Arnold J. McBay

ESSAYS/REVIEWS/ARTICLES

This page consists of a short essay written by Dermot Wilson for my most recent exhibition in North Bay, a major essay from a catalogue published for my exhibition "Passage: Arnold McBay" mounted at the London Regional Art & Historical Museums and several shorter newspaper pieces.

ESSAYS

Like clockwork: Arnold McBay's recent found object sculptures.
Michael Dirisio
The Brock Press, February 2, 2010

Through a sustained interest in the passage of time and the debris that it leaves behind, Arnold McBay continually crafts art that appears both personal and communal, paradoxical as this may be.
His recent exhibition at Brock's Sean O'Sullivan theatre displayed a number of his expressive, poetic drawings, alongside a more recent series of his three-dimensional, found object sculptures.
Although the materials and dimensions of these works vary, there is an apparent continuity that adds a cohesion to the exhibit that keeps the viewer flowing naturally throughout. One of the recurrent technical themes, one which I was only subconsciously aware of prior to meeting up with McBay, was his use of dominant negative space. In both his drawings and found object pieces, he tends to devote more material to the negative space, which results in a focal point that exists on a smaller, more personal scale. The viewer, as McBay intends, inevitably walks closer to the works, becoming almost immersed in the piece.
"My aim with the negative space is to bring two things to the table. One, a poetic surface for the viewer to contemplate; something that suggests the passage of time. I mean that's kind of obvious. But also it's a practical strategy as well. It brings the viewer's focus to that little niche, right, the focus of that piece," said McBay.
These elements of personal and historical recur in his work, and make the title of the exhibit - Common Knowledge - entirely fitting. Although many of his concerns are philosophical and at times admittedly esoteric, this exhibit appeared to be far more approachable. Reflecting on certain objects of every day experience that range from small metal scraps and butterfly wings, which one encounters regularly without much thought, to pawn shop oddities that McBay has picked up in his travels. They are all intended to bring the viewer back to the common ground that exists within societies and between cultures.
"Common knowledge is the idea that there is perhaps a collective conscience, a collective notion of the shared experiences of people," said McBay. "I think there's something that we all share, and that is that we are all going to walk through this one way little trip and come into contact with objects and people, and have all these experiences and then move on, and not be there anymore, and all that's left is these objects."

To McBay, the objects, often rusted or decayed, invoke a sense of a past life. They are the remnants of past people or communities, which get carried down from generation to generation. While relating generations and peoples, he also comments on humanity's relation to nature, opting to strive for a balance between the two.
"If you look at the work you'll see very clearly that I'm placing man in nature, you know, not above it, not below it. We're right together," said McBay.
The found objects vary between the natural and the artificial, though in a subtle way. Subtlety seems to be one of McBay's most powerful weapons, allowing the ends to remain open. The objects, being as small as they are, appear precious and fragile. This is paradoxical, however, given that they have outlived owner after owner.
Particularly relevant to McBay's recurrent interests are his clock works. He took out the guts of medium-sized analog clocks, constructed plain wood boxes around the now homeless machinery - covering the face and all - and hung some of his odd found objects from the hands. Here the passage of time is dealt with both literally, and metaphorically. By not allowing the viewer to see the face, the clock becomes obscured and distant, though the inclusion of personal items begins to bridge this gap.
"Almost all of [the works in this series] play around with my curiosity about time itself, and there's a notion of the personal nature of experience," said McBay. "I mean, they're complicated little beasts that I believe you can find a variety of points of entry, but really the underpinning interest for me is this question of, 'what is this thing time?'"
With the variety of works present in this exhibit, McBay displayed his true versatility as an artist. Complex as some of the subject matter may be, Common Knowledge presents the material in an accessible way, where viewers can access his work on a number of levels. Being one of the more frequently exhibiting Brock faculty members, one can almost always find an opportunity to view his work. With an upcoming exhibit at Niagara-On-The-Lake's Pumphouse gallery already in the works, 2010 appears to be no exception.

The Poetry of a Line: Arnold McBay at Pan Cafe
Michael Dirisio
The Brock Press, December 1, 2009

Drawing on the mysterious and ineffable for inspiration, Brock's own Arnold McBay has honed his skills as a visual artist, often expressing his interest in the unknown through the simple gesture of a line or mark.
With recent drawings currently on display at Pan Café in St. Catharines, McBay continues to exhibit his unique ability to create poetic gestures through his abstract and expressive drawings.

McBay wastes no time when beginning his works. Rather than mulling over the intricacies of what he will create, he prefers to work intuitively, exploring the possibilities of each medium while immersed in the work. "I like to work instinctively and improvisationally. I'm really focused on the process of the drawing," said McBay. "I don't like to think too much, especially in the formative stages of drawing. The act, the stroke, the physicality of moving your arm, how things unfold, it's a magical little process." It is the tangible qualities of the process, combined with the expressive nature of his aesthetic, which interest McBay most. The works communicate his message abstractly, allowing the viewer to have an active role in the dialogue.

