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In the midst of the epic rainstorm this past July, Sheryl Dudley was stuck in her car madly photographing the

deluge through her windshield. captivated by the dramatic

colour shifts in the sky and flashing car lights reflected

through the water, she captured countless images of the

torrential, yet stunning, maelstrom. Sheryl describes

herself as an artist with a “roving eye,” so she often finds

herself in situations not unlike this one, camera in hand,

documenting a happenstance moment of beauty.

The collection of images Sheryl stockpiles cover “wildly

diverse subjects” but reflect her primary preoccupations.

“I am drawn to opposites – beauty in the midst of decay or

violence, the natural versus the artificial. Landscape and

the environment naturally emerge from this, but it’s really

the emotional and psychological space that’s the most

interesting.” The fate of her photos is often unknown at

the time of taking: “the relationship with a photographed

subject can be fleeting. There are images I wish to spend

more time with so I’ll turn to painting them.” at other times,

the photographs are the artwork, as is the case with the

Dumpster Series shot at the commissioners Street

Waste Disposal Depot.

a title like the Dumpster Series hints strongly at the

subject matter: however, you might be hard pressed to

see the humble garbage bin in these intriguing abstract

images (one appears in the Table of contents). You would

also have no inkling about the forensic investigation the

Police were conducting nearby as Sheryl snapped her

images: “I took photos of every stain, scrape, and bruise

on the surfaces of three blue dumpsters — the beauty of

my subject a shocking contrast to what was happening

several metres above me.” Finding beauty in what has

been discarded or rejected is a keen fascination for Sheryl.

“castoffs are a part of my personal history — making do,

re-working old things into something new.”

Sheryl will be showing us many new things this fall.

at 401 richmond, she’ll be participating in Practice Practice our independent project for Scotiabank Nuit Blanche on October 5 and showing work from the

Dumpster Series in the Roastery Coffee House from

October 3 to December 31. at the same time, she has

a piece at the Orillia Museum of Art & History in the

Carmichael Canadian Landscape Exhibition from

September 12 to October 19 and rounds things off with an

exhibition opening on January 4, 2014 at Loop Gallery.

SHERYL DUDLEY: Dumpsters, Deluges, and Castoffs Studio B006

tenant profile

Artist Sheryl Dudley in her studio Left: Sheryl’s photo of the July rainstorm