IRIS MEMBER NEWS
Are you now or have you ever
(been a member of the IRIS Group)
April 5th to May 1st, 2025
Kent Farndale Gallery in Port Perry
Saturday April 5, 2 pm Opening reception
Saturday April 26, 2 pm Panel Collective Consciousness/Collective Behaviour
photo credit Steven Frank
Are You Now or Have You Ever is an IRIS and friends grand finale that explores the dynamics of IRIS, a collective of Durham-based women artists. The exhibition features recent work, plus a memory aisle of materials that look back on the twenty-five-year history of the group. Current members of the collective are Margaret Rodgers, Sally Thurlow, Janice Taylor Prebble, Mary Ellen McQuay, Laura Hair and Judith A. Mason. Former IRIS members, Maralynn Cherry, Rowena Dykins, Ruth Latimer, Ruth Read, and Merika Lugus are joining us for one last show.
Working within a diverse range of artistic practices has historically been the distinctive nature of the IRIS Group, leading to a series of successful and engaging exhibitions and events in public galleries and alternate spaces, in Ontario, upstate New York, Alberta and Mexico. IRIS has always been conscious of our interconnected community and the relationship between the arts and society in general.
While the exhibition is a celebration as well as a goodbye to IRIS, reconnecting with former members honours their past contributions and allows for showcasing their continued art practices. It is hoped that our history can be a model for young artists who are interested in creating their own collectives, where mutual support and strength in numbers allows for a wider range and louder voice.
Working within a diverse range of artistic practices has historically been the distinctive nature of the IRIS Group, leading to a series of successful and engaging exhibitions and events in public galleries and alternate spaces, in Ontario, upstate New York, Alberta and Mexico. IRIS has always been conscious of our interconnected community and the relationship between the arts and society in general.
While the exhibition is a celebration as well as a goodbye to IRIS, reconnecting with former members honours their past contributions and allows for showcasing their continued art practices. It is hoped that our history can be a model for young artists who are interested in creating their own collectives, where mutual support and strength in numbers allows for a wider range and louder voice.
IRIS MEMBERS in Women's Art Association of Canada Exhibitions
Sally Thurlow, Margaret Rodgers, Wendy Wallace, Judith A. Mason and Janice Taylor Prebble are members of WAAC and participants in various WAAC exhibitions. For more information
IRIS at Whitby Public Library in March 2023
Creative Textured Rubbings on Rice Papers
Discover the art of textured rubbing using natural and industrial materials. Experiment with our textures and/or bring your own items.Add typeset lettering for another dimension if you choose.
Presented by The IRIS Group; a collective of women artists, began in 1996 as a forum to share ideas, offer mutual support, and develop projects that further the overall intentions of the group. Based in Durham Region, IRIS has exhibited work and mounted outreach projects in galleries and on campuses in Ontario, Alberta, New York State and Mexico.
Come back again tomorrow, March 8, to celebrate International Women's Day with author and founder Margaret Rodgers as she discusses her book-in-progress, "Maple Park".
Register online, in person or by calling any location.
Tuesday, March 7, 2023 7:00pm - 8:30pm Central Library - Meeting Room 1
Discover the art of textured rubbing using natural and industrial materials. Experiment with our textures and/or bring your own items.Add typeset lettering for another dimension if you choose.
Presented by The IRIS Group; a collective of women artists, began in 1996 as a forum to share ideas, offer mutual support, and develop projects that further the overall intentions of the group. Based in Durham Region, IRIS has exhibited work and mounted outreach projects in galleries and on campuses in Ontario, Alberta, New York State and Mexico.
Come back again tomorrow, March 8, to celebrate International Women's Day with author and founder Margaret Rodgers as she discusses her book-in-progress, "Maple Park".
Register online, in person or by calling any location.
Tuesday, March 7, 2023 7:00pm - 8:30pm Central Library - Meeting Room 1
Bobby Sox and Bicycles
In celebration of International Women's Day, author Margaret Rodgers will read from her book-in-progress, "Maple Park" - a coming-of-age chronicle about her life in a 1950s subdivision. Artwork and original photographs will accompany the reading.
This event is made possible due to the financial assistance of the Canada Council for the Arts through The Writers’ Union of Canada as part of the National Public Reading programme.
Register online, in person or by calling any location.
