Artist: Cathy Mark – Metal Sculptor

I was not familiar with Cathy’s work before my friend and fellow Art in the Fields organizer Dale brought her to my attention. Looking at the photographs of her work, I can see that she is an artist I need to keep an eye on. Her medium is metal and stone—she loves the physicality of the metal, a passion that is clear when you see her at work with her welding gun and tongs. She works outside, and is happiest when she is dragging sheets of metal around and breaking up rocks.

Cathy’s love of art was evident at very young age. It led her to a vocational arts high school and on to David Thompson University in B. C. to study fine arts and Fanshawe College in London, Ont., where she studied design. Cathy has been creating in the art and design world for 30 years. Her primary focus now is her metalwork.

Her work is a direct reflection of her surroundings. Her metal pieces portray nature in all its beauty: Windswept pines dance atop locally harvested rocks and burls.

But Cathy does not stay still with one approach; she is always pushing the edge to explore new ideas, and we hope she brings some of her new pieces to our show. Recently she has begun to explore introducing colour into her metalwork, starting with the bumper of an old John Deere tractor.

And she is also keen to start carving totem poles out of metal pipes. I am thinking I must introduce her to Shawn and his famous “reclamation centre.” I am sure she can find some inspiration in his stockpile of items from demolished buildings!

I am hoping she brings one of my favourite pieces to the show, as it combines the beauty of a burl that her husband found with the flow of her metal sculpture—as her daughter says, it is quite sexy and evocative!

Art in the Fields runs from July 1 to July 7 at South Pond Farms from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., except for July 6 10:00 to 1:00. Join us for an opening reception on Sunday, June 30 from 1:00 to 5:00.