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Artist as Dream Catcher

Barry Wainwright has been making art since the age of 17. He's now 74, lives in Sechelt and will open a show of his work, And So to Dream Again, at the Sunshine Coast Arts Centre on Sept. 30.

Barry Wainwright has been making art since the age of 17.

He's now 74, lives in Sechelt and will open a show of his work, And So to Dream Again, at the Sunshine Coast Arts Centre on Sept. 30.

In his career he has studied and worked in Paris at an art studio, taught printmaking and chaired a section of the fine arts faculty at Concordia University in Montreal and has earned a distinction, RCA, from the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, given to the country's finest artists.

But even with the weight of these biographical benchmarks, Wainwright does not rest on his laurels. He enjoys his art and is prolific.

"You've got to enjoy your own work, or you're in trouble," he said.

This exhibition will be provocative in many ways, the product of a theme that has been with him most of his life his dreams.

When he was a young man, he was introduced to dream analysis by a student of a psychoanalyst who had studied under the dream meister himself, Carl Jung. Dreams are about symbols, Wainwright explains. They act as the intermediary between our conscious minds and our unconscious and they often contain repressed knowledge.

"If we didn't dream we'd blow up," laughs Wainwright. "It's a safety valve that gives you an outlet for your emotions."

He put dream analysis aside for 30 years while teaching printmaking, wood cuts and lino cuts, but the symbols continued to find their way into his work. Several years ago he quit printmaking, after a concern, firstly, about its health problems since solvents and acids are used in the process, and secondly, because prints had lost their commercial edge in the Vancouver market.

He began to paint again, at first trying to make the painting incorporate his printmaking experience. It wasn't working. When he finally allowed his daytime thoughts to be translated into symbolic images he was once again happy with his work. The dreamscapes have a certain truth about them that is important to him, he says with satisfaction, even though they may be obscure or covered in overlays. He recognizes that the symbols are only applicable to the dreamer. They can have a duality of meaning, and yet most viewers can come to a mutual understanding as to what certain powerful symbols mean to us all.

In one work that will be on show, Cosmos Man Explores the Universe, Wainwright depicts a faceless figure, the traveller who seeks knowledge and understanding, as a person floating, perhaps in the unconscious sphere. Above him stretches a wall of coloured strips, each colour representing different emotional and psychological steps. In another work, Filing a Disclaimer, the symbols become a type of graffiti: a gun, a cage, various targets or roundels. To a viewer they suggest, for example, gang markings painted on a neutral grey fence. Suddenly the esoteric nature of art-making breaks down and becomes accessible to all when the viewer realizes that gangs and secret societies are laden with symbolism and territorial markers.

In some of Wainwright's earlier works, which may or may not be seen at the exhibition, other images emerge: a telephone conveys the idea of communication, of information travelling down the wires. A spectre looms over a work, a shapeless mass. It represents a psychic force that has escaped unconscious control. Spectres appear in Wainwright's work with some regularity, as does a dress, often floating like a paper doll cut-out, and a mechanized bladder shape. Both the dress and the machinery appear in a diptych that will show his earlier work.

But some of the images are there simply because he likes them: the union jack, for example. He's not British but he likes the design and plays with its colours. After all, a flag is the ultimate acknowledged symbol for a country.

Other symbols emerge through the classical music that he loves or are sparked by local interests. His rendering of the Himalayan blue poppy is a strong piece for which he attributes inspiration from local poppy grower and author Bill Terry. It is poised to become an iconic Coast piece since it recognizes the excitement generated by the blue poppies that grow here.

"This one will get the most attention, Wainwright remarks wryly, because it's a flower." The poppy, the focal point, represents the stillness and beauty of nature while the invented animal along the bottom is its guardian.

The artist's reception is open to the public on Wednesday, Sept. 30 from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Doris Crowston Gallery in Sechelt. The show runs until Oct. 25. For directions and hours of opening see www.scartscouncil.com.