a sample project in the Toronto Distillery for AvantDerm clinic involved 12 pieces made from reclaimed old growth fir combined with steel and glass elements, salvaged from the Distillery warehouses during renovations. All elements are handmade, with a style that evokes Toronto warehouse history. Images can be viewed at AvantDerm.com in the “Culture” section under Gallery, as well as through the Studio website at CroweRiver.WorkGalleries.com. Other pieces include hand-adzed salvaged barn beams from Eastern Ontario, and a variety of other designs. This project combined the furniture with poetic environmental light works called “Earth Skins”, made by Canadian artist and studio founder Richard Watts.
The Earth Skins function as translucent “paintings”, prints, or light works, made by layering latex and gauze onto iconic surfaces throughout the Canadian Shield, such as rock faces, trees, abandoned buildings, old wooden boats and canoes. These “sculptural canvasses” can be seen as x-rays of the earth’s surface warming. The work relates to climate change, water, energy, and the environment, and continues to circulate in gallery and museum exhibitions, in Canada and the U.S. Other pieces include: steel sculptures based on boat and canoe forms; evolving forms made from altered vintage Toronto water main valves and pipeline components; and prints of imaginary pipeline systems drawn over architectural drawings.
