CherylAnnHillsArtist

Nobody starts making art because they think it will be a great way to earn a living. Many start creating as young children. Being a Gen-Xer, traditional gifts I received as a child were colouring books and crayons, pencil crayons and sometimes watercolour paints. Once we started school we were often introduced to other materials, glue, scissors, construction paper, and finger painting.   Some of us embraced the opportunity to express ourselves and were deeply invested in our artwork even at a young age. For me, it was a means of expressing my feelings. I was (still am) painfully shy. Very unsure of my place in the world. My time spent painting and listening to my favourite albums in my room growing up were happy times for me. I was lucky to find joy in an activity at such an early age. And even though my life’s journey was not a straight path I am equally fortunate to have found my way back to that early joy now as an adult. As a child, I’d never considered that my artwork co...

It was mid October 2022 when I went up to my favourite place to spend a weekend taking in the fall colour and exploring the corridor between Sudbury and Sault Ste Marie. On this visit I went a bit further west of the Soo to Batchewana Bay, located on the north east shore of Lake Superior, the largest freshwater lake in the world. I'd read many descriptions of the north shore by notable Canadian authors and seen first hand many paintings of its moods. Sometimes it's almost better if we have no prior knowledge of a new experience, place, person before arriving as this keeps expectations at bay. I'd already visited Lake Superior Provincial Park in 2018, specifically the petroglyph trail. I was alone on that trail in the early light of the day. A peculiar staircase formed by rocks led down into a quiet earthen glen of large mossy rocks and trees with clumps of lichen floating down from branches like soft feathers. I actually expected to have a fairy appear in front of me, aligh...