COVID Shelf Piece is my homage to the central importance of brushes to the practice of artists. I wanted to display them like our loved ones in frames on a mantelpiece. In COVID Shelf Piece, you look at a brush and see its resilience, its achievements and accomplishments, the moments that you shared. Just as you do with people.I thought of our vulnerable citizens as I looked at the paint brushes, dried up and neglected in my studio. I should have washed and cleaned them with diligence, but did not because it was the end of a long painting session and it was simply too much work. Unlike so many health care professionals and family members who tend lovingly to their patients, I had not been a good caregiver.
Doris Purchase, born in Winnipeg, is a Toronto-based mixed-media artist who has degrees from Ontario College of Art and the University of Guelph. Her work has appeared in multiple Toronto galleries, including Propellor Art Gallery, where she’s also a member. Doris has participated in the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition and received a Jury Award from Latcham Gallery in 2018. Doris’s work is predominantly conceptual and draws on the materiality behind a painting. Through her practice, she focuses on artists’ materials to invoke conversations about western ideals and question our value system.