The Way Gone Made Clear is a temporary public art installation by Artist, Georgia Fullerton.

The wagon is an interactive and educational component of Roots to Rebellion, Pickering Museum Village's latest exhibit. The 1830s were host to multiple community-changing events in Upper Canada. By viewing these events through the eyes of Pickering’s and Durham’s Black citizens, visitors will empathize with, and learn to look at the past through diverse perspectives.

This exhibit explores the early years of Pickering and how the settlers from this small farming community were instrumental in the Rebellion of 1837. The stories are told through the perspectives of Black settlers, working through their lives from the 1820s and culminating in the Rebellion of 1837-38.

The project is funded through Digital Access to Heritage Fund and Canada Race Relations Fund.

The artwork is located outside of the Log Barn on the grounds of Pickering Museum Village.

About the Artwork

Anything can create change in the arts and through the arts.

“In the wagon project I was inspired by the idea of the wagon as a literal vehicle of change. Just as the Log Barn Exhibit focuses on the conflict part of the Rebellion, the wagon public art piece will capture the essence of change through a visual imagining of the internal conflict experienced by free and enslaved Blacks as they made the journey across the United States to Canada to fight for Loyalists or Patriots and the land they were promised. The change in mental health is a large part of what this art piece will attempt to express. My process will include symbols of conflict and change created in an abstract expressionist style using the unforgiving, fluid medium of watercolor. Attached to the wagon with contemporary media, will be historical digital images, creative word play, and collage that depicts ideas and stories of belief, struggle, and safety for Black settlers then and now. From a strength-based lens I will be weaving together my love for stained glass, the delicacy of the times of the Rebellion for Blacks in Canada, and my lived experience, knowledge and understanding as a Black woman and mother, arts educator, and therapeutic arts professional.”

~ Georgia Fullerton

About the Artist

Visual artist Georgia Fullerton applies an intuitive approach to her abstract expressionist style. Her dynamic images blend the real and imagined, and express emotions and memories of her girlhood and Jamaican West Indies roots. She explores the phenomenon of relational energy through unpredictable colour, form, line and texture.

“I follow a path of spontaneous exploration,” Georgia says, “and stay sensitively aware of feelings, thoughts, sounds and movement as I create - keeping process over product as my primary goal.” For over 30 years, she’s been exhibiting her works around the world. Her art appears in public and private collections throughout Canada, United States, Australia, and the Caribbean.

By crossing over the intersections of black woman, single mother, Jamaican-Canadian, professional artist, arts educator, and creative arts therapist, Georgia dedicates herself to all areas of the arts and spreading its healing powers to others. This passion extends to work as an Expressive Arts Therapist in the gallery at Station Gallery in Whitby, Ontario.

To learn more, visit Georgia’s website.