"I'm not really interested in content or concepts upfront, because I think that if you're a human being all that is already in there, so it's going to leach out into work, even if you're not thinking about content or concepts, in subtle ways," he said.

It is the subtlety of this communication that creates the mystery in his work. He trusts that both viewer and artist have acquired a certain amount of experience in their life, and knows that these experiences impact both the process of creating and viewing a work. The artist's life, McBay affirms, will always come through in their work.

"I'm one of those stodgy guys who believes that if you live enough life, and you pay enough attention to what's happening around the world and what's in your face, somehow, almost regardless of what you draw, it'll just all come through in a strange way," said McBay.

This natural process of creation can be likened to poetry. McBay draws on a similar act of expression, connoting ideas and questions openly, rather than engaging in didactic monologues. He prefers allusion to solution, with the act of exploration being more important than any destination. It is for this reason that he refers to his work as visual poetry.

"Good poetry, to a large extent, is about the gaps. The things you leave open and in question."
Though the poetic qualities of his work provide a certain link between the drawings and the café exhibition space, since poetry and café seem to go hand in hand, it was the aesthetics of the building that actually attracted him to choose Pan Café for his work.

"I tend to prefer hanging my work in kind of urban places like [Pan Café] if possible. The white box of the public gallery is fine too, but it's a different game altogether," said McBay. "The relationship between the viewer and the work and the artist - 'cause it's a three way deal there - is different. Whereas I think, somehow, when my work's in a room like that, that's been lived in, it somehow feeds differently."
As McBay's work focuses on equivocal expressions, he is very aware of the effects that the surrounding space will have on the experience of the work. Pan Café offered an ideal exhibition space for his work, as the imperfections of the building compliment his work in ways that a neutral gallery space would not.
"There's really rough surfaces in my work. It's rough-edged, raw, kind of rough-and-ready work. It's not pristine stuff, it never has been."

Being that he is working with the mysteries of life, tight, mathematical or geometric drawings do not interest him. His work is not calculative, since it deals with the unknown - with that which cannot be made sense of.

He is quick to point out, however, that many of the titles of his works are much more playful than one might assume. With titles like "How the Universe really works" and "The ghost of reason," certain viewers get the wrong impression. "Some people read [the titles] and think I'm being pompous, and I quite actually enjoy that, for some reason. My tongue is planted quite often firmly in cheek on a lot of those titles," said McBay. When addressing such philosophical issues, one often assumes that they must exhibit the academic demeanor of a scholar. He questions this, however, asking why one cannot explore these issues with the playful honesty of a child. "I'm playing a lot. A lot of artists are scared to use the word play. For me, it is play, to a large extent," said McBay. "I've been drawing since I was four-years-old, and why would you lose touch with that little boy?"

McBay's exhibit is on display, until December 24 at Pan Café at 120 St. Paul St. in St. Catharines.

Surfacing: The work of Arnold McBay and Susan Wintrop
Elaine Hujer
Curated by George Wale
Burlington Art Centre, October 2009

“Surfacing” is the title of this exhibition which combines raku fired vessels by ceramist Susan Wintrop, with gestural, abstract drawings on wood and paper by artist Arnold McBay. The title was chosen by the artists, after spending two years working individually and together. The word was chosen for both its symbolic and specific denotations. In the latter case, “surfacing” signifies a manner of working which has much to do with surface design. In a deeper, more psychological sense, the word expresses the artists’ desire to find ways to reveal themselves more clearly and truly in the search for their creative voice(s).

Wintrop is a master raku potter who works from her studio, East West Pottery in Niagara-on-the-Lake. She has worked in the arts most of her life, starting out as a graphic designer and calligrapher in Toronto where she formed her company Art Tech. In 1984 she turned to ceramics and, since then, has become a well-known teacher throughout the Niagara region and regularly exhibits her work at the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art. Wintrop has been strongly influenced in her work by Japanese culture and Buddhist philosophy and has written several articles about the nature of creativity. Susan has long been inspired by the work and philosophy of Shoji Hamada, who, with Bernard Leach, pioneered a union of eastern and western clay traditions. But Wintrop describes a change in direction while preparing for this exhibition:

“I went to Salt Spring Island early on to think about this show and while there I realized that 25 years of Japanese inspired motifs in my pottery were over! Then what? It was time to coax out a personal symbolic language about the need to create and who I am now as a creative and sexual being at this stage of my life (which is middle-aged).”

She notes that creativity and sexuality are not that different and, in the ancient philosophy of Tantric sex, union can become a portal to the numinous. She says, “In this vein, I decided to attempt to design pieces that had a path or course which reflected my thoughts in these matters. I began to draw asking myself, ‘What could passion, sublimation, union, dissolution, etc. look like? What shape, colour and textures are they? What shape of vessel would best express them?”

