'˜Canada Calling' at Settle gallery

The Canadian artist Carol Howard Donati describes her exhibition as ‘an interactive installation promoting diversity and a viewer’s up-close connection to another via a hands-on encounter with art’.

The show is a 16-card display celebrating the people of Canada, each of the 16, 4 x 6 cards is comprised of two hand-made surfaces stitched together, back to back: One side is collaged and the other printed.

The collage side features an abstract pattern of painted and found papers, commercial packaging, and appliquéd plastics. The print side features telephone area codes from coast to coast across Canada hand-stamped in red and black ink.

The viewer is invited to interact and contribute to the ever-changing nature of this diversity by moving the cards to create new arrangements in the display. Mixed media artist Howard Donati works with fabric, paint, print, and recycled household materials. A Canadian of settler background she traces her family origins to the United Kingdom and Northern Europe.

She is an anthropologist by training and the focus of her art is everyday life and how it provides the framework for our human experience. Next year Gallery on the Green will celebrate its 10th anniversary. Created from a disused telephone box the gallery has continuously hosted work from local, national and international artists in shows that are free. Carol said: “A phone box makes an ideal gallery because it is familiar as an active space. It’s wonderful. As I see it, this phone box is still taking calls!”