Tuesday 10 January 2012

Postcards: Grace Loney

Have you ever stood in front of the Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec painting At the Moulin Rouge in the Art Institute of Chicago? It's a huge painting and the first time that I saw it in person, the sight of it brought tears to my eyes. After seeing small copies of painting in art books, seeing the real deal was overwhelming – I felt like I was in the painting. When Grace Loney was planning her painting maze, she wanted people to have the experience of walking through a painting. When I walked through her maze I was brought back to the sensation of being a part of Lautrec's At the Moulin Rouge, only better. Loney's maze travelled from the Glenhyrst in Brantford (2008), to Grimsby, to the Royal Botanical Gardens, and finally to Hamilton's James Street North art district in 2010. It has now been permanently dismantled, but I am left with memories of a visual and kinaesthetic experience of painting.

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