tenant profile

Artist Sheryl Dudley in her studio Left: Sheryls photo of the July rainstorm

SHERYL DUDLEY: Dumpsters, Deluges, and Castoffs Studio B006

In the midst of the epic rainstorm this past July, Sheryl Dudley was stuck in her car madly photographing the deluge through her windshield. Captivated by the dramatic colour shifts in the sky and flashing car lights reflected through the water, she captured countless images of the torrential, yet stunning, maelstrom. Sheryl describes herself as an artist with a roving eye, so she often finds herself in situations not unlike this one, camera in hand, documenting a happenstance moment of beauty. The collection of images Sheryl stockpiles cover wildly diverse subjects but reflect her primary preoccupations. I am drawn to opposites beauty in the midst of decay or violence, the natural versus the artificial. Landscape and the environment naturally emerge from this, but its really the emotional and psychological space thats the most interesting. The fate of her photos is often unknown at the time of taking: the relationship with a photographed subject can be fleeting. There are images I wish to spend more time with so Ill turn to painting them. At other times, the photographs are the artwork, as is the case with the Dumpster Series shot at the Commissioners Street Waste Disposal Depot. A title like the Dumpster Series hints strongly at the subject matter: however, you might be hard pressed to see the humble garbage bin in these intriguing abstract images (one appears in the Table of Contents). You would also have no inkling about the forensic investigation the Police were conducting nearby as Sheryl snapped her images: I took photos of every stain, scrape, and bruise on the surfaces of three blue dumpsters the beauty of my subject a shocking contrast to what was happening several metres above me. Finding beauty in what has been discarded or rejected is a keen fascination for Sheryl. Castoffs are a part of my personal history making do, re-working old things into something new. Sheryl will be showing us many new things this fall. At 401 Richmond, shell be participating in Practice Practice our independent project for Scotiabank Nuit Blanche on October 5 and showing work from the Dumpster Series in the Roastery Coffee House from October 3 to December 31. At the same time, she has a piece at the Orillia Museum of Art & History in the Carmichael Canadian Landscape Exhibition from September 12 to October 19 and rounds things off with an exhibition opening on January 4, 2014 at Loop Gallery.