Wednesday, March 8, 2023
Time:
7:00pm - 8:00pm
Central Library - Meeting Room 1
Register online, in person or by calling any location.
In celebration of International Women's Day, author Margaret Rodgers will read from her book-in-progress, "Maple Park" - a coming-of-age chronicle about her life in a 1950s subdivision. Artwork and original photographs will accompany the reading.
This event is made possible due to the financial assistance of the Canada Council for the Arts through The Writers’ Union of Canada as part of the National Public Reading programme.
Register online, in person or by calling any location.
Wednesday, March 8, 2023
Time:
7:00pm - 8:00pm
Central Library - Meeting Room 1
Register online, in person or by calling any location.
Whitby Public Library
405 Dundas St W
Whitby, ON L1N 6A1
Email: [email protected]
905-668-6531 ext. 2020
whitbylibrary.ca
Facebook: facebook.com/whitbylibrary | Twitter: @whitbylibrary | Instagram: @whitbylibrary
405 Dundas St W
Whitby, ON L1N 6A1
Email: [email protected]
905-668-6531 ext. 2020
whitbylibrary.ca
Facebook: facebook.com/whitbylibrary | Twitter: @whitbylibrary | Instagram: @whitbylibrary
SALLY THURLOW ~ Resonances (SEEING IT THROUGH…)
THE RED HEAD GALLERY ~ SEPTEMBER 28 - OCTOBER 15
OPENING RECEPTION SATURDAY, OCTOBER 1ST - 1 - 5 PM ~ The artist will be in attendance Wednesday, Sept 28, Saturday, Oct 1, 8, 15
Gallery hours: Wednesday - Saturday, 12 to 5 PM,
IRIS POSSE there to help Sally dismantle her show October 15 2022
… What We Sow, Acrylic and Mixed Media on re-purposed wood panel, 46 x 70 x 1” 2021
115 - 401 Richmond Street West, Toronto, Ontario, M5V 3A8 redheadgallery.org 416-504-5654 sallythurlow.com
Artists are inevitably drawn to repeat themselves, revisiting deeply embedded themes as if for the first time. In 1998 I painted an eerie field of hay bales, all in sepia tones. Recently I found myself painting this scene again, calling it Disappearing Farmlands II. This time, in familiar complementary colours, the bales have a surreal feeling in their transparency, and are rolling away, reflecting the uncanny nature around the world. So much disappearance in these works - farmlands disappearing in my paintings, bees disappearing in sculpture, butterflies. Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring celebrates a fifty year anniversary edition that had ushered in the era of the Anthropocene before it took on a dire name. How to stay with the trouble?
My varied approaches to painting, come about from how best to express the mood, and ideas behind it. My sculptures also have this playful use of assorted, expressive materials. I wish there to be a beauty that hovers over the brute horror of the daily serving of disaster news. Consider; the painting …What We Sow required an intense density of harvesting materials to mix with its phenomenal background. The suspension in Detached Foundations and Floating in Limbo embody mourning trees. Serving Up Dilemmas draws on materials from the shores of Lake Ontario beach near my home. What are zebra mussels doing in the Great Lakes? Just the tip of the toxic iceberg.
This summer I shared a happy artists’ retreat in Quebec called DRAW - Dumoine River Art for Wilderness. I was one of 18 artists who gathered to make art and share their stories. My tree rubbings for Three Sisters came about from the enchanting experience of being up close and personal with these magnificent ancient trees. We drank water from a fresh, clean local spring, still unavailable to some Indigenous communities, dwelling downstream from industrial effluences. Why are there still contaminated waters?
This exhibition was painted on wood panels from crates I had made for my first large travelling exhibition of sculptures called Canoe Dreamings in 2006. Once the sculptures were dispersed, the empty crates were
re-purposed into the surfaces for painting, the different wood grains giving a stability to the landscape motifs. Staying with the Trouble, a book by Donna J. Haraway has resonances for me. Seeing it through, and seeing it through art. Is Art still a saving power?
Sally Thurlow lives east of Toronto by the shores of Lake Ontario and a nature reserve. This location continues to be a significant influence in her practice based in sculpture, installation, photography and painting. She continues to explore cultural and environmental themes impacting our global communities, and contributing to the advancing climate change.