The objects that emerged from this dive into the artist’s psyche are a series of richly decorated, sensuous vessels, contemplative objects that are, nevertheless, deeply personal. They are deceptively simple, shallow wide-rimmed vessels which open up to invite inspection of their interiors; some are shaped with indentations around the rims suggestive of a sort of fluid plasticity. Each vessel is layered with a variety of undulating, curved organic shapes; some subtle and moody in smoky blues and greys, others with more opulent surfaces animated with flickers of metallic lustre and unexpected chromatic oppositions. The surfaces exhibit an extreme tactility and many are overlaid with a gilded or jewel-toned nod to calligraphy. The forms are reminiscent of waves, continents, passageways or fruit, seeds, and reproductive organs evincing sometimes vague and, at other times, obvious metaphors of fertility and union.

The deeply personal nature of the vessels with their hand to eye markings, their open forms and emphasis on surface pattern, are of equal importance in the drawings of Arnold McBay. McBay is a multi-media artist whose work focuses on drawing and relief sculpture utilizing found objects. An administrator and periodic instructor in the department of visual arts at Brock University, McBay has been very active in the Niagara arts scene as a volunteer, instructor and lecturer for many years.

Using oil stick, graphite and found objects on wood, for the larger works, and oil stick and graphite on paper, for the smaller, McBay always starts with the motions, the gestures. Then, following the first strokes, he is likely to sit and contemplate the image to see where it’s going to take him. Many of the resulting images are centralized and evocative of natural forms – vessels, animals, body parts, plants or leaves. Still, the drawings are never meant as representations of anything other than the dynamic energy that results from the movement of the artist’s hand and the critical analysis of the artist’s eye. Perhaps a step less self-revelatory than the work of Wintrop, McBay’s drawings do display a self-definition that is both subconscious and intuitive.

McBay’s drawings often seem to reveal a yearning for freedom and lack of constraint. Several of the artworks rely upon a simple white ground backdrop, giving them a feeling of airy openness that is activated with dappled washes, tangles of loosely overlaid colored lines, unabashed finger smears and provocative drips. The fluid, open forms, which often threaten to dissolve into infinite spatial depth, are grounded and given gravitas with an earthy organic palette. A feeling of tension, so palpable in each work, evolves between the physicality of the drawing and the ethereal open forms, between mind and matter. It’s this yin and yang of surface and space, spontaneity and control, held tightly in balance, that keeps us coming back to the images.

With their dynamic forms, pulsating lines and anxious rhythms, McBay’s artworks can’t help but bring to mind the expressionist masterpieces of the American gestural abstractionists. McBay acknowledges his debt to the New York painters (in particular Robert Motherwell). He grew up in St. Catharines, close to the American border and frequently travelled to Buffalo’s Albright-Knox Gallery where he viewed the famous canvases of the action painters. Still, McBay’s toned down colour, centralized open forms and economy of means eschew the extroverted rhetorical hubris of the earlier American artists. Even the titles of his works – “The Ghost of Reason”, “Making the Invisible Visible”, “The Poetics of Gesture” – suggest a more cerebral and inner-directed approach, perhaps a result of his time spent in a studio in Paris, France the summer of 2007.

This is the third collaborative exhibition by Wintrop and McBay who met and responded positively to each others’ work ten years ago. In 2005, the pair had their first exhibition at the Pumphouse Art Gallery in Niagara-on-the-Lake, a show which centered on the their mutual interest in organic and natural processes. In this current exhibition, the artists continue to share a deep interest in natural forms and processes that are connected to life but both have matured and moved to a more deeply personal level. Their work continues to echo with similarities. Notice the interest in releasing containment, in opening up the vessel form -- in Wintrop’s work overt, in McBay’s drawings, a constant, implied fragmented three-dimensional motif; examine the pair’s empathetic delight in spontaneity and surprises, whether in drips or smears or layering of textures; consider the sheer physicality of the processes involved in the making of the drawings and vessels, the direct hand to eye approach of each artist. In fact, it is easy to imagine that Wintrop and McBay have been working side by side. Not so, however. This harmonious presentation owes more to a meeting of minds, a will to try anything to achieve the essence of their vision, and a shared belief in the joy of discovery.

Curiouser and Curiouser: The Dark Fantastic of Jane Adeney, Arnold McBay and Wax Mannequin

WKP Kennedy Gallery, Northbay Ontario

(Curated by Dermot Wilson)

January 15th - February 18th

Author Dermot Wilson

Synergy in the Dark – A Reaction to Curiouser and Curiouser: The Dark Fantastic of Jane Adeney, Arnold McBay and Wax Mannequin

* click HERE to view a selection of photos of Northbay exhibition

** click HERE to view a brief travelogue of my Northbay experience

When the whole is greater than the sum of the parts accountants and statisticians tend to scatter in confusion. Maybe that’s why art seems not to attract those monetary and statistical realists. In art, the whole is not quantifiable nor is it easily divided into component pieces that when re-attached replicate the whole again. I’m calling that indefinable, incalculable something “synergy”. An energy that is manufactured by the proximity and juxtaposition of the works collected for this group exhibit.

