2008 Fine Craft & Design Fair

For your free pass, join the mailing list! (see post)
For more information on the fair and special features you won't want to miss this year, click on http://www.craftcouncil.nl.ca/fair/default.asp

Planning a visit to Norton's Cove Studio? Here's another reason to show up at Christmas time!

NEW 2008 Christmas Card

Available now

Lino-cut print with watercolour embellishment

signed and matted for $12

blank card with envelope for $6

+ HST

The NOVAKS Album

The NOVAKS 2005 Debut Album

$20 + HST

100% of proceeds go directly to band

(Mick Davis of The Novaks is Janet's younger brother!)

Canada Day

Acrylic Painting by Sue Gudmundson
17.25 x 13.25" Framed
$246.00 + HST + shipping if applicable

Anchor Brook

Acrylic Painting by Sue Gudmundson

14.5 x 18.75" Framed

$264.00 + HST + shipping if applicable

From Calgary, Sue spends her summers in Newtown. For all of us who know her, she is a cheerful and energetic addition to our community.

What's in all those old shop shelves?

While there are some of Janet's smaller pieces in these 118 year old shop shelves, also look for work by students and visitors of the studio as well: Eric Winsor, Eleanor Bishop Parsons, Catherine G. W. Gibbons, Ashley Keats, Matthew Cross, Christine Pike, Duke Kelloway, Kerrie Cochrane, and others. Prices range from about $25-100 for these original low-number editions.

Hooked Mat by Evelyn Gill

Untitled

Hooked Mat by Evelyn Gill

Cotton yarn on monkscloth

$300 + HST + Shipping if applicable

New e-Mailing List

I'm updating my mailing list!

If you would like to receive news from Norton's Cove Studio, please send an e-mail to nortonscovestudio@nf.aibn.com with 'subscribe' typed in the subject field. This includes anyone who was on the old mailing list before I lost it! Your 'subscription' will include...

• updates on new artwork available at the studio
• chances to receive free passes to the Craft Council's Fine Craft & Design Fair each November
• announcements of classes and workshops coming up at the Studio
• show and exhibit opening invitations
• 20% off coupon to be used anytime during the month of December (includes orders by email or phone)
• an invitation to the Annual Christmas Party on December 19th
• the opportunity to win free artwork

New ART CLASSES starting in January 2009

Children's Art Classes (elementary)

Wednesdays After school: 3-4:30pm

Young Adult Art Classes (highschool)

Thursdays after school: 3-5pm

Adult Art Classes

Thursdays after supper: 7-9pm

All classes are $12 each + HST.

Price includes all materials.

All classes will include a number of different media: drawing, painting, printmaking, textiles, etc. These classes are meant to give a broad understanding of art in general and an introduction to many different forms of art.

Call 536-2533 or email nortonscovestudio@nf.aibn.com to sign up.

Aprons or old clothes are recommended.

No talent required: but desire is a must!

Waiting

2007 Lino-cut relief print by Duke Kelloway
unframed $60

framed $177

+ HST & Shipping
Edition of 15 + 2 trial proofs

Image size: approximately 8 x 10"

framed size: 18 x 20"

Mother's Day

Photo credit: Brian Ricks Photography

Almost an entire edition of Photo-Lithographs found from 1996. The set of four shows myself, my mother Ollie Davis, grandmother Emily Gill, and great-grandmother Hannah Gill. The idea behind this one came when someone inquired about the red rose in my lapel on Mother's Day- no one in the printmaking department (mostly students from all parts of Canada) had ever heard of the tradition of donning a rose on Mother's Day: Red to signify your mother's health, and white to show that your mom has already passed on. I'm shown with rosebuds because I dearly wanted to become a mother myself. Of course, since then, I have been blessed with my son Frederick, who is now 9 years old!

$140 for the set, plus HST and shipping

Wesleyville

Photo Credit: Brian Ricks Photography

Here's a bit of a blast from the past: my first etching with aquatint made at the NSCAD printshop in 1996. I found this in a pile of artwork that I had forgotton about! Six panels of woodgrain and clapboards and such from old Wesleyville buildings (probably mostly gone by now) with a piece of driftwood set behind.

I'm Just Another Fish in the Sea

Lino-cut intaglio print using watercolour

Janet Davis 2007-08

Varied Edition of 23 plus a few trial proofs.

$110 each + HST unframed

The title for I’m Just Another Fish in the Sea comes straight out of a ballad written by my brother Trevor Davis. http://ifitwasntforrockandroll.blogspot.com/2008/04/fish-in-sea.html

I listen to the work of two of my brothers: Trev and Mike, who I consider incredible song writers, and notice the same sort of inspired creativity as I experience with my visual art. Ideas can pop out of nowhere, or come from a touching story, or result from a consuming personal experience.

