce kept looking at the painting and every few moments would interject into the conversation, " We've got to get the ground down. We've got to get the ground down." The painting, I will mention here, had a guiding theme of environmentalism and man's impact on the earth. Finally, I could stand to stay silent no more and said to Bruce, "Yes, but I heard that may take 6 days."