Artventure: Wolfville, NS Part 2

Wolfville in September was beautiful: sunny, still warm from summer, and about as cute as a town in Nova Scotia can be.

I found the town’s amenities nicely balanced with at least one of everything you’d find handy in a larger town, and even some consignment shops and a used bookstore.  To give you a sense of its scale, population is less than 4,000 residents, though this figure almost doubles during the eight months a year when the university is in session.

Canada is a big country to cross and traveling from Vancouver to Wolfville is a full day affair.  I scheduled my trip so I would arrive on Wednesday evening and have Thursday to recover from jet lag before giving an artist’s talk on Friday afternoon and a full-day, hands-on workshop on Saturday.

My home away from home was Blue Shutters Bed & Breakfast.  I stayed in the Blue Room and it truly was the perfect sanctuary for me to finish preparing my artist talk and relax at the end of each day.  The hosts, Diane and Darryl, were lovely folk.  While their location is further away from the university than other B&B’s, it only took me 10 minutes to walk to the gallery.  Their pricing is competitive, they offer a handy airport pickup/drop off service that is half the price of any other business offering this service, and I’m certain a better breakfast is not to be found elsewhere in town.

On Thursday, Andrew’s parents drove in from the Annapolis Valley to meet me for lunch (so sad he was working a deadline and couldn’t come with me on this trip).  We agreed to meet at the gallery.  I arrived a bit early so I could take a quick look around and see how my installation guide had been interpreted (the guide is a combination of photos and written instructions).  It worked well – most of the pieces were installed perfectly, the rest just needed some minor tweaking (which means I need to look at my instructions for these few pieces and make adjustments).  The gallery presents a lot of floor space and it was unexpected to see the plinth mounted work oriented against the walls.

Acadia Installation View 1

Acadia Installation View 2

Acadia Installation View 3

Acadia Installation View 4

Andrew’s parents arrived and toured the exhibit.  It was the first time either of them had seen my work.  I think Andrew’s father appreciated the work, but it was his mom who really got a kick out of it.  I delighted in hearing her sudden outbursts of laughter as she studied certain pieces.  Both of them quite liked the new piece I had made for the Acadia exhibit:

Wardrobe 1755. It’s one of the most complex pieces I’ve made to date. I’ll be featuring both it and the new Fredericton exhibit piece in an upcoming post.

The three of us had a leisurely lunch at Paddy’s Brew Pub, sampling locally made blueberry beer and chatting up a storm.  It was a wonderful way to distract myself from stewing over the artist talk that I was to give in 24 hours time.

Tomorrow: Wolfville, NS Part 3

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