I'm Just Another Fish in the Sea also means, I'm just another ordinary person- No one person is more important than the rest of us. We all just need to get along, take care of each other, and keep on swimming.

Iceberg at the Main

2004 Etching by Janet Davis

Inspired by a study of the island community of Greenspond

Variable Edition of 22

$210 unframed + hst + shipping if applicable

Female Caplin Series

Female Caplin
Lino-cut relief print (watercolour), 100% cotton; Edition of 105
3 x 10”, 2007
$45 each + HST + shipping

(names still available as of March 19, 2008)

... Bessie, Bonnie, Cassie, Celia, Charity, Clara, Clarissa , Dinah, Doris, Druscilla, Ellen, Ellie, Emma-Frances, Ethel Belle, Florence, Georgia, Geraldine, Gertie, Gladys, Harriet, Helena, Hettie May, Hilda, Honor, Ida, Ilene, Ina, Irene, Janet, Jessie, Julia, Leah, Leonora, Louise, Lucy, Mary Ann, Mary Jane, Mary Kate, Mildred, Millicent, Minnie, Myrtice, Myrtle, Nellie, Nina, Nita, Nora, Norrie, Patience, Pricilla, Prissilla, Rebecca, Rita, Roseanna, Ruby, Sophie, Sybil, Winnifred

“Recently reading a memoir written by my great uncle Heber Gill, I was struck by his detailed descriptions of everyday life growing up on Pinchard’s Island. What he failed to mention, however, was what the women were up to while he and the other men were cutting wood, building boats, going to sea, catching fish, etc.
With this series of capelin images, I am attempting to comment on the value of women’s input into daily life. Instead of numbering the pieces, I have named them, each for a woman from Pinchard’s Island. These are the women who helped to shape the Newfoundland that I love, but are not often talked about in history books.
Working at the fish plant for one nightshift when I was 18 years old, I was quickly taught the difference between a male and a female caplin. My job was to separate the males from the females. The males were mostly dumped back into the ocean or used as fertilizer on gardens or eaten by a few Newfoundlanders who still enjoy their dried salt caplin. The females, of much higher value for their roe, were sold to foreign markets. I thought this would be the perfect fish to use to give some much deserved credit to the women of our past.”

Pisces

2007 Etching by Janet Davis
Paper is 250g cotton fibre Arches
Edition of 12 + 3 Trial Proofs + Bon A Tirer + 2 Presentation Proofs
Image size: 9"w x 12"h
unframed $165 + HST + Shipping

FISH: printmaking & textiles by janet davis

You can now view this exhibit online. Just follow the link...
http://www.craftcouncil.nl.ca/gallery/current_show.asp?show_id=86

Looking for Norton's Cove Mini-Prints?

Norton's Cove Cards & Mini-Prints have their own blog.
You can easily see each and every design with a description here: www.cardsandminis.blogspot.com

Award for Excellence

The Craft Council of Newfoundland & Labrador

has awarded Janet Davis the

Award for Excellence in Craft

for

Interpretation of Provincial History

Sponsored by the Historic Sites Association of Newfoundland & Labrador

This award was presented at the opening of the 2006 Fine Craft & Design Fair at the St. John's Convention Centre on November 16th, and was given with reference to Janet's work on 'Clifford's Education Fund' as well as printmaking efforts.

ArtSpots on CBC

Check out Janet's segment on CBC's Artspots...
http://www.cbc.ca/artspots/html/artists/jdavis/

Thanks to Rick Barnes for producing the piece, and to Trevor Davis & Jim Carter for supplying the background music.

NIGHT BERG

Lino-cut relief print by Duke Kelloway, 2006

Edition of 15 + 2 trial proofs + bon a tirer

Paper is 250g cotton fibre Stonehenge

image size: 10"w x 6"h

$50 unframed, + hst + shipping

RODNEY

Rodney

Lino-cut relief print

by Duke Kelloway, 2006

200g Arches cotton fibre paper

Edition of 18 + Trial Proofs

$45 unframed, $49 matted to fit an 8x10" frame, $77 framed + HST + Shipping

Atlantic Herring

2006 Etching (with a tiny bit of watercolour) by Janet Davis

Edition of 22, + 2 Trial Proofs

Matted $94, Framed $185 + HST + Shipping

Also available at the Craft Council Shop, 59 Duckworth Street, St. John's!

Living Planet Tee Shirts

Janet's 2004 Caplin image is available as a tee shirt. You can get yours at Norton's Cove Studio or through Living Planet located at 116 Duckworth Street, St. John's. These shirts are available through the Living Planet website. Go to http://www.livingplanet.ca/ to order yours.

