Low Down Articles
Artist Profiles - Glen Foster
Article 19 of 73
From the book Artists of the Gatineau Hill by Catherine Joyce. This article first appeared in the "Artist Profiles" column in the September 13, 2006 issue of the The Low Down to Hull and Back News.
Reprinted with permission. Search complete list of Low Down Articles.
o o o
Winged Variations
Artists reach for that one pure note, line, or image. No matter the medium, the longing and the struggle are the same - that lifelong search to embody the Beauty/Truth equation. Glen Foster, Wakefield artist and craftsman, has pursued such purity of vision through many variations: as a pianist and teacher, as a photographer and as a maker of fine furniture (ebeniste).
Growing up in Montreal Glen wanted to become a professional pianist. By 16 he realized that he would never make a career of it but his pragmatic decision did not deter him from practicing two hours a day right on through university. Through self-directed discipline the piano became an integral part of his life; from the age of 27 he has been teaching it. Even today, every day, he plays as a meditative exercise to balance the pressures of life.
Glen bought a camera in high school and began documenting spatial relationships in black and white images through the 70s and 80s - a fascination that has returned in a recent series of photographs capturing spectral treetops soaring against an overarching sky. The sculptural proportions of each shot attest to his concern for simplicity of line and form.
A love of working in wood began equally early. His father built their familly home and Gen appropriated the scraps for his own designs. At 14, up in the Laurentians, he constructed a bright red speedboat by himself out of a magazine design - a challenge he couldn't resist. "I realized young that if you want to make things happen, you have to do it yourself. You have to understand life's restrictions but you also have to be persistent and not let obstacles defeat you."
In 1986 Glen moved to the Gatineau Hills where he built his home in the woods. Soon he had a furniture studio, juggling his time between his career as a fish physiologist at Ottawa University, raising a young family, teaching piano to 40 students, and producing his increasingly sought after pieces. By 1994 he decided to leave the university and make his living as an ebeniste. He now sells much of his exquisite work through the Hollace Cluny gallery store in Toronto.
There is a winged quality to Glen's artistry evident in the flitch tables that have become his trademark. The elegant tops float above their bases, lifting as if they would soar.
"My furniture expresses my love of classical lines, celebrating the beauty of wood with the simplicity of form. I want to strip away all ornamentation, to reveal the purity of space - the way it is in music where the rests are almost more important that the notes. The piece must sing.
"It's not necessarily about making something that is useful or functional. I have to go a step further and do something more with what I have in my hands to alter or revise it. There is this need to create - to search for that sense of unity I have to go with it, to respond to what moves me in wood or music or photography. It is how I attempt to understand myself and my life."