Artists and shopkeepers open their doors during the Welcome Back to Otterville weekend
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Over the weekend, the town of Otterville held its 18th annual Welcome Back to Otterville studio tour, where local artists and shop owners open their doors to show off their collective works.
The Ugly Duckling antique shop owner Jo-Anne Seargent said Welcome Back to Otterville started as a showcase of “what your wares were.”
“It was like an open house where people inviter others in, and they showed their stuff,” Seargent said. “If you were interested in it, you purchased and, if not, you just socialized and you were welcomed in Otterville.”
While the weekend festivities do make a dollar, Seargent said the community-wide event is more about welcoming people to Otterville.
“It’s more about … come to Otterville and see what Otterville has to offer you,” she said.
Ernie Gyori, owner of Saltbox Antiques, said he wasn’t included on the official list for Welcome Back to Otterville because he was diagnosed with cancer the previous year, and didn’t know if he would be around to participate.
“Everybody said your feeling good so open up,” he said, “and yesterday, I had the best day I’ve probably ever had.”
With his eclectic collection of pieces, Gyori said, people often don’t know what they want going in.
“Some people want furniture, some people pick out a piece of glass,” he said. “There’s a lot of nostalgia items, (and) rustic stuff for decorating with. But there’s no big rush for oil lamps like there used to be.”
One of the local artists who participated was Lianne Todd, who has been painting for about 16 years, but said she has started off in a new direction as of late.
“I’ve started … with fractals, which not everyone is familiar with, but I’m having fun explaining them to everybody,” Todd said.
She had on display fractal watercolours and fractal digital prints on metal, as well as traditional watercolours.
But what is a fractal painting?
“Fractal geometry is the geometry of nature,” she said. “It was discovered in the 1970s by Benoit Mandelbrot, and when you start studying them, you start to realize that fractal geometry underlies everything in the universe.”
Todd said she was intrigued by fractals because she has a science background, and that this was her way to blend science and art together.
“The possibilities are infinite,” Todd said.
bruce.chessell@sunmedia.ca