antiques on display
Acrylic on canvas, 30 1/4 x 20 1/4in. (2003)

Lombardy Showroom is a portrait of washing machines, tubs and all manner of handles on implements and tools that populate the grounds of an antiquities store just north of Lombardy, Ontario.

Lombardy Showroom is similar in intention to a number of other works, that search for beauty among the rust, rot and deterioration that spending a lifetime outdours can bring: man, beast or machine. It is not lost on me that these things were actually brand spanking new at one time, and that they were used to do things. And now, in retirement, they hang around the yard, no one to plug them in, or to pull a starter cord. I suppose if pressed hard enough I may admit to a certain human allegory at work here, though I readily confess that such a thing would be an accident of its original intentions.