Flight: A stunning and powerful exhibition by Sigrid Fisher
“Once upon at time, there was a happy place. Nature was beautiful and free.
Every year early in the spring the crows came. They made their nests in the tall trees, The tall trees the moon shone through, The tall trees the wind sang through.
The babies came.
Mother bird with much patience and pride Taught them how to fly.
A man came.
He ravaged the land.
He cut down the tall trees.
The birds flew away.”
— Sigrid Fisher
These are the words written in 2017 by an accomplished artist whose family has had property in Austin on the shores of Lake Memphremagog for almost 150 years. The words mirror the feelings she has captured on canvas, a collection of art that she has been working on for over a year and is on display at the Austin town hall for the next three weeks. It is her way of protesting an unreasonable number of trees cut along the east side of Sargent’s Bay on Lake Memphremagog.
Surrounded by family and friends who have supported her through this transitional life journey, Sigrid Fisher thanked, in particular, her dear friends Robert Benoit and Giselle Lacasse-benoit, who hosted the vernissage on Friday. It is clear by comments coming from all who attended that this most recent artwork has taken on a different style from anything she has done before. Her bold colours, and frenzied birds, her stressed trees and life on Earth as she depicts what she sees as the current situation is something that those who know her work have never seen before. Joan Marien came with her grandson from Montreal. She said that she was “blown away by Sigi’s art and this totally new approach she has taken. It is earthy and true, and tells such a story.”
Fisher says that her poem along with her new collection is her way to speak out about her profound anger, sadness, and frustration over three major treecutting events in recent years on the east side of Sargent’s Bay, land that was owned by the Fisher and Lyman cousins for long over a century. She says that this slashing of trees by the lake have ravaged the natural landscape and have coincidentally intersected with the personal tragedy of her husband’s diagnosis with Alzheimer’s. The transition of having to leave the family homestead to strangers because of their need to be living closer to support services, has caused her unbearable pain. She finds that newcomers have little respect for what is already there.
Fisher has always maintained that she doesn’t paint what she sees. “I paint what I feel. Through my colours and my media, I aim to achieve the essence of nature. I watch the rhythmic intervals between nature’s facets and seek to find my place within them. The images often suggest landscape or organic mass structure, but do not suggest specific locations.” She describes this new collection as representing the time we live in. “The colour represents the vibrancy and harmony among the different elements of nature before and after man’s interference.” She explains that the grey zones represent her own personal sadness. “This work represents a time in my life that has been painful and shocking. Austin is a most beautiful piece of the world. It has been over the years inhabited by wonderful, caring people, creating a deep history.”
The only way she knew how to manifest her grief and frustration has been, as she said, like most artists, to take her paintbrush to the canvas. What has resulted is a series of stunning images symbolic of agitated and confused birds taking flight in the wake of their habitat being unnecessarily disrupted.
She, like so many whose families that have lived in this area for generations and have enjoyed the natural beauty of the landscape, question why the newcomers feel the need to ravage the landscape, scalping the forests that are a natural habitat for so much wildlife. The trees on the shoreline protect the water in the lake as well. She wonders why newcomers are spending so much time geo-manipulating their properties. She asks why new architecture does not respect the land, why there is no consideration to marry the dwelling to the land. She wants to know why every tree in sight has to be cut down to accommodate the new and what she says for the most, are “ugly, groomed perfection landscapes.” She wants to know why new property owners appear to have no respect for the natural beauty or for the heritage that has existed for years and years. She is devastated by the destruction of the natural beauty of the landscape and sorrowful for the wildlife that is being displaced.
Fisher concedes that new ideas exist and agrees that they can be wonderful and normal, but she wants to know why the newcomers proceed to massacre everything by rearranging and destroying existing beauty for the sake of selfaggrandizement. “This is not a city. Why make it look like a city?”
A former student of the Ontario College of Art, Fisher has shown her work at numerous exhibitions in Vermont as well as at the Bronfman Centre in Montreal. She is well known for her abstracts and graphics and has a portfolio of solo exhibitions as well as collaborative ones. She remains an active member of Regroupement des Artistes des Cantons de l’est and Magog’s Creatio. Though many of her works are organized in colour fields, she says some are very dark. She thinks that her Swedish roots have influenced her direction, given that Sweden spends a great deal of time in semi-darkness.
Visitors are welcome to the exhibit at the Austin town hall on Millington Road during office hours (Monday to Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.).