Hamilton artist Peter Kirkland trained at York University and completed his advanced studies at Dundas Valley School of Art. Since then, he has exhibited throughout the region, most recently at the Transit Gallery in Hamilton and the Burlington Art Centre.
Artists Statement:
“The initial impression I want my work to make is one of palpable, although non-representational, presence. The forms are suggestive of animal and botanical models but are not resolved into clear representations of particular species. Ultimately, the creation of meaning from the contents...is up to the individual viewer...I feel that the viewers’ participation...assists in the development of a self-reflective state.”
“I try to consider the drawing…balancing the unmarked areas of paper against the more or less heavily worked parts, looking to white areas as positive space, thinking of the act of creating marks as a sort of excavation back below the white paper surface as much as a building up of images on a white base. The practice of erasing and overlaying marks as the work progresses allows for the construction of a kind of internal narrative. The revisions indicate the element of choice; of acceptance or rejection of a given direction for the drawing to take, remaining before the viewer’s eye. This is an important consideration for me, because I've always felt it to be essential that the artist's physical presence remain in the work and communicate itself to the viewer.”
