Williams Mill Connection to the AGM Salmon Run Project

Salmon Run Project. Fiberglass head of Coho Salmon. Copyright Christine Montague 2011

A proposal from me, Williams Mill portrait artist Christine Montague, and one from former Williams Mill found object artist, Carmen Hickson were accepted in the Salmon Run Project, a community art collaboration between the Art Gallery of Mississauga (AGM) and Mississauga  Cultural Office.

The AGM invited professional visual artists from Mississauga and its surrounding areas to submit their concepts for the decoration of a fiberglass fish. Accepted artists' work will be part of an exhibition in the Great Hall of the Mississauga Civic Centre and each will be awarded  $500 for their efforts.

You can follow my progress on my salmon in the my art blog, Camera and Canvas. Search "Salmon".

The Mississauga News recently published an article on my work on the salmon. Click here.

And here are exerts from what I recently blogged on Camera and Canvas in answer to the question "Why salmon?"

Three types of salmon inhabit the Credit River, the southern Ontario river that starts above the Niagara Escarpment and winds south  through multiple Mississauga communities before it empties into Lake Ontario at Port Credit.

The Port Credit Salmon and Trout Association volunteers recently put 5000 young Chinook into a holding pen to acclimatize them to Lake Ontario. These 6 month old baby salmon are part of an ongoing project to increase the salmon population. About 85,000 salmon will enter the Credit River each year. Meet Sally, the salmon that tried to get away from that process here.

The Credit River Anglers Association, another great volunteer organization, has done fabulous work in protecting both the salmon and the Credit. Every year they collect the migrating salmon at a point in the river that impedes their journey, and drive them safely up to Norval where they are returned to the water so continue on their way. How impressive is that?!

At one time the Credit River was so thick with salmon, it was said one could walk across the river on their backs. However, by the end of the 1800′s, their numbers in Ontario rivers had been dramatically depleted.

Despite efforts to reintroduce the Atlantic salmon, they are still very rare. Reintroduction of the Pacific Salmon, such as the Chinook, has  met with much more success. The original call to artists stated we would be decorating casts of the Atlantic salmon, but what we all received was the Coho or Silver salmon.

And if you are not familiar with found object art,  Carmen's work will involve the use of familiar material used in an imaginative and unusual way.

And of course, anything involving the Credit River, is of relevance to the Williams Mill and its artists. The Mill would not exist if the Credit was not there. The water was used by both  the yellow lumber mill and  the stone building was Georgetown's original power plant. The dam that diverted the river past the Mill buildings was not replaced after it was destroyed by Hurricane Hazel. The river runs just beyond the park I see from my studio in the stone building. It plays a major role in the ambience of Glen Williams life.

Join Carmen Hickson and me, Christine Montague, on the opening night June 9, 2011. The Great Hall, Mississauga Civic Centre, Mississauga, ON.