Molly McGuire
One of my fondest childhood memories is that every June, the carnival set up right behind my home in Trenton, Ontario.
A 100-acre gravel flat behind our townhouse would be transformed into this magical epicenter of activity for a week, then vanish overnight as quickly as it had come. The vacant flat would then be scoured by a fat man wielding a metal detector for a day. Otherwise, it was nothingness.
I recorded the sights, sounds and smells in my mind and fell asleep thinking of them for the remaining 51 weeks of the year.
It was something that transformed the town that I lived in from the most boring place to the most exciting place imaginable. I was determined to experience the thrill at all times.
Where had they come from and where were they going?
Something about it inspired me to run very far from where I came from later in life. In the meantime, I was forced to use my own imagination to fill the void. In my mind, everything in my life happened on the enchanted flat that could become something so much more otherworldly than itself.
To this day, one of my therapeutic tendencies is to encapsulate people and scenarios from my own life in the form of a circus banner.Ê
Every city, town and rural community has folklore that fuels an endless dialogue. Those who listen often find themselves inspired and perplexed by its beauty, mystery, fear and pathos.
In an age of conformity, it’s important to celebrate the diversity of difference,Êthe wonderful weirdness that is part of nature and life itself, but is often marginalized in common culture.
I seek the subplot of each destination and explore underlying cul-de-sacs of representation, where truth and beauty land far outside the cultural paradigm. I suss out the essence that makes each location unique fueled byÊthe imaginations of the inhabitants.
These pilgrimages are a timeless waltz through history. Whether they reveal a ghost story, a village eccentric, a cryptid sighting, a recurring natural phenomenon, an unusual ceremonial practice or simply a celebrated indigenous species of plant or animal, my paintings encapsulate microcosms of the human condition all within a circus banner.
