Sunday, April 4, 2010
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This Land is Our Land
THE GREENBELT DICHOTOMYThe Greenbelt Legislation protects almost two million acres, making it the largest policy of it's kind in the world. In our research we predicted opposition to the legislation by developers, but we were not prepared for the resistance of farmers and growers to the law's imposed constraints on their land. In effect, telling them what they could and could not do with it.
It was in this journey that we were compelled to investigate further. We conducted research by visiting and interviewing landowners, farmers and those in the public sector. In addition, we gathered information and corresponded with many individuals and organizations; including Friends of the Greenbelt, Grape Growers of Ontario, Ontario Greenbelt Alliance and Environmental Defense. We also investigated whether the Greenbelt legislation provided protection for old growth trees, flora, migratory birds and wildlife threatened by urban sprawl.
At once hailed as the saviour by all those working to conserve and protect our natural lands, the Greenbelt legislation has become a source of frustration and anger for others. Our combined body of work challenges preconceptions and presents a diverse and compelling exploration of Ontario's Greenbelt.
Jan Yates, Michelle Teitsma, Gordon Leverton, Jefferson Campbell Cooper
Greenbelt Collective
Michelle Teitsma
BIO
Michelle Teitsma holds a degree from Sheridan College for visual art and also earned a degree in advanced airbrush from Mohawk College. For the past few years she has sat on the advisory board with the Grimsby Public Art Gallery's collections and acquisitions committee.
Teitsma's figurative oil paintings evoke a certain mood, harnessing light and shadow, and capture moment in time and place.
Many of her paintings are done in the classical grisaille technique, painting first in a monotone and then glazing colours over top to produce a harmony of tones and a glow that seems to resonate from within.
“I like to paint people and the reason being is that I am continually trying to understand myself and my place in the world. Only by human interaction and comparing our similarities and understanding our differences can we find harmony. I have traveled quite a bit while growing up, and by living in other countries was able to meet people from diverse walks of life. I find that no matter what language we speak, customs we obey, lives we have lad, we all have that common thread. We all have similar needs: understanding, compassion, love...
In a painting that may not portray a figure there is still a feeling of a presence: a home, an unmade bed, momentos on a mantel. Even in the natural world, we know and feel a connection.