Wayne Boucher, Fare Thee Well Nova Scotia, (April 18 - 19, 2020)

Wayne Boucher, Fare Thee Well Nova Scotia, (April 18 - 19, 2020)

painting (oil on canvas)

2020

Artist Statement

 “Fare Thee Well Nova Scotia” is a dark painting with a light of hope, and is part of “The Pilot Suite”. It uses international Marine Flagswiththe International Code of Signals(ICS) to expand the narrative and to give meaning to the implied abstracted notions and counterpoints to the paintings.“Fare Thee Well Nova Scotia” is about the recent horrific and tragic massacre and rampage that took placeinPortapique and Central Nova Scotia. Our beautiful and quiet innocence was lost. 

The red left of center flag is B called Bravo with the ICS meaning I am taking in or discharging or carrying dangerous goods."The blue flag with bar is J or Juliet with the ICS meaning"I am on fire and have dangerous cargo on board: keep well clear of me."Or,"I am leaking dangerous cargo."The light of hope is the Nova Scotia Flag going in the opposite direction into the light away (upper right)from the darkness of this early spring and late winter. Nova Scotianshaveexperienced tragedies and challenging times before from taking over the unceded lands of the Mi’ kmaq, The expulsion of the Acadians, Africaville, The Halifax Explosion, and the Springhill and Westville MineDisasters to name a few, and more recently in the past month Covid 19, and the Cyclone helicopter crash.

The painting was initially to be about the Halifax Explosion using ICS marine signal flags. It was to be ambiguous in its readability and interpretation mainly concentrating on the black plume of smoke in a picture as seen from Sambro. Black has always been intriguing in its meaning of a void, emptiness, and the implication of a catastrophe. I was also greatly influenced by the rich blackness of Richard Mueller’s glassworks.

Wayne Boucher

copyright, Wayne boucher

painting