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Red Deer Artist Processes Grief and Documents Healing in Latest Exhibit
Glynis Wilson Boultbee embarked on years of therapeutic creativity following the deaths of her parents.
The Long Night of Unweaving exhibit at Red Deer’s Viewpoint Gallery is made up of kaleidoscopic photographs, as well as poems, “artifacts” and sculptures that reflect on mortality, loss and healing.
Since the artist’s mom passed away in 2021 and her dad early in 2024, Wilson Boultbee discovered the path from despondency to emotional recovery has many switchbacks.
“Grief is not linear,” she concluded, nor predictable.
One reason for her deep sadness was that Wilson Boultbee could not be with her parents in Nova Scotia in their final hours.
Her mom, Budge Wilson, died after a fall early in the pandemic when travel was impossible. The East Coast native was a prolific writer and Order of Canada recipient, best known for penning a prequel to Anne of Green Gables.
The artist’s father, Alan Wilson, a chair at Trent University before retiring, died quickly, after a brief illness.
Both lived well into their 90s, leaving a lifetime of possessions behind.
Wilson Boultbee had difficulty parting with some items. Her solution was photographing house keys, her father’s glasses and broken shards of her mother’s trivet and turning these into kaleidoscopic art.
“Once you make some meaning of it, you are able to let it go,” said Wilson Boultbee. She also creates poetry to highlight significance.
Beside her father’s childhood picture book are the words: “Once upon a time this book was new, as were the words that spun themselves into his imagination…”
Her mother’s favourite popcorn bowl is paired with a poem about how hard it was to be 5,000 km away as her mom lay dying.
Wilson Boultbee thinks of grappling with such deep emotions as “the archeology of grief.”
Symbolically frayed burlap is part of the exhibit, as are shredded photographs and the stripped-down inner workings of her parents’ parlour clock.
A pair of black turtlenecks— belonging to the artist and her mother— are reminders of how alike we are to our parents in some ways, says Wilson Boultbee
While her exhibit has a chronology, ranging from works reflecting intense grief to various “dreamscapes” that help process loss, Wilson Boultbee feels it can be viewed from any vantage point. The underlying theme is letting go of “stuff” and sorrow and relying on memory as time transports us ever forward.
“All the old stories will someday fold themselves into the fabric of my being,” anticipates the artist. She hopes the exhibit that goes to Oct. 23 in the Culture Services Centre will spark conversations about loss, grief and “the things that matter.” An artist’s tour and poetry reading will be held at 6 p.m. on Oct. 3.
The Red Deer Polytechnic visual arts graduate has used her creativity to make sense of many stages of life.
Wilson Boultbee wrote the 2010 play Fertile Choices about her decision not to have children and documented her friendship with fellow artist Sabine Schneider in the Soul Sisters exhibit in 2011.
