Salmon Run Project

My Salmon Runs to the AGM

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Today I delivered my finished salmon "The Invasive Species" to the Art Gallery of Mississauga (AGM). Although,  it was officially unveiled 3 days ago on "daytime"  a Roger's television show, these are the first photographs I've publish of the finished sculpture. The rain finally let up enough for me to photograph the work outdoors. Here is the summary of my proposal:

Through my Salmon Run Project, I wish to provoke thought on how urban development has been "built on the backs" of the Credit River salmon.  The increase of impermeable surfaces such as roofs, patios, and roads means rain carries debris, oil, gas (from roadways) and silt through the hundreds of Mississauga storm sewers directly into the river.  This black and brown water stresses the salmon, kills the insects they feed on and buries their spawning grounds.  I will attach miniature houses  with acrylic gels (representing tar & oil) in clusters similar to those of an invasive species such as the zebra mussel.  These clusters will represent development that has the potential to impede, choke, and threaten the salmon with death, if not controlled. 

Salmon Run project: Invasive Species by Christine Montague

Salmon Run Project: Invasive Species. "Zebra Mussel" House. Detail by Christine Montague

Eye-to-Eye With a Salmon

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Since I am an artist who usually works 2D, I found myself hesitating for a second when I picked up the brush to paint the salmon cast. But I quickly realized I should use the same approach to this sculptural fish as I use with any portrait painting on canvas. Start with the eyes! The ol' the "eyes are the mirror of the soul thing".  As soon as I did this, I found my "connection" to this pre-made form. I only had salmon photos off the internet to use as reference. Thus I realize, for any salmon aficionados out there,  the salmon is probably not exactly like the Coho. Apparently,  the cast itself is not quite correct, the fins are too small, etc. But that's not really the point. To create what I proposed, all I need to start with is a shape that is easily recognizable as a healthy salmon, no matter the breed or  how exact its representation is.

My poor salmon. He only stayed "healthy" for one day. Stay tuned.

Even in Art, Development a Problem

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Painted Monopoly houses will represent suburban development in my Salmon Run Project . In the picture to the left are some of the almost 200 houses lined up to be spray painted.

How to spray paint plastic? As an oil painter, working with acrylic paints and plastic materials is more or less new to me, too. First, the plastic must be cleaned with mineral spirits. A base coat spray paint for plastic is available, but I figured I didn't need it. A wide variety of colour topcoat spray paint for plastic is available, but I only needed black. I will also use Rust-oleum's Stone accents for the illusion of a roof shingle's surface.

One should wear wear a protective mask, gloves, and goggles when using spray paint. And the work area,  well ventilated.  My "well-ventilated"  area is my unheated garage with its doors open. And, as spray paint works best when the temperature is above freezing, the uncooperative GTA cold weather, delayed my project's progress. But, hey, delayed progress? As the past owner of two new homes that were not ready on time,  it's all in keeping to the spirit of building development.

I  love using spray paint, and if I was a lot younger, my art path might have followed a different path. But after putting a fair bit of work into the research for my proposal, and discovering how building development affected the salmon in the Credit River, with hindsight,  a project that uses fiberglass, spray paint, plastic, mineral spirits, electrical power, sandpaper and rags, is a contradiction to its intent.

The 3 e's of Art Apply to The Salmon Run Project & Credit River

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If you live in Mississauga you may have heard of the Salmon Run Project, a call to artists to decorate casts of the Coho salmon to be displayed in the Civic Centre Grand Hall early in May.  Mississauga is stepping up its support of the visual arts and this is the first project between the City's Cultural Office and the Art Gallery of Mississauga. But 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.

Whatever "salmon" we work with, the lessons are the same, salmon are remarkable creatures, if we mess with nature it take a lot of time, effort, and good people to correct,  and art, like nature,  has the amazing ability to engage, educate and entertain.

The Salmon Run Project, Sanded at Last.

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Salmon Run Project
Salmon Run project. Shaping the fin.

I don't know what tools a taxidermist uses on fish casts such as this, but I found a drywall saw effective  for the edges of the fins and for cutting out the mouth. I also used a small hand saw, a metal file, a box cutter and sand paper. Below you can see the scooped out mouth and a sample of the cut out material. The whitish edge is plaster and fibreglass. The fish is not hollow, but filled with the yellowish substance that is some type of foam.

So finally, the fish is sanded. Next step?  To attach the fins, and drill the holes for the stand. Then hurrah, the project actually begins!

Salmon Surprise: Don't Eat (Or Inhale) this Fish

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Ta da! A salmon surprise, indeed! Revealed to you at last! This is the salmon form the artists chosen for the Art Gallery of Mississauga's & Office of the Arts "Salmon Run Project" have been given. #158415 is mine, all mine! But there are more surprises in store!

Surprise #1. I was expecting an artist designed cast , not the taxidermist model this is. Still happy this project is up and "run"ning. A community sculpture project first for Mississauga!

Surprise #2. Fellow participants Sonja Hidas and Carmen Hickson were curious as to what I was going to do with the extra fins. Fins? What fins? Well, ah ha! Under that cardboard at the tail, guess what I found -

Surprise # 3. This should be called BIG surprise #3., GIANT surprise #3. There are seam lines from the casting process all over the fish! And the fins! This is a lot of prep work, people! This cast appears to be of fibreglass (protect your lungs!) , possibly some  plaster and filled  with foam. Sanding will have to be done in a well ventilated area, i.e. outside and with proper tools and protection. So, I readied my Mastercraft reciprocating sander, my mask, and my goggles. And it's still winter here, folks, so I wore somebody else's coat .Wasn't going to get my own "resiny"  LOL.  So here's a sight that would definitely scare the neighbourhood children, not to mention the fish.

Here's the tools in action.

Here's me in the cold in action.

Salmon Run project More sanding Copyright Christine Montague

Surprise #4. Quite possibly to you, but not to all the professional visual artists out there. Creating art for a living requires discipline, a broad selection of know how, tenaciousness, the ability to laugh at life (in Canada, we sure can't laugh because of the  money)and remain ever optimistic (the tenacious part). I will laugh out loud as I spend a second day in tenacious hope that this flipping fish will be "fin" ished (Dam it, Jim, I am a painter, not a sander) so that I can actual begin my proposal, submit it and get back to the studio.

No surprise there.

Salmon Run Art Project Begins

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Salmon Run Project Art Gallery of Mississauga. Salmon Run Project leaves city hall. Copyright Christine Montague

Today I went to the Art Gallery of Mississauga to pick up my salmon for the Salmon Run Project.

AGM's Jaclyn & Gail, behind the "fish counter", so-to-speak, handed over my wrapped salmon, while found object artist Carmen Hickson, another salmon recipient looked on.

For some added scale: here I am outside Mississauga's Civic Centre,  the home of the Art Gallery of Mississauga.

Stay tuna'd.