Out of different media, from different gender and age perspectives, comes a clear and powerful “synergy”. Having already stated that one cannot “define” this energy, I want to attempt here to identify a few of the elements within the works that one can identify as contributing to this palpable feeling of synergy.

In Jungian psychology and the literary studies of Northrop Frye, symbols play an important role. Jung identified our primordial images as “archetypes” and believed that dream symbols carried messages from the unconscious to the rational mind. For Frye, the symbol is any unit in the literary structure that can be isolated for critical attention. He analyzes the recurring importance of archetypal symbols in literature and their relationship across time.

In this exhibition all three of the artists are developing a taxonomy of personal symbols, of small objects that retain very large, complex meanings. It is through these symbols that we are ushered into dark places, into the dreams and psyches of the artists. And it is through the bottling, binding and blackening of these symbols that Adeney and McBay are able to comment upon the complex and mysterious qualities of these thoughts. Inherent in the work is the idea that answers and resolutions are hidden away, sequestered in sturdy boxes or obscured by wax. We all must be prepared to work to uncover these personal psychological mysteries.

In works like "Vox" and McBay’s "Estrella Oscura" we can feel a kind of Post-industrial embellishment, as if the first glimmers of growth are emerging from a long slow destruction, these are portraits of the weeds that come up through the cracks in the concrete. And that “historical” quality to the works is echoed by the “pseudo-scientific” compartmenting and capturing devices, the hermetically sealed boxes and sample bottles, the pinned butterfly wings. For a moment we feel the milieu of the natural history musueum, the Victorian authoritarian displays of “nature controlled”.

With "Lost & Found" and Adeney’s "Secrets and Desires", personal history and desires can be seen as entombed or enshrined or frozen in memory. These interior places are not natural scenes. Both artists are certainly drawing from dreams. In McBay, we can feel the ebb and flow of the scenes, the rhythm of these dreamscapes. It is as if the artist is presenting a journal of his dreams.

Another essential element of Curiouser and Curiouser is the quality of the construction and presentation of these works. Adeney talks about clay not wanting to be in these geometrical cubic forms. Firing these sculptures is a nightmare. They are marvelously precise even as there is a practiced haphazardness and roughness to them. The paintings are pristine and unencumbered by frames or hanging apparatuses. Again, that idea of pure, simple expression and a masterly understanding of installation.

The one new media component of the exhibit, Wax Mannequin’s untitled work is essentially a performance remnant. Playing over a series of heavy, massive blocks inscribed with various patterns and symbols themselves is a video projection of the process of firing the blocks. The piece is about the search for order and solution in a very disorderly unresolved world.

Passage: Arnold McBay

London Regional Art & Historical Museums.

(Curated by James Patten)

March 11 - June 11, 1995

Author James Patten

Arnold McBay's work combines symbolic imagery with found objects to suggest how human experience parallels the evolving processes found in nature. Using fragments from a personal history, natural materials and a palette of organic colours, McBay's works are the trace remains of a culture whose history is both personal and universal. Whether it is the prow of a boat, based on his experience of living near the Welland Canal, or a house, or a bowl, the archetypes he uses evoke our desire to define ourselves as both part of nature and apart from it. In essence, his poetic abstractions bring together the intimate details of everyday life with an awareness of the infinite nature of time.

Using this personal vocabulary of imagery and visual art practices, McBay has produced a body of work that is a meditation on natural forces inextricably woven in layers of time. It is a spiritual response to the limits of existence that acknowledges nothingness while seeking to transcend alienation by communicating with universally recognizable symbols. The timelessness of certain symbols, whether it is a vessel (a boat or a cup), or a basic house, allow us to communicate with the past and, at the same time, to project ourselves into the future. McBay situates the archetypal images on spare enigmatic backgrounds or with monochromatic internal frames. the forms often seem to evaporate into shimmering fields of colour floating on the quiet surfaces of mylar or plaster. His palette includes earth colours such as filemot, the brownish yellow of dead leaves.

The physicality of the application of the oil stick reveals the process of drawing as evidence of human presence. Like the action of natural forces on fragments of slate, wood and bone, the act of drawing reveals the process of repeated gestures over time. McBay, who grew up and now lives in St. Catharines, Ontario, acknowledges the influence of American Abstraction on his work. Living so close to the border, McBay frequently saw the work of spiritual Modernists like Mark Rothko and Clyfford Still at the Albright Knox Gallery in Buffalo, New York. McBay's work reflects the influence of the New York school of painting in his virtuosic use of the vocabulary of abstraction and his respect for the integrity of materials. It is McBay's ability to integrate a personal vocabulary of symbols into the language of abstraction that defines his art practice. In Discord, 1994, (ex. cat. 14), the motif of a house suggests security and shelter. McBay selects familiar symbols, such as a house, as a point of access into the work. We all share certain associations with house and home. Often these associations are at odds with the reality which they are meant to represent. The conflict of meaning inherent in symbolic representation is evident in McBay's work. His practice has revolved around an exploration of the internal conflict between rationality and irrationality in human nature.

