Abstract artist known for ‘turning trash into treasure’
Gilman Hyde’s work currently on display at the Old Town Gallery in Lunenburg
Artist Joanna Gilman Hyde likes to walk along a highway between her home and Clark's Harbour on Cape Sable Island. During a routine stroll on a nice day about two years ago,
Gilman Hyde came across a shattered mirror on the shoulder of the road. While others might decry shards of glass left in the environment as an inconvenient hazard, Gilman Hyde became inspired.
She was intrigued by the randomly sized shapes in the glass fragments, still adhered to the backing of the mirror, which likely fell from a passing vehicle.
Gilman Hyde also discovered a discarded artist's paintbrush on the shoulder a considerable distance down the same road that day.
“I was inspired by finding them both on the same walk on the same day,” Gilman Hyde said during a recent interview.
“I brought the two pieces together. I felt it was a fortunate find for me. A lucky find for me,” she said.
Today, visitors to a Lunenburg gallery exhibition of Gilman Hyde's abstract paintings created from found objects embedded in paint can see how the artist used the shattered glass shards and the paintbrush together in a piece entitled Ferocity.
“It's quite intriguing. People are noticing it,” Gilman Hyde said. “It is a very simple transposition of two found objects. But it created a dramatic image. Rather than a painting I would call it a construction.”
Gilman Hyde was born in 1961 in New York City. She graduated in 1983 with a fine arts degree from The Cooper Union for The Advancement of Science and Art, majoring in painting and sculpture. She has been engaged in the arts as an abstract painter, writer and advocate for local interest in visual art since becoming a Canadian citizen in 1995.
“I tend to make cohesive statements about colour and form, often with a social twist. I aim to engage the viewer in the question of orientation, spatial precision and quirky placement of unexpected objects in a 3D format. Often my dramatic pieces are made of fragmented matter. I call this form of art Destructionism, Gilman Hyde said while describing her work on the website visualarts.ns.ca.
Gilman Hyde is particularly attracted to triangular fragments of black plastic harvested from broken car parts and rusty pieces of metal. She created elements for art pieces by driving her car over beverage cans used by her family to flatten them. The random
pieces are embedded in colours from half-filled paint cans discarded in a landfill.
Gilman Hyde said she has developed an intrigue for the dripping of paint.
“I apply undiluted paint to a surface. Either to a plywood, a cupboard door or a canvas. The dripping of the paint inspires me to layer it with objects I choose for colour, texture, form and what the object is,” she said.
“The objects that I find intriguing are those most people would just overlook or in many cases would consider to be trash,” Gilman Hyde said.
“I don't go looking for them, but I find them in my walking.”
Gilman Hyde said she is inspired by the colour, form and the way the light hits objects.
“But I don't know the creative process that makes me put certain objects in conjunction with other objects against a background of fluid paint. Why am I compelled to do that? I can't even answer those questions I don't think,” the artist said.
“My work is the product of my own inspiration, but who knows what inspiration is? Where does inspiration come from? You can't put your finger on exactly what the roots of inspiration are. I can't anyway,” she said.
A friend and fellow abstract painter Darlene Rennehan is a fan of Gilman Hyde's work.
“She has a ton of art around her house. It always takes on new meaning for me every time I look at it. It becomes more beautiful every time I see it,” Rennehan said.
“I like to use bold colours in my artwork. And that's one thing I like about Joanna's art, it's very much abstract and she also uses vivid colours.”
“I like to say she takes trash and tries to turn it into a treasure. What looks like trash to us, she finds the value and purpose in recycling it instead of just throwing it away,” Rennehan said.
“And when you have her for a friend, she doesn't just throw you away, she values you and appreciates you, just like she does her art.”
Christa Nauss, manager of the Old Town Gallery located in the Comfort, Joy & Home Accents gift shop in Lunenburg, said the gallery began to exhibit over 50 pieces of Gilman Hyde's work on Aug. 1.
Nauss said feedback from visitors has been positive.
“We got lots of great feedback,” Nauss said. “They leave lots of feedback in her guestbook.”
“Reclaiming things and reusing and repurposing, (with) the way the world is going we all need to learn this.”
“Joanna does an outstanding job. I can't help it. Some of her stuff just takes me away.”
The Old Town Gallery and Comfort, Joy & Home Accents gift shop are located at 248 Lincoln Street. The exhibition will continue until the end of September.