JUDY GOUIN

From the North Bay Nugget, Thursday, July 5, 2007

Bringing the circle to life

Temagami artist Gouin’s work on display at Ferneyhough Gallery  

By Jesse Thomas

Nugget Correspondent  

From ancient Greek astrology, math and philosophy to the Buddhist Dharma Wheel and Aboriginal Dream Catcher the circle carries deep symbolism and mysticism in society, religion, philosophy and of course art.  It characterizes nature, perspective, equality, the natural flow of life and death and more.  

“My work consists of natural world subject matter and its integral role to human culture.  Many aspects of human culture look at the straight line and the 90 degree angle; however, there are no animals that make square structures.  

“In an abstract way the beaver lodge has many similar characteristics as the old birch bark wigwams and it made me think about how aboriginal cultures share an extremely close relationship to the land on which they live and how their structures reflect that.  So it seemed to make sense that the circle, which is an essential universal symbol in many cultures, became one of the focal points of my work,” Gouin said.  

She said her paintings also bring attention to the use of illusion and space; qualities which Gouin believes have been increasingly ignored by North American artists and critics throughout the 20^th century.  

“The natural images I paint coupled with the circular framework adds depth and emotion to a room.  One of my goals is to project the idea of illusion and space off the canvas and into the room,” Gouin said.  

Gouin’s paintings have a very fragile quality to them: powdery snow balanced precariously on the limb of a pine tree, the eerie reflection of the moon off midnight water.  

Yet, at the same time her paintings portray a sense of strength and sternness perhaps capturing the omnipotence that is hidden within nature.  

Although Gouin feels her work has reached a level of maturity, she says arriving at this point took many years and somewhat of a detour through other media and experiences before coming full circle back to oil paints.  

“Throughout my teen years I focused solely on life drawing and nothing more, but I had the notion that if one wants to be a real artist one has to paint or sculpt,” Gouin said.  

With a father in the air force, Gouin found herself living in London and attending the Chelsea School of Art from 1965 until 1969, an opportunistic and revolutionary time to be in London .  

However, when Gouin went to art school many of her ideas about art were turned upside down and during her last year, in 1969, she dropped out of the course because the kind of painting she was looking to do was totally out of keeping with the history of painting and instructors of the time.  

She also had a strong feeling that if she was ever going to find her feet as an artist it would have to be in Canada .  

“I didn’t feel inclined to stay, for one because I always felt like a foreigner, but also because I found little flexibility with painting and therefore felt there was no point in trying to assert control over it.  It seemed easier then to go to another form of image making.  

“I came back to Canada and began the process of working with the two mediums of capturing images altering them through screen printing (1969-1983), I realized that over time I was actually trying to teach myself to paint through these other mediums,” Gouin said.  

After some soul searching, and because she wasn’t quite ready for the seclusion of the bush, Gouin found herself living in Toronto .  In a short time she found work with the now historical and prominent print workshop called Open Studio.  

From 1971 to 1983 Gouin established a good deal of success as a print making artist, with work on exhibit at the Mira Godard Gallery in Toronto, Montreal and Calgary and several other international shows, yet she felt if she was going to develop into the artist she envisioned some sacrifices would have to be made.  

“An opportunity came along for a job at the Ontario Arts Council. To my surprise I got the job, however because of the demands it meant putting aside my art for the next five and a half years,” Gouin said.  

She then took a couple years to travel and think about what she wanted to do and where to do it.  Finally the decision was made to come to Temagami along with the realization that what she wanted to express could only be done with painting.  

“It was a strange discovery because I thought when I abandoned painting in art school that I would never go back to it,” Gouin said.  

She said her love for painting and art stems back to her youth and could be reason why she has come full-circle.  

“When I was 11 I decided I wanted to be an artist.  My parents pointed out that I wasn’t doing well with piano lessons and asked me to choose between music and art lessons,” Gouin said.  

She said at that age she was fascinated with shoebox theatre and Group of Seven. “I found a real magic in creating little worlds of illusion and using coloured tissue paper to change the lighting and at the same time I had Group of Seven paintings hanging on my bedroom wall that influenced my interest in painting and art forms.”  

Although Gouin developed an early interest in the arts at home it was the trips to a summer home on the north shore of Lake of the Woods , near Kenora that instilled a real passion for making pictures and paintings of northern landscapes.  

“From the age of eight I spent four or five summers at this summer home land fell in love with surrounding scenery and nature and I desired to convey and capture that uniqueness and imagery through my art.  Those summers are the reason why I am doing what I am doing now,” Gouin said.  

In 1991, while searching for an area reminiscent of her summer home she found herself in Temagami.