The underlying concepts that visually communicate this conflict are explored through the use of symbols and leitmotifs that are familiar to us and yet nebulous and open-ended. Almost fragmentary, these symbols require our response in order to function. McBay's exploration of symbols, evident in the Vessel series, (ex. cat. 14-21), questions how what we think and what we feel these symbols mean is often contradictory. His exploration of these symbols occurs on two levels: one rooted in an expressive, intuitive or emotional response that emerges when we relate the symbol to our own experience; the other rooted in an analytical and intellectual practice that emerges when we read the symbol in relation to history.

McBay uses symbolic motifs to explore the notion of order versus chaos. The human struggle to order the natural world to conform to Cartesian models becomes, for McBay, an analogy for the internal struggle between reason and emotion. Ageing, decay, memory and human temporality tip the scales towards the irrational. The fragments of slate or broken glass in these works reveal traces of its transformation, through human intervention, from natural material to cultural artifact and its return to nature through the ravages of time. these various states of being are linked to the relationship between humanity and the natural world, our urge to order it and to survive in the face of our own mortality.

The Nature Morte series, (ex. cat. 4, 8-13), features small found objects in various states of decay that allude to the fragility of existence. Framed in thickly plastered rectangles of wood, the containment of small catalogued examples of the natural world stress the human desire for order. They function simultaneously as small museums of natural history and, in a post-modern sense, are suggestive of the tradition of still-life, hence the title Nature More. McBay uses beeswax in several of these works to suggest the malleability and transformative powers of organic materials. The human struggle to order the world is seen in the orderly application of the wax into the inset windows. The natural objects embedded in wax suggest that although nature seems infinite when compared to the finiteness of human endeavor, it too is governed by the same complex system of laws. We see ourselves in the context of the natural world as small, finite and vulnerable to the destructive forces of nature. The eroded plaster ground and the embedded natural objects in various states of decay also allude to the fragility of both man and nature.

McBay's works are meditations on the finiteness of human existence. One is reminded of Pavel Chichikovin, the protagonist in Nikolai Gogol's Dead Souls, who collects the souls of the dead as a supplication to history. In a similar fashion, McBay accumulates the physical and the symbolic trace-remains of our passage through time. This may be read as a nihilistic discourse on the inevitability of death. It may also be read as an affirmation of the transformative powers of natural processes and

how individuals are connected to the past through memory and the future through the traces they leave.

James Patten, Curator of Contemporary Art

REVIEWS/ARTICLES

Niagara Advance ~ November 26, 2005

POTTER AND SCULPTOR TEAM UP FOR EXHIBITION AT THE PUMPHOUSE ART CENTRE

Two artists well-known at the Niagara Pumphouse Visual Art Centre will present Elemental, an exhibit of Raku pottery, relief sculptures and drawings.

Susan Wintrop is a master Raku potter based in Niagara-on-the-Lake. She owns and operates East West Pottery, teaches art throughout the region and exhibits at the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art. She began as a graphic designer and calligrapher in Toronto with her own company, Art Tech, and in 1984 she began to take up pottery as a form of therapy while dealing with grief from the loss of her parents.

Arnold McBay is a St. Catharines artist whose work includes drawing and relief sculpture. Both have taught classes at the Pumphouse, and met while Wintrop was attending a class McBay was teaching. He happened to mention that he was a fan of Wintrop’s work, and unaware that she was in his class, said he wished he could afford one of her pieces.

“I piped up and said I thought that could be arranged,” said Wintrop.

She is excited about the exhibit she is sharing with someone who works in a completely different medium, with a collaboration of ideas and motifs, she said.

“Arnold has an amazing ability to see details in nature, details he forces us to look at. Now, in 2005, the world has become such a connected place, life is becoming so fast and furiously obsessed with things like jobs and the dollar, it is more important than ever to stop, take a breather and have a look at the world around us, be alive and conscious.”

McBay says the nature of their work may be “a little unconventional, a little off the beaten track,” but yet the two demonstrate very similar ideas in their work, with a creativity that is distinct but complementary.

And with their long association with the Pumphouse, they are looking forward to bringing their different creative ideas to the table for the public to view. A Sunday Salon with the artists will be held Dec. 4 at 2 p.m. at the Niagara Pumphouse, 247 Ricardo Street, NOTL.

The St.Catharines Standard ~ December 16, 2005

ARTISTS TEAM UP AND ASTONISH EACH OTHER

By Lori Littleton

Exhibiting with St.Catharines artist Arnold McBay has been a sort of dream come true for Niagara-on-the-Lake potter Susan Wintrop. Wintrop first saw McBay’s work about seven years ago during an exhibit at the Niagara Pumphouse Visual Arts Centre. About a year-and-a-half ago, she enrolled in a weekend workshop McBay was leading so she could meet him and see what he was like.

During the class, McBay was admiring some Raku pottery in a display case, when he remarked he wished he could afford such a piece for his wife, Lisa.

