Issue link: http://publications.winnipegfreepress.com/i/1484429
S P A C E S | 11 From top to bottom: Chein D'Or Island 2020 Sunset Channel Moskahossi Passage 2021 Astron Bay Enterance 2021 Randolph Parker Continued on page 12 S o many people have places on Lake of the Woods, but they know very little outside of their own bay or their trek to town," says the 73-year-old gallery owner. "It's an intimidating body of water until you find your own comfort level and gain some knowledge of it." Mayberry and Salt Spring Island-based artist Randolph Parker, 67, hope to change this mindset with the launch of a new exhibition and companion book entitled Islands – Lake of the Woods. The project's impetus was an iconic block print by Walter J. Phillips called Sunset, Lake of the Woods. Mayberry had spent a good deal of time trying to find its exact location. "It would have been easier if Phillips had just put the GPS on it," he deadpans. Once Parker joined the project, the pair agreed to put a GPS co-ordinate on every painting. "The GPS seems like such a simple idea, but it's staggering that it's never been done," Parker says. "It's a massive amount of work to keep track of the co-ordinates. Every number has to be correct." While using a GPS makes finding a location infinitely easier, Mayberry says it also makes the tracking process safer. "The lake is charted in such a way that it will plot you a route to get you there that won't take you over a reef." The gallery owner and artist duo spent the next five years on an epic adventure travelling 2,800 kilometres across the lake. "We were in and out of boats crossing the lake together, finding the more inspirational places," Parker says. "We would be crossing the lake and see an unusual shape, and then the closer we would get to it, the more excited we would get. Usually, we would circle the island. I would think, 'This is the image!"' They went out on the lake in every kind of weather, Mayberry adds. " Long-time Lake of the Woods cottager and Winnipeg art gallery owner Bill Mayberry believes that many Canadians take their country's natural beauty for granted.