Beyond The Fields We Know
Melody Telford and Vicky Wagner
March 17 - April 17, 2009
Reception: March 28th, 6-8p | Artist Talk: March 19th, 3p


Melody Telford, No Greater Love, woodcut, 2008

The artists present a series of works that combine narrative and symbolic imagery to examine ideas of escapism and fantasy as a form of creative expression.

Melody Telford
I recently realized that over the course of my entire life, all the art I’ve been driven to make falls quite neatly into one of two categories. Firstly, I make art to work through feelings, communicate ideas, raise issues, and ask questions pertaining to that which is of the utmost importance to me: my Christian faith. The remainder of my artwork falls into a different category entirely. It revolves around what entertains me and arouses my curiousity: the playful, whimsical and fantastic. This year, I have consciously begun to merge these two categories. Incorporating not only symbols, but metaphor and allegory into my work. My aim is to construct my own iconography by combining concepts relating to my personal beliefs with things that amuse and intrigue me. For me, this show is a documentation of my progression towards uniting these two intrinsic facets of my being.

Melody Telford grew up on a farm just outside Peterborough, Ontario. After graduating from Sheridan College’s one-year Art Fundamentals program, she started at Queen’s University where she is a 4th year student in the Bachelor of Fine Art program. She exhibited in “24/7” at the Union Gallery in 2006. In 2007, she exhibited in the “Queen’s on Queen Street” show at the Propeller Centre for the Visual Arts in Toronto. She is majoring in printmaking and is interested in exploring Christian themes as well as the playful, whimsical and fantastic.

Vicky Wagner, Green Fields of May, oil on canvas, 2009

Vicky Wagner
My art focuses on things that could be real and look like they’re real, but generally are not. I highly enjoy the challenge of making something look as realistic as possible. It is a major goal in my artistic practice and has led to much fruitful research and experimentation with traditional techniques. I work in a variety of two-dimensional media, including oil, acrylic, charcoal and conté, pencil, and ink. The content and aesthetic of my work has a lot to do with why I enjoy making art. The subject matter is taken from a smattering of sources, such as literal interpretations of things that are not meant to be taken literally, particularly affecting scenes from favoured literature, or simply random assemblies of ideas. I also tend to take elements from different periods in the past. For examples, pre-modern art, Gothic subculture, and a Victorian aesthetic have all had a strong influence on my work

Vicky Wagner grew up in Ottawa, Canada. She attended Cairine Wilson Secondary School, and also took various classes throughout her teenage years at the Ottawa School of Art to supplement her high school art education. These included classes in watercolour, printmaking and drawing. Vicky is currently in her fourth and final year of the Bachelor of Fine Arts, Honours, at Queen’s University and is focusing on painting and drawing. She has exhibited in group shows at the Union Gallery in Kingston and the Propeller Gallery inToronto. After graduation, she is thinking of going into illustration or art conservation. She hopes she won’t end up doing such classic yet unpleasant things as starving in a box or cutting off her ear.