DEBORAH CARRUTHERS
  • Home
    • Artist Statement
    • Bio
  • Exhibitions / Residencies/Performances
    • Exhibitions ... Now You See Me... >
      • FLOW— Deborah Carruthers and Sydney Lancaster Inter Arts Matrix, Kitchener, Ontario, Canada - 2024
      • What Remains Unexplained 2.0: The Endpoint Collective, Kingston Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts, October 2022
      • Beyond the Stone Angel: artists reflect on the death of their parents, MacKenzie Art Gallery, Regina, Saskatchewan, October 2021- February 2022 >
        • More About ​Safe Passage
        • More About the Paintings ...
      • Announcing the Coming of the Sun, Adjacent to Life Gallery, New York, New York, USA , 2021
      • The Aura of the Already Said - Zygote Gallery, Cleveland, Ohio - 2019
      • Souvenir / Souvenir - Montréal, Québec 2017 >
        • Souvenir / Souvenir - Press
        • Souvenir / Souvenir - Essay ​Culte du Souvenir
        • Souvenir / Souvenir: About the Exhibition ...
        • Souvenir / Souvenir : Invitation card
    • Performances ... Once Upon a Time ... >
      • reiterator – Endpoint Collective* workbyseoul.05 Gallery, Seoul, North Korea, March, 2025
      • creek* - Nu Ears Ensemble - Open Ears Festival, Kitchener, Ontario, June 2024
      • slippages - the Alkali Collective, Halifax, Nova Scotia, May 2023
      • reading between the lines & Emerald Ash: Deborah Carruthers and Terri Hron- Black Box, matralab, Concordia University, Montréal, Québec - April 2022
      • Ecstacies of Influence - Le Gesù, Amphithéâtre -Montréal - December 2018
      • slippages - The UBC Symphony Orchestra - Chan Centre - Vancouver - October 2018
    • Residencies ... Home Away From Home ... >
      • Ecstasies of Influence : matralab, Concordia University - Montréal 2018 >
        • Ecstacies of Influence - December 16, 2018 - Le Gesù, Amphithéâtre - Montréal
      • The Past Sealed Away - Peter Wall Institute Artist in Residence - Vancouver, BC 2017 - 2018
      • What's in a Song ? Between the Song and the Silence: Banff Centre for the Arts and Creativity, Banff, Alberta 2017
      • In The Hole - Saskatoon, Saskatchewan 2017
      • A Ubiquity of Sparrows : Banff Centre for the Arts and Creativity, Banff, Alberta 2016 >
        • A Ubiquity of Sparrows : Banff Installation
  • Graphic Scores
    • creek* - 2024 >
      • creek* -Instructions for Play and Score
    • reading between the lines - 2022
    • safe passage - 2021 >
      • safe passage: Video Score with Audio
      • About Mortsaf for My Father: ​Safe Passage Installation
    • slippages - 2018 >
      • slippages - Instructions for play and score
      • slippages in the Studio: About my process >
        • slippages Athabasca -Photographs
        • slippages Immense Immensities
        • slippages Notebook
        • slippages Athabasca Painting
      • slippages - Performance Videos
    • Between the Song and the Silence: Berlin 2017 - 2021 >
      • Between the Song and the Silence: Graphic Score- Studies for Hobrechtsfelde Iteration 2020
      • Between the Song and the Silence: Graphic Score- Banff Iteration 2017
      • My Muses
      • What's in a Name?
      • Taking Flight ... The Process
      • Swan Song... A summary of my process for my MFA research
  • Portfolio
    • Mortsaf for My Father : the Series ... >
      • Mortsaf for My Father : the Paintings ...
      • Mortsaf for My Father: ​Safe Passage
    • Allegory for a New Ice Age ... Photographs
    • The Past Sealed Away : the Series >
      • The Past Sealed Away ... Painting
      • The Past Sealed Away... Prints
      • The Past sealed Away: Athabasca - Photographs
      • Immense Immensities Miniature Watercolours
    • In The Hole
    • Souvenir sacré - Photographs
    • Souvenir sacré - Opasatika
    • Fleurs sacrées - Photographs
    • Mortsaf - Paintings
    • Genetics for Cowboys
    • Beautiful Ghosts - Installation
    • Niagara Tondos
    • Twinned
  • C V
  • Contact

About the Paintings ...

Although I had been exploring the topic of how we are remembered and how we remember others for some time, my father’s death provided impetus for me to engage with this topic on a far more personal level. 

Growing up, my family had a log house on a lake in the Laurentian mountains, and it was that place that I most closely identified with my father. In 2002, my family sold the house .  From that time until 2012, when my father died, I found it very difficult to look at photos or drawings of the lake. After my father died, I discovered that while I still find it very difficult to look at pictures of him, I can now look at the  thirty-plus years of material from the lake.

