.jpeg)
Mikey, the current artist at my little gallery, slaved away at these frames right up to the night before load in for his show. He built them largely out of found and upcycled materials. The main inner board --- all discarded flooring from a renovation job. The glass, offcuts rescued from a box headed to the landfill from a local hardware store.
And many of the photos inside came from our trip to the Ontario Raptor Conservancy a few years back - a rescue for birds of prey funded mostly by photographers. Every dollar spent on location goes towards the care of the birds inside.
Others of the photos come from places Mikey has lived, meaningful spots in and outside of the city he's lived in for most of his life. (Toronto, Canada)
This one, called Playgrounds Past features a misty late-night view of an empty, lonely and ethereal parkette. The deep orange glow from behind, almost extra-terrestrial, but was actually a crime light from a parking lot nearby.
The entire piece echoes of distant memories. Somewhere you used to play, obscured in a distant fog.
At the Lakeshore, over a breakwall where the trees all lean out into the sun over the water, stands still to this day, Mikey's favourite tree. Its curling bone-like branches clawing at the bitter winter wind, a far cry from the burning red colour it had been in full autumn foliage.
It was the hottest day I can remember, when we went to the Conservancy. This peregrine falcon was not pleased to be out in the sun. It was singing about its grievances to us as we photographed it.
These two are siblings. Screech owls. Very small little guys. A brother and sister, apparently. Only about the size of the trainer's fist. It's hard to tell scale from a photograph, but if you hold your two fists together, that's about as big as both of them together.
Also along the water, as Toronto curves around Lake Ontario, you can see Toronto from Toronto. It's as good a clear view as from the islands. On really nice weather days, the water is a mirror. Choppy, but reflective of the sky above. And when the sun begins to fall, you can really see why they call this city The Golden Horseshoe.
And last of this collection, we have a baby barn owl. This was actually the first of the birds they paraded out to us. He was pretty shy. He didn't feel like any sort of performance, which I can appreciate. I was still trying to understand ISO functions on my camera. I think I'd just learned what that was, or maybe I even learned it on the day. Mikey had less of a struggle, since he's spent more time learning his way around a lens. This is a great, and also adorable capture.
As ever, if you like what you see, we're happy to receive donations to keep the artists fed here. The gallery itself absorbs none of the money, it goes directly to the artist and the curator.
https://ko-fi.com/rachelsvparry