If I'd Known You Were Coming...
Amanda Damsma, Simone Collins, Orli Kessel, Tamara Sponder
October 24 - November 18, 2008
Reception: November 9, 6-8p

Simone Collins, Chandalier Landscape, 2008

Simone Collins
Simone’s work focuses on re-contextualizing ‘real’ objects in a surrealist environment. By exploring dream imagery and the unconscious using collage methods, she hopes to capture, express, and bind together the conflicting feelings of unease and incongruity with familiarity and nostalgia.

Simone Collins is a 4th year BFAH student from Toronto with a special interest in combining collage and paint in a unique way. After graduation, Simone plans to pursue artistic endeavors in Vancouver.

Amanda Damsma
Childhood experiences are often too big to completely comprehend at the time that they take place. While landmark experiences like first birthdays, family events and first communions are documented through photographs, the images we hold in our memories as adults can be just as clear as those in scrapbooks. In my work I seek to give physical expression to real and yet intangible moments of our childhood. These are the moments in our childhood that seem to have lost their context and meaning somewhere along the journey to adulthood. I aim to evoke the sometimes-eerie nature of childhood objects. I look to question why images of dolls, puppets, and marionettes create unsettling emotions. Finally, the fragmentation and cropping of my images are reminiscent of the often incomplete nature of memory.

From Kitchener, Ontario, Amanda Damsma is in her 4th year of the BFAH program at Queen’s University. She draws inspiration from her experiences working with children, using both paint and printmaking as a way of exploring ideas of childhood imagination and memory. Amanda plans to continue her studies in fine art after graduating.

Orli Kessel
How we perceive the world around us is greatly influenced by our visual experiences. Be they physical or psychological, the spaces we inhabit are defined by the imagery present in them. I seek to explore the relationship between visual cues and the range of emotional responses they elicit. Using a variety of different colours, compositions and subjects, I explore how the perception of our environment is influenced by the elements it is made up of. My work seeks to evoke its own emotional response from the viewer. In some cases, the work is intended to elicit a feeling of discomfort and dread while in others, a sense of familiarity and ease. The spaces created in my work are meant to capture these elusive moments, maknig them concrete.

Orli Kessel is a 4th year BFAH student from Ottawa. Her work is mostly in paint and print and has recently focused on personal narratives and memory recall. After graduation, she plans to travel before studying for a Master’s Degree in Educational Counseling.


Tamara Sponder, Horny Child, oil and serigraphy on wood, 2008

Tamara Sponder
My work interprets mature themes in childhood including sexuality, violence and puberty, and the ways in which these themes are viewed and remembered by different parties (parents vs. children, peers vs. individuals, boys vs. girls). In other words, I explore the side effects of growing up. I use humour as a means of exploring these themes, to trigger nostalgic feelings and to relieve existing notions of anxiety surrounding often taboo subjects. My work also explores that pesky relationship between craft and fine art, given that ancient traditions such as needlepoint and tapestry bear similar semblances to the pixel-y effects created by video games and digital images. That relationship will act as a way to link memories, facts, and especially bridge the gap between generations. I also use symbols for domestic and rural experiences through hybrid animal creations. I feel these are important symbols in my work as they represent duality, transformation and metamorphoses and relate to the themes of maturity I am exploring.

Tamara Sponder grew up in a military family and spent her childhood moving all over Canada and overseas. Her family settled in the small communities of Bowmanville and Courtice, Ontario where she spent most of her adolescence. Tamara completed a BA in Art History at Queen’s University and is now in the BFAH program.