October 1 – 26, 2024
Henry M. Gordon’s “Dream Journals”
Opening reception:
Friday, October 4 | 7:30 pm
Sponsored by A Friend of the Gallery
Artist statement
My new work draws from almost 20 years of dream journals… an important part of my journey to personal growth and self-knowledge. I love that dreaming engages a deep subconscious part of myself. It pushes me to the edges of my knowing as I vision spaces of magic and otherness, exiting the rules and realities of the physical world while still referencing the known. Some believe that there is just a thin veil between the physical world and the spirit or dream realm. The veil is said to be much more permeable than we imagine. With practice, we can move with ease between these very different spaces in our awake dreaming or our asleep dreaming.
My dream journals are rich with themes and imagery that have become the creative inspiration for my recent explorations and this new body of work. The dreamtime offers a wealth of symbols, challenges, wisdom, and healing. Active engagement with dreaming can birth dreamers and visionaries, the ones who imagine new ideas, possibilities, directions.
In these drawings and paintings, I am trying to catch the ‘random/not random’ quality of dreaming. In each artwork there is a form that contrasts with the freedom and mystery in the ‘writing’ quality. I am also working to expose layers of colour and variations of tone to convey an essence of expanded space beyond the boundaries and limitations of our physical world.
Many influences inform my journey as a dreamer and as an artist: earth-based spiritual traditions of dreaming, the work of C.G.Jung, Early Modernism, medieval illuminated texts, Hannah Hoch, Jean Michel Basquiat, Tracey Emin, Annie Pootoogook and Jana Sterbak, amongst many others.
About the artist
Henry Melissa Gordon (she/they) is a visual artist and educator, and a proud member of the LGBT2S+ community. Henry emigrated to Canada from South Africa as a child. Later she studied and worked in the UK for many years, then returned to Canada and graduated from the University of Waterloo MFA (Studio Art) program in 1999. Soon after that, she started a long journey of healing and self-growth before returning to her art practice full-time six years ago. Henry worked for a dozen years as a workshop presenter and life coach at a retreat centre near Bancroft, Ontario, and enjoys learning about peoples’ lives and perspectives. She has a deep interest in altered realities, and a love of the wilderness.
Henry currently lives in Guelph Ontario, on the traditional lands of the Attiwonderonk and Haudenosaunee, it is also the treaty land and territory of the Mississaugas of Credit First Nation. The city is beside the Haldimand Tract, and part of the traditional hunting grounds for the Six Nations of the Grand River. Henry gratefully acknowledges the rich history, culture, and on-going land stewardship of the Indigenous Peoples of Ontario and commits to actively learning and supporting Reconciliation.
Charitable Registration #: 81973 7750 RR0001.