Well off the beaten track
Folk art a find on back road in Lanark
On a day without a breeze to set off her numerous wind chimes, Heather Van Dsun sits on the porch of her Lanark home with her dogs. It is not the hottest day of summer, but it is the hottest so far, and Van Dsun and the pups are relying on inertia to help keep them cool.
It is a weekday, and that, coupled with the fact the house she shares with her husband, Doug Bowes, is a block distant from George Street, the village’s commercial strip, means that their cottage industry will likely remain undisturbed by much business today.
Many of their wares — cedar and pine crafts such as planters, lawn swings, wishing wells, animal silhouettes, nativity scenes, picnic tables and Muskoka chairs — are set about on the lawn, while on a shelf running the length of the porch are a dozen or so birdhouses of various shapes and design.
A couple of them resemble lighthouses. One has a loon on top, while others might convince inhabitants that they were flying into the belly of an owl or the mouth of a wolf every time they returned home. Yet another features an asymmetrical roof pitched atop a trapezoid home, perfect for fans of Dr. Seuss or Pee-wee Herman.
Van Dsun designs the birdhouses and, in a folk art style, paints many of them. Husband Doug, meanwhile, cuts and assembles them, mostly during the winter. They’ve been doing it for about 25 years and only sell them out of their home, for $20 or $25 each. The cedar and pine comes from a nearby bush lot they own. Their only advertising is a sign on the highway to Calabogie that reads “Bowes’s Cedar.”
“Most people around this area know us,” she says. “We don’t do a lot of advertising because it’s like a sideline we do, a hobby, and we have fun doing it.
“It’s what keeps him out of my hair — in a nice way — so he’s not bored,” she adds. “He gets down in the dumps during the winter, so I say, ‘Go make something!’”