With files from Tamara de la Vega
An unattractive piece of Huntsville’s downtown will soon get a facelift thanks to three local women.
Diane Thoms, Suzanne Riverin and Kareen Burns are donating a large-scale photo installation to be placed on the swing bridge’s concrete wall.
“It started several years ago when I was on the Huntsville Festival of the Arts (HFA) board and we were looking at that bridge surface and thinking of ways to make it look more attractive,” said Thoms. “We wanted to make sure it was going to have both impact and longevity as well as be meaningful, but none of the ideas seemed to work.”
On a trip to Portugal, Thoms happened upon a neighbourhood in Lisbon in which the walls and doors of buildings were adorned with photos by artist Camilla Watson. But they weren’t just any photos – they depicted the people who lived there or had lived there. Thoms was inspired to bring that idea back to Huntsville to see if it just might work for the swing bridge.
“The history of (the neighbourhood) got to be known through the photographs, and the people who live there became minor celebrities and got a real kick out of it,” said Thoms. “I have a strong passion against graffiti that destroys walls, but this beautifies them.”
Thoms approached Watson for help, who eagerly offered her assistance, but because Lisbon’s climate is very different from Muskoka’s her methods wouldn’t work here. Instead, they elected to enlist Jack Stewart at Big Print to create a piece that will be both lightweight and long-lasting. It even has a coating that will allow graffiti to be washed away. “He says it will last longer than we will.”
Finding a vintage photograph that fit the theme they were aiming for and was suitable for enlarging to a 9-foot by 12-foot canvas proved more challenging.
“We went through all kinds of archives because we wanted to make the same statement that Camilla did about the people of the area, the people that had been part of the community and established who we were and who we are now.”
After coming up empty, Thoms wondered if a photo she happened to have – one that belonged to her husband’s family – might fit the bill. The black-and-white photo from the 1940s depicts her in-laws, Gordon and Maxine Thoms, in a canoe on Mary Lake’s Thoms Bay.
“Their significance is a nice byproduct in that Maxine was a Hanes and the Hanes’s were one of the very first settlers of the area, and the Thoms family are very close in behind them,” said Thoms. “It has that historical impact as well as being a beautiful photograph that is very Muskoka-like. So when people come up the river or are on the docks, it will look as if the canoe is coming right at you with the people in it looking at you.”
“My in-laws were very quiet people and very proud people, and I keep thinking, ‘would they chuckle over this?’ They were lovely, lovely people.”
Thoms said that the photo of Gordon and Maxine has often been mistaken for one of Tom Thomson and Winnie Trainor. “It’s kind of fun but it’s not true.”
She thanked the Town of Huntsville for supporting the project; the HFA, the downtown Huntsville BIA, the Rotary Club of Huntsville for their kind donations; and Jan Nyquist from Pipefusion for recently stepping forward with an offer to install the artwork.
“I hope that people will enjoy that the surface is more visually appealing, that they get a sense of who we are as people here in Huntsville, and that there is a recognition for our history.”
And it may not be the last such installation. “There are lots of stories in town with other families and it’s the people we’d like to see as the focus of these installations, people who were instrumental in making our town what it is now.”
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Bill Beatty says
Thank you Ladies. Brilliant !
Jay Osborne says
That’s going to look awesome !!
Karen Cassian says
Thank you Diane, Suzanne and Kareen for not giving up on this project. It will add to the beautification of our waterfront area at the same time depicting some of the history of our lovely community. I love the mystery of the photo as to who it is…..Tom and Winnie or Gorden and Maxine?
Brenda Darling says
A beautiful idea.
Christine Rivière-Anderson says
What a great idea! I am convinced this project will spread throughout the community. And Jack Stewart is the perfect guy to help with it.
Well done, ladies !