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Joanna Strong

Juxtaposition Artist’s Statement 

These paintings developed from looking at both the outward appearance of the subject and at what the subject can symbolize, weaving together these two kinds of observation. By painting from direct observation, I like to evoke physical realities of the subject: the particular gloss of a strawberry, the surface of a scrap of fabric, the scuffs on a child’s shoe. I try to illuminate the meanings that objects can accumulate by juxtaposing them, making an image of a state of mind. Many of the images in Juxtaposition show collections of objects that I have arranged together to create a miniature installation or landscape, then painted on a large scale.

The subjects are often references to living here and now in Toronto; the intriguing forms of the backhoe-diggers working in the roads, bluntly modified and represented by a toy; the tulips that sparkle through Riverdale every May; a dragon on a piece of Chinese brocade; a little green toy car of my son’s. Although the specific details are very much part of my own perception, the themes  - of things blooming, fruition, toys, loss, and the quickness of time passing (among others) - are experiences that many of us share.

Biography

Joanna grew up in Newfoundland, and attended the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design.  She moved to Ontario to study at the University of Waterloo (Master of Fine Art), and Sheridan College (computer animation), before settling to live and work in Toronto.

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