“Then I heard a voice that said, well, I think I can arrange that,” McBay said, adding the two worked out a trade of each other’s art work.

About 15 months ago, Wintrop was invited to exhibit at the Pumphouse, but was asked to invite another artist. She immediately thought of McBay. “I jumped at it very quickly. And we ended up with a fabulous show,” said McBay, who attended Laura Secord and then completed post-secondary studies at Brock University and the University of Western Ontario.

“There is something that drives me to do my work; I don’t know what it is. It’s an impulse that pushes me,” said Wintrop, who owns and operates East West Pottery. “Arnold’s work looks like that feeling.”

Their collaboration is entitled Elemental and features McBay’s relief sculptures and drawings and Wintrop’s Raku pottery. The pieces have similar motifs, such as vessels, leaves, bowls and grasshoppers. “Both of our works are very organic. We’re interested in natural processes and something you might step on during a hike,” said McBay, who works in Brock’s visual arts department.

“I’m interested in things that evoke nature and the passage of time and the processes of nature. There is a very natural feeling about my work.”

McBay’s foray into art began at the age of four with a chalkboard, and that interest continued unabated (for the most part) throughout his teens. He began exhibiting after graduating from Brock in 1988. In 1995, McBay was the subject of a major exhibition at the London Regional Art Gallery and has since been represented by London’s Thielsen Galleries. He recently exhibited at the WKP Kennedy Gallery in North Bay.

Wintrop grew up in Toronto and attended the Ontario College of Art. She ran her own company, Art Tech, for almost 20 years as a graphic designer. In 1984, she took up pottery as a way to deal with the death of her parents. She studied the art (Raku Pottery) at George Brown College in Toronto and later with well-known ceramist Michael Sheba.

Wintrop has previously had four solo exhibitions at the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art in Toronto and has exhibited at the Pumphouse. Her work is in the contemporary ceramics collection at the Royal Ontario Museum and the Museum of Man, in Hull, Que.

Wintrop, who moved to Niagara-on-the-Lake 10 years ago, said she and McBay met from time to time during the past year to see how each other was progressing on their pieces for the show. Though she thought their work would complement each artist, neither was prepared for the final product. “We were both astonished,” she said. “It has a feeling about it. It draws you in to look at the pieces and that’s what we were hoping for. There are subtleties in the work we are hoping people will be attracted to and spend some time looking at.”

Niagara This Week ~ December 16, 2005

SYNERGY THROUGH ART: Sculptor Arnold McBay and Potter Susan Wintrop Collaborate on Exhibit at the Pumphouse Gallery.

By Eddie Chau

Elemental is defined as an entity created by thought or strong emotion, through which the form develops into a separate existence.

It can also describe an inner force that drives two Niagara artists to create unique styles of art that evolve with time. Though they both have a paradox in medium and style, the works of artists Susan Wintrop and Arnold McBay somehow complement each other, which is why the two are co-hosting the “Elemental” exhibition at the Niagara Pumphouse Gallery until January 29, 2006.

“It’s like a good conversation with good chemistry,” said Wintrop who will showcase her Raku pottery – a traditional Japanese style of pottery – alongside McBay’s relief sculpting. “Some things just work well together”. McBay said the combination exhibit “just felt right,” and that visitors will see both similarities and contrasts between his and Wintrop’s pieces. The inspiration between the pair’s respective showcases come from cycles and themes drawn from nature and life experiences.

“There’s no real cognitive answer (for my work),” said Wintrop. “It has everything to do with my life experiences yet it has nothing to do with it. If a piece comes out that is more extraordinary than I could create, then it’s hard to take responsibility for making it.

“It’s as though I made it but there was something else that made it greater than I could make it.”

The concept of “Elemental” was born over a year ago when Wintrop was invited by the Pumphouse to host an exhibition. Having seen and admired each other’s work, the two artists began having regular conversations about having the joint showcase. As the chats progressed, so did the working relationship as both artists discovered they had a lot in common.

“Every time we talked it’d be like talking to the right side of my brain,” said McBay. In preparation for the event throughout the year the pair began creating works of art that complemented each other. With Wintrop’s Raku pottery and McBay’s relief sculpture – which he described as “drawings evolved into hard form” – art enthusiasts will enjoy an exhibition that is in essence about life.

“It’s like a snapshot in an endless process,” added Wintrop. “This is us, this is everything.”

Niagara Falls Review ~ December 2005

ARTISTS TEAM UP FOR ELEMENTAL SHOW

By John Law

Niagara artists Susan Wintrop and Arnold McBay make no promises with their work. Even they don’t know what to expect. Every time they begin a piece, they have no idea how it will end. Sometimes it’s a disaster. Other times, it’s stunning. Either way, each piece is a one-time only thing – no two are ever alike.

“I have a 100 per cent open mind as to what happens in my studio.” Said McBay, who has done relief sculpture for 20 years. “If something comes out of left field and I have no frame of reference…I just put it aside and let my mind breathe on it for a couple of weeks. Then I come back to it and evaluate it.

