The paintings in this series are a collection of 11 canvases done in oil and acrylic with glass, charcoal, gold leaf and calligraphy ink: one canvas which gathers all of the branding colours of the University, one for each of the 6 faculties and one each- to be hung as a collective-- for the Affiliated and Federated Institutions of Waterloo.
The style used in the paintings in known as neo-modern expressionism. The theory behind this genre of work is that meaning through art can be communicated most deeply through the use of colour and of symbol. You will notice in the paintings that the work is largely not representational. In this genre of work, representation happens only in deference to the symbiology it hopes to evoke.
The symbols are particular to each painting reflecting core aspects of the work in each faculty and college. Each painting needs to be read much like a, “Where’s Waldo” montage! Embedded in each painting are a variety of symbols which the viewer should read through the lens of their own experience of the discipline areas, in conversation with the artist’s lens- the story which is embedded in the paintings.