Since 1998 Thurlow has exhibited in public galleries in Whitby, Oshawa, Peterborough, Mississauga, Chatham, Sault Ste. Marie, Owen Sound, and Minden, Ontario. She has given numerous artist talks and workshops at educational institutions and public galleries, and shown internationally in artist run centres in Chicago, New York, Mexico, and Toronto. She is currently a member of the Red Head Gallery and The Iris Group, both artists’ collectives.
115 - 401 Richmond Street West, Toronto, Ontario, M5V 3A8 redheadgallery.org 416-504-5654 sallythurlow.com
Artists are inevitably drawn to repeat themselves, revisiting deeply embedded themes as if for the first time. In 1998 I painted an eerie field of hay bales, all in sepia tones. Recently I found myself painting this scene again, calling it Disappearing Farmlands II. This time, in familiar complementary colours, the bales have a surreal feeling in their transparency, and are rolling away, reflecting the uncanny nature around the world. So much disappearance in these works - farmlands disappearing in my paintings, bees disappearing in sculpture, butterflies. Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring celebrates a fifty year anniversary edition that had ushered in the era of the Anthropocene before it took on a dire name. How to stay with the trouble?
My varied approaches to painting, come about from how best to express the mood, and ideas behind it. My sculptures also have this playful use of assorted, expressive materials. I wish there to be a beauty that hovers over the brute horror of the daily serving of disaster news. Consider; the painting …What We Sow required an intense density of harvesting materials to mix with its phenomenal background. The suspension in Detached Foundations and Floating in Limbo embody mourning trees. Serving Up Dilemmas draws on materials from the shores of Lake Ontario beach near my home. What are zebra mussels doing in the Great Lakes? Just the tip of the toxic iceberg.
This summer I shared a happy artists’ retreat in Quebec called DRAW - Dumoine River Art for Wilderness. I was one of 18 artists who gathered to make art and share their stories. My tree rubbings for Three Sisters came about from the enchanting experience of being up close and personal with these magnificent ancient trees. We drank water from a fresh, clean local spring, still unavailable to some Indigenous communities, dwelling downstream from industrial effluences. Why are there still contaminated waters?
This exhibition was painted on wood panels from crates I had made for my first large travelling exhibition of sculptures called Canoe Dreamings in 2006. Once the sculptures were dispersed, the empty crates were
re-purposed into the surfaces for painting, the different wood grains giving a stability to the landscape motifs. Staying with the Trouble, a book by Donna J. Haraway has resonances for me. Seeing it through, and seeing it through art. Is Art still a saving power?
Sally Thurlow lives east of Toronto by the shores of Lake Ontario and a nature reserve. This location continues to be a significant influence in her practice based in sculpture, installation, photography and painting. She continues to explore cultural and environmental themes impacting our global communities, and contributing to the advancing climate change.
Since 1998 Thurlow has exhibited in public galleries in Whitby, Oshawa, Peterborough, Mississauga, Chatham, Sault Ste. Marie, Owen Sound, and Minden, Ontario. She has given numerous artist talks and workshops at educational institutions and public galleries, and shown internationally in artist run centres in Chicago, New York, Mexico, and Toronto. She is currently a member of the Red Head Gallery and The Iris Group, both artists’ collectives.
ON THE ROAD
for the Uxbridge studio tour
Laura Marg and Sally with Kai Chan and Judith Tinkl
Katie Rodgers interviews Margaret and Wendy on Instagram
ZOOM exhibition opened on Thursday June 25 at 7 p.m.
Our Own Sense of Place
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The exhibition highlighted a diversity of direction in exploring the interconnections of the environment, people and architecture, connecting to our sense of being and place. Our "Room of One's Own" proves at present to be our website where our extensive history is documented.
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FOR an INTERVIEW ABOUT IRIS CLICK HERE
MEMBERS
Laura M. Hair lmh.art@rogers.com
Judith A. Mason [email protected]
Janice Taylor-Prebble byngstudiogallery@gmail.com
Mary Ellen McQuay [email protected]
Margaret Rodgers [email protected]
Sally Thurlow [email protected]
Wendy Wallace wendy_wall[email protected]
Laura M. Hair lmh.art@rogers.com
Judith A. Mason [email protected]
Janice Taylor-Prebble byngstudiogallery@gmail.com
Mary Ellen McQuay [email protected]
Margaret Rodgers [email protected]
Sally Thurlow [email protected]
Wendy Wallace wendy_wall[email protected]