“There are other times when things surprise you and you immediately think “thank you, here’s my next body of work. The more open you are, the more these doors pop open for you.”

For Wintrop, it’s even more unpredictable. She literally doesn’t know what her Raku pottery looks like until it has cooled off from the firing kiln. It’s the mystery of it that can both thrill and infuriate an artist. “It’s almost like moments of nature.” She said. “Like a snapshot…it forces people to stop and have a look.”

That’s what they’re hoping for with the dual exhibition Elemental, starting a two-month run Sunday at the Niagara Pumphouse Visual Art Centre.

“You don’t always know exactly what’s going to turn up,” said McBay. “It’s a real joy – almost like a little gift when you reveal what’s there. “You have to have faith and let go of things, that’s the real key. You don’t need patience as much as the ability to just let the art make itself.”

When the possibility for a Pumphouse show came up, Wintrop immediately thought of McBay to join her. The two friends find a connection in their work which, as they say, reflects the human experience and how it parallels evolution found in nature.

Beyond that, it’s just cool artwork.

“It’s kind of rare, at least in our end of the creative gene pool,” said McBay about the aesthetic connection with Wintrop. “It becomes a dialogue between the two of us. Two minds meet and have a nice chat. We don’t have the chat over a cup of tea or a pint of Guinness; we have the chat over the phone, over the Internet and between our studios.”

Both realize they’ll never be mass marketed, which suits them fine. They’re more concerned with what a finished piece says to them (and about them) rather than how many big box stores carry them.

“The integrity of working for yourself means that, in a broader picture, you don’t have to worry about the bigger world because they find you,” said Wintrop. “If you produce your art for yourself first, you become your own quality control board.”

“You need artists of all types,” adds McBay. “Everybody has their own agenda and own sense of what will make them a happy person. It’s not my business to say, ‘I think everybody should do art like me.’ There’s room in this boat for everybody. “We just happen to be artists with a need to do it for ourselves first. It’s a gift, but it’s a curse too.”

Elemental is at the Niagara Pumphouse visual Art Centre (247 Ricardo Street) Sunday to January 29.

Four Point Perspective

Roselawn Centre for the Living Arts

(Curated by Murray Kropf)

May 2004

BY Joanna Manning

At the Roselawn Centre Four Point Perspective is an exciting exhibition of new work by four Niagara artists. Each brings their own personal perspective through media, imagery and emotion.

Lesley Bell shows finely detailed miniature watercolours based on fragments of stained glass windows in St. Thomas Anglican Church, St. Catharines. Each is a small, mysterious window itself into the life of devotion. Rich fabrics of the ecclesiastical ritual clothing contrast with bare feet and colour and pattern dominate.

Arnold McBay takes the fruits of nature—wood, plaster and found objects—and creates his own new world. Working mostly in cool neutrals and velvety darks, he gouges out channels and squares in the base wood and artfully arranges objects such as a key, butterfly wing, dried pod or small ribcage, some skewered by nails. There is a cool simplicity to “Essence”, “All Things” and “Vessel.”

Zdnek Horky reveals his European heritage, Canadian influences and personal intuition through his creation of very approachable landscapes. “Jungfrau in Alps” is fresh while “Nocturno” and “Farm in Arno Valley” reveal the patterns inherent in nature. “Beach in Lerica” has a Turner–esque glow and “Red Beach Ball” evokes a 1920’s feeling of the then–new freedom regarding the female form.

Big surprise is the dichotomy of Lorraine Zandvliet’s paintings. Conventional, pastel shaded land and seascapes contrast sharply with large, four by five foot paintings that combine the excesses of Mardi Gras and Fasnacht with the decadence, eroticism and dubious delights of 1930’s Berlin and Cabaret. It’s expressionism meets Salvador Dali on the edge. When viewed close up, far away or from different angles, each canvas evokes a different reaction. In “Bobabilicon,” masks have mouths open in shock, horror or ecstasy. “Hieronymous Revisits the Garden of Delights” juxtaposes a naked, airbrushed female torso with an enigmatic, cloaked figure who holds a red rose along with a reclining lingerie–clad figure.

Binks & McBay

Scene Magazine

June, 1995. Vol. 7 - No.12

By Avril Flanigan

Recent paintings, drawings and mixed media works by London area artist, Geri Binks, and St. Catharines artist, Arnold mcBay, are currently showing at Thielsen Galleries in London. Not coinciding, but comfortably coexisting, the works of the two artists reveal - with very different results - the possibilities and range of their chosen media.

McBay, in The Vessel Series - a collection of works on paper showing bowls and boats whose contents are emanating out in a frenzied chaotic manner - explores the possibilities of the container and the contained. Utilizing oil sticks and shellac, the sensuousness and exuberance of the medium lends itself well to the palpable energy of the images. The colours of both the vessels and their contents - gold, burnished copper, claret and black - blur the boundaries between material and immaterial, inside and outside, beginning and end. The form, of the vessels becomes marked not only by the broad strokes of the oil stick, but also by the scratched and rubbed surfaces in many of the works, making them dematerialize or metamorphose into something unexpected.

