Trees Rock

The rocks in Northern Ontario are an integral part of the region’s natural beauty, composed of a variety of rock types exhibiting stunning colours and shapes. Having grown up studying my grandfather’s rock specimens from mining projects, I found the need to capture rock cuts photographically, focusing on composition, colour, light, shape, and form.

I learn about land and water and my relationship to them through the work that I create. In the past this understanding has inspired me to create sculpture, painting, drawing, printmaking, musical instruments, performance art, and photography. Now, I am now translating this understanding through digital photography, leveraging its power to translate information into new forms.

This Images on Rocks photographic series embodies living in Northern Ontario, where land and water meet. Through creating art with digital photography, I am able to understand my relationship with nature.  It encouraged me to create a body of work in which rocks are the framework, the catalyst for creation. My relationship to landscape has inspired me to create photographically for over thirty years.

Images on Rocks is a series of digital photographs of rocks, water, trees, and sky in Northern Ontario. Rock cuts are a distinctive feature of the Northern Ontario landscape, like a new canvas on which the art can happen or sculptures requesting my artistic engagement. The process of superimposing images of Northern Ontario rocks, water, and trees on photographs of rocks generates a fusion of land and water.

Specifically, I targeted the new rock cuts south of Sudbury along the new Highway 69 as well as natural rock cuts in the North Channel including the Bay of Islands and the Benjamin Islands. After capturing thousands of photographs in each category, I meticulously edited and organized them using Photoshop, creating the Images on Rocks photographic series. The rock cuts are the foundation on which I constructed this Images on Rocks photographic series. This research has provided fresh insights into photography and the geographical area in which I now live.

Kathy received financial support for her Images on Rocks exhibition from Laurentian University (research & publication/exhibition) and the Ontario Arts Council, the Art Gallery of Sudbury, Sudbury and the W.K.P. Kennedy Gallery, North Bay for exhibitions at these galleries.