Making her marks

Bloomfield artist offer a bold and striking style

Rhonda Nolan’s art is an expression of her inner feelings, a reflection of her energy and her love of life. She paints instinctively, using gestures and marks that are precisely placed, and says that if you stop and think about where the paintbrush should go, “You are cooked.” She was trained as a designer, obtaining a degree from Ryerson, but says she developed her style and approach while running art classes for homeless people at the Metropolitan United Church in Toronto. “I met a lot of street artists there, and this fed my soul, and this was the beginning of expressive art for me,” she says. “That’s why I paint the way I paint, which is fast, bold marks. And there’s an immediacy, a naïve quality of street art that I like because it’s fresh, and that’s really important for me because it’s authentic, and the free voice is predominant.” She says that making art feeds her need to explore and to create, and she approaches it in a lighthearted fashion. Early in her career, she typically painted only small pieces, limited by her studio space in the Junction area of Toronto. In 2014, she and her husband, photographer Michael Lindon, moved to Bloomfield and Rhonda revelled in her new-found space. “Coming out here, it was like, oh my god, I have all this space, so I figured I have to make big art all over the place, and the banners happened as a way of attracting an audience.”

Bloomfield artist Rhonda Nolan.

The detached garage at their house in Bloomfield was converted to Rhonda’s studio, and the garden itself became an art installation. She painted the remnant tree stumps from trees that had either fallen or had to be taken down and hung boldly coloured banners from branches. She’s also made some sculptures incorporating recycled plastic jugs, and she loves to work with repurposed cardboard. Coming to the County also put her more in touch with her Métis background— her mother was French Canadian from northern Manitoba and her father of Cree heritage from Saint Boniface—with the proximity to Tyendinaga. She also taught some classes at the Baxter building, as well as from her studio. “I used to offer expressive art out here, which is a beautiful environment. It’s all about letting go of control and not judging what you’re putting down. So it’s a healing thing. It’s therapeutic. Art is a good thing. Just let it go.”

The past 16 months of the pandemic has had a silver lining for Rhonda. “I love change. Change invigorates me, stirs me, gives me energy and I love that. COVID brought a great deal of change, so there was a certain amount of energy attached to this, and a lot of it was pretty pessimistic, but I chose to see it in a positive way, and I figured just get out there every day and see how I can put art out, and COVID actually made me go online and I found ways of marketing myself through Instagram. It’s very visual, so I like it, and through Instagram you’re not just here within this little part of the community, and it’s a big world out there. So I was invited to galleries and boutiques all over the world to participate. I haven’t had enormous sales, but I’ve had some, and I’m hoping that this is the way of the future.” She has been approached to do digital art and to be paid in Bitcoin, which is a totally new concept for Rhonda. “They actually took some of my art and told me they wanted to screen it in different parts of the world for people who would rather have original art rather than a copy of van Gogh or something. So they have my designs and whoever buys it, I get a portion of the sales. This is just new, and it’s happening, and it’s a little scary. At first I thought, do I want to do this? And then I thought why not? This is the future, and I always embrace the future.”

She believes that art is an essential component of a healthy lifestyle, whether creating it, or simply enjoying it. “If you have original art on your wall, there is energy, a beautiful energy that comes from original art and feeds your soul. When you look at art, it makes you feel good. Whether it’s a play or dance or music, it’s a really wonderful thing for your soul. Art can be joyous, and sometimes it can take you down, but when it brings that emotion out of you, that’s a really good thing. I believe people really need to express themselves, and art is a way.”

For more information about Rhonda Nolan’s art, please visit rhondanolan.com.