MDC is excited to announce that James Tughan will be joining us as the new Artist-in-Residence. In this role he will lead the Seraphim Arts Guild, a group for creatives at MDC to join together in discussion and the experience of the intersection of faith, theology, and the arts. With his extensive experience in, and connection to the arts community, he will welcome exhibitions to MDC’s building and offer workshops to lead students and other members of the community to embrace their creativity.
The first group of exhibitions is now on display, with a reception being held on October 4, 2022, features art from current students and alumni, Megan Little, Krystle Marriott, and Deborah Stephan, along with some of James’ The Haliburton Narratives.
James is an experienced visual artist, known for working in visual mapping with chalk pastels, as a cartographic realist. This work celebrates attachment to visible surfaces of the northern Ontario wilderness but additionally the less visible human psyche, through a careful use of metaphor. He is also an extensively published editorial illustrator having had his work appear magazines such as Rolling Stone, GQ, House and Garden, Saturday Night, Financial Post Magazine, and Atlantic Monthly. He returned to his world of origin in fine art exhibition and curriculum development as a past-serving member of the art faculties of Sheridan University, Redeemer University College, and Tyndale Seminary and College. He currently is the lead art instructor and curator at the Halton Waldorf High School, Burlington Ontario.
More recently, he has been drawn into the world of poetry, through the need to process the experience of loss in the untimely death of his son. Poetry has given him a way to articulate more directly certain aspects of the world of persons, the world of spirit, both in terms of lament and celebration, and in overview and intimacy.
He is the founder of The Semaphore Fellowship and co-founder of the Flagship Gallery, Hamilton and its first born The Portage Group, a small collective Ontario artists focused on mental health and the Arts. He is currently studying the intersection of theology, psychology, and creativity aesthetics at McMaster Divinity College in the DPT program.
His work is available for viewing at: tughansemaphore.wordpress.com