Starting in 2019, Sound & Sight promised to explore and extol the arts and cultural activities thriving in Huntsville and area, with monthly in-depth profiles of individuals pursuing an eclectic array of artistic endeavours and creative expression.
Sound & Sight has reported on sixty-one artists and has barely scratched the surface of the depth of talent and discipline required to perform, write, paint, compose, photograph, direct, dance, act, publish, bake, record, and dare to reflect the world around us in often moving and stunning depictions.
Over the past five years, world events have disrupted, altered, confused and torn at our sensibilities, well-being and sense of common good. For an artist, outward turmoil often finds intrinsic meaning and subtle nuance that can be symbolized, re-purposed, synthesized, through their chosen medium.
Although Sound & Sight may have a somewhat disproportional focus on musicians, largely due their frequent in-public performances, other arts have also been showcased. Hopefully, these monthly portraits have provided compelling insight into the ethos and fiery determination that lays at the heart of every aspiring creator. Of course, we are surrounded by, and immersed in, the most astounding creation with every season and every breath we take. Who has not stood in awe before a stabbing red sunset, or an evening star, or moonlit sky, or held a baby close or watched a beloved one die, filled with emotion too powerful for words or even understanding and wished they might find a way to pay tribute to the laws of nature that allow us to witness such miracles.
Over these past five years, several artists have made lasting impressions that inspire and elevate. For this November issue, Sound & Sight will reflect on five who represent the vibrancy of the Huntsville and area arts scene.
Briar Summers was a young, determined teenager, graduating from High School, when she gave an expansive interview for the first issue of Sound & Sight, in October 2019. Poised, charming, optimistic and bubbling with enthusiasm, Briar displayed a determination and insightful goal orientation, rarely found at such an age. She is quite simply a delightful, disarming person who has given great thought to her future and how her given talents might be shaped and harnessed, to achieve her ascribed objectives.
Over five years, Briar has continued her higher education in science and medicine, at the University of Toronto, while continuing to shape, write and perform some of the more exhilarating music coming through the Huntsville area. Her albums, ‘From The Ashes,’ 2021 produced by the legendary David Bottrill and her most recent, 2024, ‘Resonance,’ recorded at Metalworks Studios, produced by Wayne Cochrane, mark a maturity and growth—musically, lyrically, and sonically that is a remarkable achievement. Her development as a songwriter and professional reveal that Briar will never settle for mediocrity and will strive to reach her full potential.
In a 2020 feature, Christina Yankovich, a masterclass, world-class, luthier and violin maker was sketched in the broadest overview of her illustrious career. Christina hand crafts violins of the highest quality from her Huntsville residence, where she also creates an extraordinary urban garden—one of her more enduring passions. Restricted by a small muscle hand injury, her violin trade was temporarily curtailed. After a long recuperation, Christina is finally taking new commission for violins.
A Yankovich violin is painstakingly crafted over months of minute details, from aging the wood selected for its tonal characteristic and shaped and sanded for months of arduous labour. Christina’s work produces highly sophisticated instruments of superb resonate sound and playability. A violin made with love and care that will last for generations.
Jenny Kirkpatrick introduced readers to her photography. “Jenny has found a way to tame light as it pours through her lens and transform shape, colour, and image into startling revelations of stillness, beauty, and poetry.” Stated Sound & Sight in 2021. Although this description fails to fully articulate the dreamlike mystery her images evoke.
Employing a method known as the Orton Effect, devised by photographer Michael Orton in the mid 1980s, Jenny’s photography blends two separate photographs into a final shot. The effect is mesmerizing and quite startling. Reminiscent of impressionistic painting, the final print is uniquely its own. Jenny has mastered several other techniques which create photo works of the finest, rarified quality.
Poetry is perhaps the most profound distillation of language into its purest, deepest meaning and communicative relevance. In 2022, Karen Shenfeld, a poet living in Magnetawan, who has travelled the world in search of adventure and inspiration, shared how her youth and wanderlust had shaped the imagery and subjects for her four books of poems.
Her words, flowing languid and sultry, evoke more than simple imagery. She pushes beyond mere semantics, to accentuate the innermost, the essential, the heart of a moment, reflected through her brave intellect and curious awareness.
Undoubtedly, the tragic loss of her partner and love, acoustic blues guitarist Jim McCuaig, will stimulate future work but Karen’s poetry has already earned her awards and accolades from the international community.
In March 2023, Sound & Sight memorialized the incredible contribution of country guitarist and songwriter Bob Gray.
“Bob Gray was often humble to a fault and yet he shimmered with a kind of golden, unmistakable light, whether you met him on the street or heard him sing his plaintive “high and lonesome songs.” From the moment he learned to play guitar, later in life than most, he devoted a good portion of his free time to writing songs for his dearly beloved wife June, or his children, or in the tradition of his esteemed old country ballads from his youth. Indeed, hearing Bob sing often harkened back to earlier days when radio static scratched ever so softly over the American frequencies carrying those mysterious odes to everyday hardships and heartbreak. Country music of the ’30s, ’40s, and ’50s spoke straight to the heart of the matter, in a plain, simple, magical language. Gray cherished those messages and values. Moreover, he shaped his life, steeped in the virtues that family matters most, and community even more so.”
A year later, in March 2024, Sound & Sight introduced the ‘Chorus of Courage’ – a collective of sexual abuse survivors who created art through communal healing. Bringing together a group of songwriters and victims of spousal and marital abuse, to heal through sharing and loving support, brought about a touchingly powerful set of songs that encompassed the indomitable spirit of women to soar beyond past wounds and surpass doubt, fear and intimidation.
The project envisioned by Cindy Doire, a registered psychotherapist, trauma-informed yoga teacher, somatic coach, and gifted bilingual songwriter, explained, “I think the impetus (for the project) is definitely creating a space where these stories can exist, that they can be held and heard. There is a retreat that we created initially to create that sense of trust amongst the songwriters, and storytellers and we had different facilitators, so we are intentionally engaging with these stories. In the healing process, we had to also choose the storytellers—the survivors—ensuring that a lot of healing has to be done before we get to this place. And there were still layers, so many blind spots, it’s not how to avoid triggers but how we move through them. So, we really tried to create a space where we are welcoming the entire spectrum of emotion, and together as a collective, can we try to make meaning from these experiences? Can we sit in the dark together with this and try to articulate ways through music?”
With humble gratitude for all the Huntsville artists who have given time and interviews, Sound & Sight starts a new phase, after its first five-year milestone, with continued features from the artistic community in Huntsville. Thank you so much for your readership and support.
Don’t miss out on Doppler!
Sign up here to receive our email digest with links to our most recent stories.
Local news in your inbox so you don’t miss anything!
Click here to support local news
Join the discussion: