Artist Statement

"Everything I do is a form of drawing as an addition and removal of marks on a surface. No matter the medium, the drawing begins with a natural form and once the work has started, I am only really concerned with how its physical state progresses."

I make work about rural culture and landscapes in transition. I began making cyanotypes as a means of recording hand tools and vintage glassware unearthed in local garden plots, markers of the lost traditional livelihoods. Cyanotype combines the accurate representation of direct observation and poetic aftermath. The transformative nature of the cyanotype embodies the very idea of transition and metamorphosis.

Biography

Bonnie Baker works at drawing and printmaking. She grew up in the farmlands of Southern Ontario at a time when big tobacco agribusiness was absorbing small family farms. The rapidly changing social, economic and environmental landscape made an impression on her and her work. Baker studied at Humber College, Toronto, lived for a time in Northern Canada before moving to Nova Scotia. In addition to drawing and printmaking, she worked with textiles from 1984 to 2007.

Community engagement is also an integral part of her practice. Among other projects her installation, lyelines of Ghosted Trees, 48 feet of light sensitive burlap is currently installed in Wolfville Watershed Nature Preserve, Nova Scotia, for 5 months as part of Uncommon Common Art 2018.