Also available: Humpback, Young Codfish, & Dory

Clifford's Education Fund

Clifford's Education Fund

Hooked Mat: assorted recycled fabrics, spruce, small branches of alder and other local shrubbery, burlap

Janet Davis 2006

$25,000.00 +HST

My age works against me at times. I grew up in outport Newfoundland, yet I have witnessed little of traditional outport life. People in the Wesleyville area lived off the seal hunt and the Labrador cod fishery. Each and every one of my grandparents, and even my parents, have had dealings with the catching, splitting, salting and drying of cod. So here I am at 34 years of age, feeling like a fish out of water, for I have never seen a fish flake with my own eyes.

What I do have are photographs, written descriptions, and the Internet with amazing video clips and photographs of the real thing. Even better though, are local people to question, and an interest to compel me to do so.

Clifford Andrews of Wesleyville introduced a photo of a fish flake as “my college education fund”. His family’s flakes full of salt cod made them the money to send Clifford off to Acadia University in an era where most men were sent to sea, not out of the country to college.

Clifford has also taught me about the way flakes were made, why all the photographs I could see always displayed the white side of the fish up, what lungars are, why flakes were made with boughs at times, how there were boards placed in specific areas so that there would be just enough space to walk bearing hand-bars full of fish over the flakes without disturbing the already laid out fish.

I have finally figured out an old question of mine: why did people want so much land back then? My own answer: Not only the gardens and the animals and outbuildings took up lots of room, but the flakes took a lot of land space. Of course you needed lots of land back then! How blind we are to the past before really thinking of all the differences in everyday life.

We have reached an era where most school-aged children, and even their parents, are no longer familiar with traditional fish flakes and the sights and smells which accompanied them. I have taken a personal interest in fish flakes: their construction, use, and visual presence in a community.

A common entity in Bonavista Bay for about 130years, the Labrador fishery brought huge expanses of drying fish along the shores. While an inshore fishing family would have smaller flakes going all summer long, with one trap boat full of fish at a time, the Labrador fishermen brought in a schooner full at once. These flakes were very large with thousands of fish, not to be symbolized by a small traditional mat, but a large mat, measuring about eight by ten feet. The mat is to serve as a reminder of our not-so-distant history which I am proud to be a descendant of.

The hooked mat is to be made up of one large assembled piece of burlap with the images of salt fish hooked into the rough cloth. Burlap is sewn together to make the desired size of the mat. Edges were rolled and hemmed using a sewing machine. The fish are hooked into the mat using second-hand clothing, as my grandmothers would have done, wools and other fabrics as available in the appropriate colours. The fish are laid heads (although headless!) and tails along a flake, mostly white flesh up, and one fish with the skin and dorsal fins showing. When a fish was starting to get sun burnt but was still damp, it would be flipped over to the skin side so that the meat of the fish would not further decrease in value.

While working on this mat, I have felt the similarities of the lives of my female ancestors as compared to my own. Back breaking at times, long hours of physical labour on the flakes while having to continue on with daily chores: the house cleaning, preparing meals, and caring for children. Although I am sure that my life is one of leisure in comparison to the tasks that my grandmothers tackled each and every day, I feel a sisterhood with them in the work load that is expected of women in general, with the number of roles we are required to fill. This idea is reflected in our daily lives: my mother feels guilty every time she relaxes, because she feels obligated to be cooking or cleaning or caring for her family. This expectation has been carried with us women for many generations, and does not seem to be dying out in our modern lives.

As I completed the hooking of each fish, I noticed that they have character. Each fish has been hooked with different fabrics, in different patterns, some with a few fly spits, some are round tails, some are split just perfectly. We all have a purpose in life. Regardless of how we are made, what we look like, and how long we walk the earth. Upper and lower class people represented by these fish: all play their part in society and history. Clifford Andrews, with physical imperfections, may have been unable to continue the family’s fishing tradition, but contributes greatly to society in other ways as a scholar, educator, a loving father and husband, and community leader. He was destined to become a mentor, teacher, and a hero among today’s youth as a contributor to the preservation of local history.

To bring alive the texture of the fish laying on flakes, I have woven small pieces of wood, twigs with bark, into the burlap in the negative space areas between the salt fish, symbolizing the branches, lungars, and boughs comprising the traditional flakes.

The complete mat is displayed on a hand built flake which elevates the codfish from the ground, as codfish was thought of as elevated in value to a Newfoundland fisherman and his family. This flake is slightly larger than the mat, to ‘frame’ the image of the codfish.

