Occupational Salve

My professional artistic practice is influenced by the minutiae of the public and private spaces through which life is lived. As a Barton Street community resident, I have benefitted from close observation of the ongoing evolution of spaces that define the Barton Street area around my home on Bristol Street where I live and work. The stretch of Barton Street between James Street North and Ottawa that I often explore on my frequent walks harbours many vacant storefronts. On closer inspection, however, these spaces do offer evidence of activity both past and present. 

 

I have noticed that household plants regularly occupy the window spaces of these closed businesses. Whether to make best use of the available sunlight, or perhaps to enliven otherwise void spaces for now intermittent tenants, these natural elements exist in stark contrast to the derelict store fronts they inhabit. My artwork takes this observation as inspiration: a single large-scale, black-and-white, laser-etched drawing of an Aloe Vera plant, titled Occupational Salve.

 

Mirroring the history and future of the Barton Street community, the natural cycle of an Aloe Vera plant is dependent upon periods of rest and successive active growth. Aloe Vera’s required period of dormancy allows the plant time to regenerate the energy needed to flower and grow in the spring, much like how the period of recession along Barton Street has engendered a sense of vigour within the neighbourhood for renewed development and vitality. The plant that I have chosen to depict also evidences past hardships - leaves broken and dented by influence from external forces. But from these, healthier and stronger leaves grow. 

 

The encompassing background grid as seen in my proposed artwork visually places the Aloe Vera image within an infinitely unknowable graphic continuum. I know that the revitalization of Barton Street will be a harbinger for the return of a more vibrant future for the local area and broader Hamilton region beyond. As the natural healing properties of Aloe Vera provide a salve for wounds, so too can art and its public enjoyment remind viewers that collectively, regeneration of Barton Street’s vibrancy in the near future is possible.