Red Road:
sculpture, oil on canvas, acrylic on photographs and graphite on paper by Bruce Stewart

Opening and reception: Thursday, June 26th, 6.00pm to 9.00pm

Show dates: Thursday, June 26th to Wednesday, July 13th 2008

Snapdragon hours: Tues-Fri 11.00am to 7.00pm
Sat 10.00am to 6.00pm
Sun 10.00am to 5.00pm
Mon closed

"Running Road II"
24" x 30"
Oil on canvas

"Running Road"
20" x 44"
Oil on canvas

"Maquette for the Red Road sculpture"
13" x 12" x 2.5" Scale 1" = 1'
Wood and steel

"Road / Bog"
20" x 24"
Acrylic airbrushed on sepia photograph

"Red Road / Vanishing Point"
54" x 51"
Oil on canvas

"Approach"
36" x 42
Oil on canvas

"Road / Field"
16" x 22"
Acrylic airbrushed on photograph

This location will cease to exist.
Vegetation and Earth to be replaced by a road of concrete and asphalt.

"Road / Field"
16" x 22"
Acrylic airbrushed on photograph.

This location will cease to exist.
Vegetation and Earth to be replaced by a road of concrete and asphalt.

Fi-Rhinne
The Red Road.

The series of paintings, drawings and sculpture that have encompassed my work over the last year grew from initial tragedy through subsequent teaching. The pieces reflect dislocation, growing toward a landscape in which the journey has become all important.

Fi-Rhinne , is an ancient word, Celtic in origin which revolves around a meaning of virtue - it is the sign-post on a path of truth, courage, reliability and right action.

The Red Road, as a Native American concept, is the path that speaks of the way of truth. To walk it is to learn the way to live well in the world. To be a true human being. To journey with honour, wisdom & humility.
The Red Road is not simple to walk. It twists, turns with each decision, Rough, bumpy and treacherous, the path remains easy to ‘fall off of’.
And yet for me that road remains arrow-straight despite. A construct that floats above the landscape, forever leading on. My images have a start point however, even if the road is endless, there is a place where we begin a journey upon it. Hence - always a break or beginning point in the East.

In my interpretation, the Red Road is bordered by a ditch - that dark half pipe being the place to fall into, either by wrong action or misstep. However it also functions as a place to jettison baggage; unwanted, outgrown luggage; the stuff we all carry but perhaps should not: for there is truly no need.
The ditch as border is close to Celtic heart, for the Celt wanders borders only too well.
The fence, the time between the times, That is where the Celt prefers to dwell. Neither sea or field, but the shoreline - forever changing, neither here nor there.
That fence becomes the edge of the ditch - a tempting construct all to easy to slip into, either by misstep or choice. A place of easy answers, certain untruths. A place wherein we loose identity, but gain acceptance.
The Celt may walk the razor’s edge on the extreme right: the thin strip of red that defines the edge of the ditch, not the road itself.
The question remains as to whether one can jump the ditch to walk upon the true Red Road.

The Art I have produced is easy to access - no challenging images, no cutting edge couched in theory histrionics. It is does not directly concern the issues of Western art: a forward movement concerning the issues of paint handling, canvas, picture planes & theory.
I work from an understanding of these issues, but in a truly personal / universal way. The viewer need not be a part of the inside knowledge, to access my work.
That would be for me, counterproductive.
Only the road, only the ditch. Only in a landscape either painted or photographed.
However, ease of access does not mean simple. Neither facile to produce nor gentle to live with, I have aimed at creating a series designed to encompass all of my knowledge to date. It is all there, the anger, hatred, pain, horror of the situation, Love and finally talent. It comprises all my knowledge and final incomplete understanding of the pattern.
This work is personal, in the way that the outsider understands. I couch it despite within the context of technique and a proper understanding of Art history.
I prefer to work from a different manuscript. One in which vision serves not the furthering theory, but rather, wanders into creativity for a higher purpose. That of myth & relevance.

My work is my Medicine, my teaching - but within it I will offer no pat answers or right pronouncements.
I know nothing & continue myself, to learn in all humble acknowledgement of everything I do not know.
What I do not know is vast, so vast that it scares me. For I do not have the time to comprehend even a small fraction of what I need to understand.

This body of work is therefore dedicated to the memory of S.L.
And to The Algonquin Elder Joseph Lacroix
Without them, The work would not exist and I would still be lost in the barrens, without a Road to follow.
For their sacrifice & guidance I can only say
‘chi Miigwech

Minodeye Nitibek
B. D. S. / IMAGER 2007

Artistic Curriculum Vitae.
B. D. Stewart.

Member: CARFAC

Paintings held in various collections, Private ownership;

Teaching workshops and special themed classes for the Ottawa-Carleton Catholic School Board, as required from 2002 to the present.

Exhibitions: one man:
February - May 2005: paintings in “The Hair Loft” Ottawa, Ontario
March - April 2003 paintings, “Ancient Walls”, at Creative Floor Worx, Ottawa, Ontario.
JANUARY 1999 paintings, “Pieces for Anna”, Arts Court, Ottawa, Ontario.
October 1988: Performance, Drinkwater Farm, Orillia Ontario.
November 1983, Performance, Smiths Falls, Ontario.
October 1979, Performance, installation, Edwards Estate, Portland Ontario.
July1979: Sculpture, Richard Demarco Gallery, Edinburgh Scotland.
July 1979, Installation performance, Gladstone Court, Edinburgh Scotland
May 1979, installation, 55 Niddry Street, Edinburgh, Scotland
July 1978 Sculpture, Anna Leonowens Gallery, Halifax, Nova Scotia.
July 1978, Performance, Anna Leonowens Gallery, Halifax, Nova Scotia.
March 1978, Sculpture, Anna Leonowens Gallery, Halifax, Nova Scotia.
November 1977, Performance Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Halifax, Nova Scotia.
October 1977: Performance Gallery, NSCAD Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Exhibitions; Group:
August 2000, Arts Court, Fringe Festival.
May 1989, Shadowbox Gallery, Orillia, Ontario.
July 1979, ‘Object Show” Eye level Gallery, Halifax Nova Scotia.
December 1977, figurative art exhibition, Halifax Nova Scotia.

1975 - 1978 NSCAD.
Graduate in fine art, BFA. Majors in sculpture and art history.


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