Artist Explorer

by Sandra Marshall

Maggie Wesley is an artist-explorer, adapting traditional art forms, painting and sculpture to her own 3-D language. Her passion today is in using recycled materials in artistic ways.

Wesley’s creative life began on the family farm near Perth Ontario. Everything on the farm had a purpose, and she loved the challenge of giving a new life to the time-worn. Discarded cooking utensils, aged wood and farm implements have all become part of her three-dimensional creations.

Helping others is also intrinsic to Wesley’s nature. She began a career as a registered nurse with a psychiatry specialty. As years passed, her creative urge grew and drew her to a four year fine arts program at OCAD in Toronto. Initially attracted to painting, her real passion was found in creating three dimensional objects which honed her many skills in painting, carving and woodworking, talent that you can see in the work on her website https://www.maggiewesley.ca.

During her time at OCAD, she initially took woodworking courses to create stretcher frames for her paintings, but unexpectedly she fell in love with wood and the process of crafting three dimensional objects. At the time Maggie discovered the qualities of wood, she had been assisting her family in dismantling the old homestead and building anew. The discards provided her with a wealth of aged building materials that had acquired a natural patina and texture, that captured her admiration. The deconstruction of the old building offered plenty of old wood, wall board, plaster lathe and household hardware, inventory for many future 3D creations.

Wesley began applying paint to the 3D, often wood canvasses, to highlight shadows. She uses colour to emphasize depth of field. For Wesley, “Shadows allow the interplay between light and dark, highlighting contrasts, so important in my work. For me, shadows symbolize the passage of time.”

Initially Wesley’s sculptures respected the natural properties of the wood and found objects with a very limited palette. With time, she engaged differently with her recycled objects, experimenting with the introduction of colour for wood sculpture. If using recycled metal, then wood becomes her unifying medium and colour is an accent.

She loved woodwork as the old textures and patina came alive again under her lively imagination. Post-graduation, this was the impetus for designing a woodworking studio to concentrate her painting, carving and woodworking skills and recycling of materials into 3D art. This journey challenged her self-taught construction abilities as a worker and contractor. Happily, this new direction led to the acquisition of her artwork by the City of Ottawa and Nepean collections.

Then a new adventure began. Maggie states that “Once again, love guided my efforts.” She worked with her husband to build a new home, as they engaged their muscle in the many trades of home construction. She is resourceful- Her skills sharpened and expanded to harvesting trees on their rural Woodlawn property for cabinet making and finish carpentry. Since retiring from nursing in 2015, Maggie now directs her full attention to her art. She continues her 3-dimensional journey by participating in group art shows in Ottawa area galleries.

Always opportunistic, bicycle parts and gears became a theme for a series of work when the parts became available to her. She developed quite a collection while rescuing them from the landfill. Each of her pieces is refined and transformed until Maggie finds the sense of harmony that she seeks between decay and creation. She connects the history in the reclaimed objects in the reanimated story of her 3D sculpture. They may suggest a narrative of evolution and rebirth, of known spaces in past use. Her exploration of known spaces, past history, and more recently the human figure, allow the viewer to connect on a more personal and emotional level.

Wesley’s favourite project activity is when she is challenged to see and connect with the art potential in her found objects. Her problem solving work requires multiple tools – chainsaw, drills, Dremels, chisels and other tools, each requiring a different and new skill set.

Recent pieces were assembled using old woodworking planes. These unique sculptures allow the spirit of these handmade planes to continue life as artwork.

Over time Maggie’s works have grown smaller, but her diverse tool skills allow her to see opportunity in working on larger objects. An opportunity to acquire multiple boxes full of rusted 1930 car parts has Maggie enthusiastic about her next sculptural adventure “I love the texture and forms of those parts” They inspire the creation of a new sculpture series.

See more of Maggy’s work at www.maggiewesley.ca