This mat has been shown in a three exhibits:

Traditions in Transition

Sir Wilfred Grenfell College Gallery, Corner Brook; June 29th-August 19, 2006;

The Rooms, St. John's; November 2nd, 2006-January 21st, 2007

F I S H
printmaking and textiles by janet davis;
March 18th-April 27th, 2007;
Craft Council Gallery; 59 Duckworth Street, St. John's

and

The Clifford Andrews Collection

Photos and artifacts donated by Clifford Andrews surrounding the mat 'Clifford's Education Fund' by Janet Davis

August 2007

Gallery of the Bonavista North Regional Museum; Wesleyville

Art Supplies at Norton's Cove

Art supplies for sale at Norton's Cove Studio include Stabilo pencils/pencil box sets, sketch sticks in 5 colours, willow charcoal sticks, fixatif, kneaded rubbers, pencil sharpeners, lots of kraft (brown) paper for those who require it for wrapping or sketching, newsprint sketch pads, acrylic paint in pots, stevensen paints in oils and acrylics, Medici paint brushes, table-top or floor model easels, canvas panels, disposable palatte pads, oil pastels, chalk pastels, utility copper sheets, linoleum, needle point hobby awls, burnishers. For prices, please e-mail nortonscovestudio@nf.aibn.com or drop by the studio.

Norton's Cove Cards

Printed at Norton's Cove Studio 2005-Present

Original lino-cut relief prints in 4 x 6 greeting card format with envelope; Each card is 'chopped' with a tiny caplin image on the back.

$6 + HST + shipping each; Available in many colour choices and the following designs: blue flag, britannia church, by lamplight, dory, dried caplin, ferryland light, harding house, happy holly-days, humpback, moose, puffins, salt cod, shanawdithit's dancing woman, snowflake, squid, spring ice, teapot, viking bow, young cod.

see them all at http://www.cardsandminis.blogspot.com/

Available at 40 locations!

About Janet Davis

Born Wesleyville, Bonavista Bay, Newfoundland 1972

Primary and Elementary education at Newtown Elementary, Mt. Pearl

High School education at Lester Pearson Memorial High, Wesleyville

Graduate of Cabot College (St. John’s, NL), Textile Studies 1992

Graduate of the Nova Scotia College of Art & Design, BFA’98 Interdisciplinary

Married Duke Kelloway of Wesleyville, August 1998

First Solo Exhibit: teastory, 1999

‘For Uncle Percy’ purchased by AGNL’s Permanent Collection

‘Nan’s Mat’ purchased by Government of NL’s Art Procurement Fund

Group Exhibitions 1999: Tradition/Contemporaneite, Somewhere Near Canada…, Thresholds IV

Gave birth to Frederick Kelloway, June 1999

Artists-in-the-Schools Program in association with AGNL, 2001

Opened Norton’s Cove Studio: a non-toxic etching & relief printshop in Brookfield, Bonavista Bay, 2002

Group Exhibitions 2002: Comfort & Joy, Reflections on Vanity

Group Exhibitions 2003: Roots & Shoots, Royal Flush, Comfort & Joy

Solo Exhibit: GREENSPOND, 2004

Group Exhibitions 2005: Night Set, In Praise of Function, Comfort & Joy

Group Exibitions 2006: Traditions in Transition

2007: ‘FISH’, a solo exhibit of prints and textiles; Lukey's Boat project with Memorial Academy, Wesleyville

2008: Artsmarts Project with Gander Academy

Open Year Round!

New hours as of November 2008...

Open by chance or appointment. "Getting ready for the Craft Council of NL's Fine Craft & Design Fair: Most of my artwork has been packed up, so it's not a perfect time to visit! After the fair, starting on November 25th, the studio will be back to normal, and getting ready for Christmas. Daily hours will then be from about 9am to 5pm. I'm quite often found in the studio after supper and on weekends too: please drop in or call/email for an appointment."

It is recommended that out of town visitors call beforehand to avoid dissappointment! 709-536-2533 or 8166

Right Handed Round Tail

Printed at Norton's Cove Studio 2004; non-toxic etching and aquatint on copper; paper is 100% cotton 250g Arches; total of 17 impressions, including this print: 3/12; $290 + frame $160 = $450 + HST + shipping if applicable.

Contact Information

Civic Address: J. KEAN Shop, 113 Main Street, Brookfield, Bonavista Bay, Newfoundland

Mailing Address: P. O. Box 223; Wesleyville, NL; A0G 4R0

Phone: 709-536-2533studio; 8166mobile

Fax: 709-536-5795

e-mail: nortonscovestudio@nf.aibn.com

Driving Directions: Exit Trans Canada Highway at Gambo or Gander Bay to New-Wes-Valley. Take Wesleyville or Valleyfield exit. Brookfield is one of the amalgamated towns of New-Wes-Valley and lies on the edge of the ocean between Wesleyville and Badger's Quay. Look for this heritage red building on the main road.

Photo Credit: Tim Rast