Artists on Location: Metal, Resin and Limestone
There will be more than 50 Artists on Location throughout the village during Purple Hills Arts and Heritage Society’s Creemore Festival of the Arts from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Oct. 5-6. Pick up an event map at the info booth set up on the Village Green stage to find the location of artists working in a variety of mediums including paints, fibre, textile, photography, pottery, wood, mosaic, jewellery, sculpture and mixed media.
“I love when you have something old and traditional and you can marry it with something new and shiny,” says artist Amber Harloff.
Her work combines the smoothness of resin and natural texture of limestone as a backdrop for intricate patterns in etched metal.
Harloff recalls watching her grandfather do copper etchings when she was a child.
“I didn’t have a chance to learn from him because he passed away before I really developed an interest, but he was definitely an influence,” she said, adding she was also heavily influenced by the traditional craftsmen she worked with in her 20s, where she learned artistic plaster finishes on walls and fireplaces.
Harloff ’s art was shown at last month’s Collingwood Art Crawl. One piece features a limestone slab, texturized with limestone plaster and marble dust as a backdrop for a plaque of copper etched with an intricate leaf pattern.
Harloff says her work explores the intersection of the organic and the industrial, the ancient and contemporary.
She said, “I seek to create visual contrasts that evoke stories of growth, transformation and resilience.”
Harloff ’s journey as an artist has been a story of transformation. She had been working in software product development but found herself burnt out, and in the spring decided to focus on her art full-time. She says software design actually involved a lot of creativity, and there are many skills from her corporate life that are transferrable to life as an artist.
“I learned to organize a project from start to finish; how to sell; how to talk to people; and how to design a product thinking about the way it will fit into people’s lives,” she said.
Harloff describes her work as an exploration of balance: the tension between delicate etchings and bold, glossy backdrops, between the aged warmth of copper and the sleek modernity of resin.
“I don’t want to see historical things lost,” she said. “I love to pull out traditional stuff and bring it into the present.”
That love of traditional things inspired Harloff ’s contribution to the 2018 Creemore Festival of the Arts, when she created a 1/35 size scale model of the village of Creemore complete with histories of many significant buildings. Those scale models are now on displayat the local Royal LePage office.
- Metal, Resin and Limestone by Amber Harloff will be at Mill Street Art Studio, located upstairs at 148A Mill St.