Corinne Carlson, Artist – Toronto
(photo: Karen Henderson)
Corinne Carlson’s art education began in Edmonton and continued in Vancouver, Banff, and Toronto. She has exhibited in galleries and created site-specific installations in Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Over the past three years she has exhibited with a collective of art gallery workmates in a downtown community gallery. She’s currently in the group exhibition Nice Touch at the plumb until May 17.
- The moon
(photo: Karen Henderson)
I tend to keep track of where the moon will be. It feels comforting to look up at a place in the sky, day or night, and there it is. Lately I’ve lost my moon mojo and rarely see the moon. I looked up today and saw a roundish cloud the same size as the moon, which felt like a pretty strong sign that my moon mojo is in trouble.
A few years ago, I witnessed my first total eclipse of the sun and was surprised that it actually looked like the illustrations of a total eclipse. But mostly the eclipse had a profound effect on my perception of existing in outer space. That is, I’m on Earth within its atmosphere, but I’m in outer space at the same time. I know all that, but having seen it was another level of understanding.
- Leslie Street Spit
(photo: Karen Henderson)
Created from construction rubble starting in the 1950s and eventually occupied by a kind of wilderness, the spit is a peninsula extending into Lake Ontario. My partner and I go there for long walks and are always graced with sightings of wildlife.
- Comics and graphic novels
Joshua Barkman, Ew, It’s Beautiful
Comics, illustrations with dialogue in speech bubbles, have been important to me for a long time. They’re rich in detail and layers. As a very young person I loved how they made me feel like “I get it”. I think that’s when I learned about subtext.
The cartoonist Julie Doucet literally changed the way I see the world. In my daily interactions and travels, I see through the filter of a carefully observed and rendered community like that which populates her autobiographical comic Dirty Plotte. Recently I was introduced to the work of Joshua Barkman whose illustrations of birds and their worlds show lives of hope, tragedy and laughter.
- My mother Donna’s drawings
I’ve been occupied with how to represent the joy Donna’s drawings give me. At the bottom or side of a note, birthday card, or label on a Christmas present, she’ll illustrate what she’s written about or what the occasion calls for. Often, she signs off with a self-portrait.
- Vintage signage
Vintage signage and, increasingly, vintage packaging attract me because their construction, or parts, materials, and components, show how they came together. For example, letter-shaped boxes of tin or steel that spell out a name, or industrially printed cards folded into containers for the products they advertise. The materials are recognizable and knowable, and carry an inherent depth because of how old they are.