I draw, paint, sculpt, photograph and often I mix many of those together at the same time in the same work, so many of my works could be labeled “mixed media”. I am intrigued by using materials in ways that are not often explored: broken glass in place of clay, water-based materials with oil-based ones, and wax to draw, paint, or sculpt. I use the material or medium that best suits what I want to say at that time. The question “How can I create that?” is always second. The question that comes first is always “What do I want to explore?”
These past few years I have been exploring hydro towers as I had never really looked at them until 2 years ago. Ironically, I’ve grown up around them all my life, of course—many of us in big cities and suburbs have. And do we ever even notice them? They have become part of the landscape. Are they particularly beautiful? I don’t think so although some have interesting shapes and are almost figurative at time. But I think that to become part of the landscape and not be so noticeable is substantial and meaningful and worrisome. I feel that it is absolutely remarkable that we so rarely discuss these hydro towers and the possible effects they have on our environment, on the flora and fauna in Canada, and on us as the people living near them.
For me, inserting hydro towers is about challenging our idea of landscape, of a pretty sunset, of what constitutes beauty in nature, of what’s natural and what isn’t and has become so; about accepting without question the world we are building around us, for us. It’s about truly seeing how we live and allow ourselves to live.
So, whether it’s hydro towers, or masks on kids, the difficulties we’ve thrown at the Spirit Bear, or passages we are challenged to enter, my work is about Us. Humans. Humans in our environment be it physical, emotional, spiritual, natural, political, geopolitical, etc. It’s about our impact on those environments, and their impact on us.
A loving note of thanks and gratitude to my father, Morry Kernerman, for all his love and unwavering support throughout my entire life—and for the gift of my awesome Canon R6 Mirrorless!
And to Anthony and our kids: You are the world in which my imagination and creativity find a home.
This website and all the trees and flowers in it are dedicated to the memory of my mother, Rachel (Z”L), without whom I may never have given trees a second glance. I hold onto the grace with which she advocated for equity and am forever grateful for her love and support.
May 2021
All images and works of art, digital, and actual, are protected by copyright and may not be copied for any reason in any manner or format without the explicit written consent of the artist.
Edith Kernerman is a visual artist in Toronto, Canada. She has been working (mostly) as an artist since the age of 14, when she took her first studio painting class with Maxine Schacker in Toronto. Maxine urged Edith to study life drawing and she has been drawing the human figure ever since. Edith has studied under Alan Cooper, and Phil & Liz White in London, England at the St. Martin’s School of Art. She also studied drawing under Richard Robertson, and sculpture under David Pelletier and George Boileau at the Ontario College of Art.
Edith has 3 kids, and lives in Toronto with the love of her life, Anthony, and their son Blake.