I had collected stones over time and various trips, and already been working on a series of paintings of them (the beginnings of the Mortsaf series) when he died.  Typical of the geography are massive granite boulders, and my father and I gave our own private names to many of those that ring the lake. I began to paint large-scale pictures of these: Mortsaf for My Father: Balcony Rock, 2014;  Mortsaf for My Father: Resting Rock,  2016; and Mortsaf for My Father: Sanctuary, 2021.


Mortsaf for My Father: Balcony Rock, 50" x 80", acrylic on birch panels, 2014
Balcony Rock. circa 1989.
Mortsaf for My Father: Resting Rock, 60" x 96", acrylic on birch panels, 2016.
My father, Carl Carruthers, with my dog Maxine, circa 1989
Mortsaf for My Father: Sanctuary, 102" x 73", acrylic on birch panels, 2021.
Sanctuary circa 1989.
​

​ We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts.
Nous remercions le Conseil des Arts du Canada de son soutien.
Picture
  • Home
    • Artist Statement
    • Bio
  • Exhibitions / Residencies/Performances
    • Exhibitions ... Now You See Me... >
      • FLOW— Deborah Carruthers and Sydney Lancaster Inter Arts Matrix, Kitchener, Ontario, Canada - 2024
      • What Remains Unexplained 2.0: The Endpoint Collective, Kingston Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts, October 2022
      • Beyond the Stone Angel: artists reflect on the death of their parents, MacKenzie Art Gallery, Regina, Saskatchewan, October 2021- February 2022 >
        • More About ​Safe Passage
        • More About the Paintings ...
      • Announcing the Coming of the Sun, Adjacent to Life Gallery, New York, New York, USA , 2021
      • The Aura of the Already Said - Zygote Gallery, Cleveland, Ohio - 2019
      • Souvenir / Souvenir - Montréal, Québec 2017 >
        • Souvenir / Souvenir - Press
        • Souvenir / Souvenir - Essay ​Culte du Souvenir
        • Souvenir / Souvenir: About the Exhibition ...
        • Souvenir / Souvenir : Invitation card
    • Performances ... Once Upon a Time ... >
      • reiterator – Endpoint Collective* workbyseoul.05 Gallery, Seoul, North Korea, March, 2025
      • creek* - Nu Ears Ensemble - Open Ears Festival, Kitchener, Ontario, June 2024
      • slippages - the Alkali Collective, Halifax, Nova Scotia, May 2023
      • reading between the lines & Emerald Ash: Deborah Carruthers and Terri Hron- Black Box, matralab, Concordia University, Montréal, Québec - April 2022
      • Ecstacies of Influence - Le Gesù, Amphithéâtre -Montréal - December 2018
      • slippages - The UBC Symphony Orchestra - Chan Centre - Vancouver - October 2018
    • Residencies ... Home Away From Home ... >
      • Ecstasies of Influence : matralab, Concordia University - Montréal 2018 >
        • Ecstacies of Influence - December 16, 2018 - Le Gesù, Amphithéâtre - Montréal
      • The Past Sealed Away - Peter Wall Institute Artist in Residence - Vancouver, BC 2017 - 2018
      • What's in a Song ? Between the Song and the Silence: Banff Centre for the Arts and Creativity, Banff, Alberta 2017
      • In The Hole - Saskatoon, Saskatchewan 2017
      • A Ubiquity of Sparrows : Banff Centre for the Arts and Creativity, Banff, Alberta 2016 >
        • A Ubiquity of Sparrows : Banff Installation
  • Graphic Scores
    • creek* - 2024 >
      • creek* -Instructions for Play and Score
    • reading between the lines - 2022
    • safe passage - 2021 >
      • safe passage: Video Score with Audio
      • About Mortsaf for My Father: ​Safe Passage Installation
    • slippages - 2018 >
      • slippages - Instructions for play and score
      • slippages in the Studio: About my process >
        • slippages Athabasca -Photographs
        • slippages Immense Immensities
        • slippages Notebook
        • slippages Athabasca Painting
      • slippages - Performance Videos
    • Between the Song and the Silence: Berlin 2017 - 2021 >
      • Between the Song and the Silence: Graphic Score- Studies for Hobrechtsfelde Iteration 2020
      • Between the Song and the Silence: Graphic Score- Banff Iteration 2017
      • My Muses
      • What's in a Name?
      • Taking Flight ... The Process
      • Swan Song... A summary of my process for my MFA research
  • Portfolio
    • Mortsaf for My Father : the Series ... >
      • Mortsaf for My Father : the Paintings ...
      • Mortsaf for My Father: ​Safe Passage
    • Allegory for a New Ice Age ... Photographs
    • The Past Sealed Away : the Series >
      • The Past Sealed Away ... Painting
      • The Past Sealed Away... Prints
      • The Past sealed Away: Athabasca - Photographs
      • Immense Immensities Miniature Watercolours
    • In The Hole
    • Souvenir sacré - Photographs
    • Souvenir sacré - Opasatika
    • Fleurs sacrées - Photographs
    • Mortsaf - Paintings
    • Genetics for Cowboys
    • Beautiful Ghosts - Installation
    • Niagara Tondos
    • Twinned
  • C V
  • Contact