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Floating Worlds
(Window Box)

Bernie Carpenter, Untitled 2004

Installed in the vitrines (built-in showcases) on the upper level of MSVU Library, Floating Worlds presents the works of two self-taught artists and former fishermen: Bernie Carpenter and Frank McKeough (1909-1997). Carpenter grew up in Havre Boucher and lives in Halifax. He worked at sea until recently, when he turned to woodcarving and bricolage. The works on view are facetted spheres fashioned from beer cans and scrap steel. McKeough, the father of Rita McKeough, contributes mobiles inhabited by fancifully painted animals carved from fishing buoys. McKeough always resisted offers to buy his art and insisted on giving it away. Like Carpenter’s constructions, McKeough’s art demonstrates a resourceful, problem-solving approach to making do with the materials at hand.

A booklet with biographical information and writings by Rita McKeough and Steve Higgins is available at no charge.

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