Rick Janson Art Studio

Is there such a thing as a re-emerging artist?

In the early 1980s I was showing at two downtown Ottawa galleries, one of them embedded in the Simpson’s Department Store. At the time I was creating work using technical pens and prismacolor pencils. Much of it involved mind-numbing little dots on the page that resolved into a larger representational image, much of the visual content dealing with my day-to-day life. An image of a bunch of friends on the street playing ball hockey. A portrait of an artist colleague at a diner. The places I regularly walked by. And then there was some of the sadness I witnessed on Yonge Street, the images originally part of a photographic essay I had done for a TVO series called Electric Essays.

I eventually went on to study at the University of Ottawa’s art school, then later to finish my BFA at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in Halifax. Around the time of my graduation I was flying high, having just received considerable attention for the work I had exhibited at Ecphore ’87, a large artist-run show involving more than 200 of us.

At the time I had completed a large abstract painting called “Ecstacy While Eating A Banana” which was hung at the end of a long corridor in the derelict building we had taken over for the show. The Kandinsky-inspired painting had been on display at the Brewery Market a few weeks earlier, kind of a promotional taste for the main Ecphore show. One family stopped to consider the painting, the parents struggling to understand it, grasping at what the images might be. But their toddler clearly got it, revelling in the shapes, texture and colour of the work.

That got me to thinking about the nature of representation. Given there was a room available next to the corridor where my large abstract painting hung, I decided to create a walk-in environment based on that abstract painting, using painted styrofoam pieces cut out in the approximate shape of the elements of my painting. I hung them at various points in the room to give the illusion that the audience just walked into my painting. In the interviews I did, I spoke about the representation I did of my abstraction.

The painting was sold to a producer from Salter Street Films, the installation dismantled and discarded. Sadly, in all that euphoria, I never documented either with a photograph.

So what was next? That was dictated by my bank account and the need to pay rent. I ran into the author Eleanor O’Donnell on the street shortly after the Ecphore show had finished, and she mentioned that the Halifax Library was looking for a graphic designer. I had previously helped Eleanor with the design of one of her books, and was certainly game to work at something that would at least use the visual education I had just completed. One could hold on to a full-time job and still make art, right?

And thus began my career that started with graphic design and finished by negotiating labour contracts and representing workers at grievance hearings.

While I have never stopped painting, there were years when my day job demanded so much out of me that I had little time or energy to be creative. That was certainly true during my last days of work during COVID. It’s hard to sustain anything when you are able to only go at it in erratic intervals. Obviously there was something still there by the encouragement I got from others, including the occasional commission, not to mention sales at fundraising events for which I had donated work.

In 2023 I decided I had enough of day jobs, and slowly got back into the studio, where I presently work most afternoons. I say slowly not because there was not an interest, but because I had madly gone off in all directions upon retirement and really needed to focus. That included spending much of my time practising for and with a band instead of making art. It was at least fun.

In 2024 I attended Art Toronto (as a spectator) and spoke with a corporate curator about what it means to be starting up my art practice again. I proposed that while Art Toronto held a special place for emerging artists, that some of us really should be classified as “re-emerging” artists.

For about a year now I have been hunkering down and exploring various genres of painting, including many I had never done before. I painted a vase of flowers that looked like they were made of rubber. Sadly, that was not intentional. Looking at Van Gogh’s painting of his room in Arles or his pool hall interior, I decided to have a go at painting our Oshawa living room. I painted from some reference photos I had from various concerts I had attended too, including one couple from a park in Brussels to which I never did discover the name(s) of the performers.

I have also done a lot of travelling in the past decade, much of it encountering some of the great art museums of the world. In the Louvre I recalled the slides of Mr. Samatoka, my Grade 9-10 Art Teacher at Scarlett Heights Collegiate Institute. I felt I was standing in his steps a lifetime later looking at many of the paintings he had described to us in his class and that first inspired me to take up this crazy activity.

I have started to exhibit again, one of my paintings hanging as part of the Oh Canada! show at the Station Gallery in Whitby. I’ve taken out a membership in the Oshawa Art Association, and am looking at many Call for Entries, including one aimed at Seniors in the region. It’s time to get out there again.

As part of that returning to the art world, or re-emerging, I decided I needed a website where people could see my work. The emphasis is not on sales right now — I’m still feeling my way. However, if there is something you see that you must have (assuming its still available) maybe we can work something out.

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