In Vessel Series #2, the contents of the boat, captured at the moment ofrelease, erupt violently, spiraling outward and upward in an explosion of energy - the form obliterated by the sheer power of the force. Set against either a white or burnished gold ground, the vessels - though small in relation to the paper - seem to forcefully usurp the space around them. Like erupting volcanoes, the aftermath is felt long after the initial explosion.

Conventionally defined as a cavity used to contain a substance, a means of transport, and a person who is regarded as a receiver of something -usually immaterial- the vessels here seem to be most importantly a metaphor for McBay's creative spirit. As both the means and site of his own artistic vision, the vessels represent the mysteries and possibilities of the creative act. With an energy unable to be contained by the confines of the forms, the contents - burst forth in a bold act of beauty. Traditionally, the vessel has been a symbol of miraculous power and transformative energy. From the Cauldron of Regeneration of pagan times, to the Christian Holy Grail, the vessel-synonymous with the spirit - has represented the eternal mysteries and the promise of union with the creative lifeforce.

For McBay, the generative and ceaselessly spawning energy is captured but not contained within the vessels. Showing four other works from an earlier series, three of which are entitled Asylum, McBay seems to be struggling to break through his self imposed shackles. With dense, heavy images - in oil stick, collage and wax - suggesting doors or windows that have been layered to offer either the possibility of imprisonment, as the titles suggest, or deliverance, the works are intriguing. Given the spatial openness and vigour of the later Vessel Series, McBay seems to have moved beyond his own boundaries to a freer and more dynamic state. Geri Binks and Arnold McBay runt until June 17 at Thielsen Galleries on Adelaide Street in London. Challenging and provocative, the works require a commitment of time and thought, but are well worth the effort.

Asylum: Artist's work explores what our homes mean

St. Thomas Times-Journal

July 9, 1992

By E. Bunnell

Arnold McBay knows from personal experience that houses don't always make homes. The 31 year old artist recalls his family moving six times before he was 12 years old - a feat the St. Catharines native has almost equaled in adulthood, moving six times in the past five years. "It's just one of those things," he says. "We moved a lot...""I grew up with no real feeling of a home - it was always a very transient feeling." And surveying his work currently on the walls of the St. Thomas Public Library as part of the continuing Art Alive series, Mr. McBay says, "I think this was a real logical thing to pop out of me at some point."

The last of five Elgin artists to be exhibited in the first year of art Alive, Mr. McBay has undertaken a series of abstract work in which he explores the concept of home. His six pictures at the library most completed in oil stick on paper, are part of that series now numbering more than 30 paintings, entitled Asylum. They are disconcerting; smears of black and brown on expanses of white that at first suggest vandalism, then gel as feelings, largely of resentment. Mr. McBay jokes that in spite of his rather transient youth, "It's not like I ended up all twisted out of shape." But working on the Asylum series, he says he discovered something about himself. "I learned I was a little lonely when I was young - more than I thought." And his work at the library hardly presents the home as a sanctuary. Indeed, he says, that understanding of what a home is, can be one of society's great misconceptions. "A house, for many people, is more like a prison," he says. "Consider someone who is physically or sexually abused at home." Point well taken.

That Mr. McBay's Asylum paintings do have a point is underscored by their success. One was chosen for inclusion in the Erin-cara exhibit celebrating Irish-Canadian art as part Montreal's 350th birthday celebrations this year, and currently at the Centre of Contemporary Art - St. Thomas. It was the first of the 42 works to be sold. And after seeing the Art Alive exhibit, London art dealer Jens Thielsen has decided to represent Mr. McBay - a happy event that proves another worth of the Art Alive series, originally conceived by St. Thomas artist Michael lambert as a vehicle to present contemporary Elgin art to the public in a non-gallery setting.

The Art Alive show is only Mr. McBay's second solo exhibition, but has had several group shows in his young career. He is a visual arts graduate from Brock University, and holds a bachelor of education degree in visual arts and history from University of Western Ontario. He is a founding member of the Centre of Contemporary Art - St. thomas. Mr. McBay is an intuitive painter. He begins a picture by standing in front of his canvas pinned on the wall and, for lack of a better word, attacks it looking very much like a fencer who has traded foil for an oil stick. "I start with the motions, always with the motions, the gestures," he says. " Those are the principle letters in my alphabet." Until that point, he says, he has no idea where his painting is headed. Following the first strokes, he sits and contemplates the developing image. And proceeds from there. It can be a hit-or-miss approach. A picture that has consumed 20 hours of the artist's time can end up consigned in a moment to the collage box. Others require only 45 minutes, and are keepers. Mr. McBay typically discards half of his paints but, creating his Asylum series, Mr. McBay says he has had "sheer bloody luck." "I hit a groove on this batch." The Art Alive showing continues through Aug. 15 at the St. Thomas Public Library. A pamphlet of Mr. McBay's Asylum series is available at the library.

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