Lake of Bays, ON - Barbara Cole

My Watermarks are Lake of Bays and Lake Simcoe in Ontario.

My favourite memory of water (now this is very morbid) is of a time I was watching behind a boat. I fell, and my life preserver jammed my arms up over my head. I started to drown, and my father saved me.

What does water mean to me as an artist?

In a word – EVERYTHING. In my late twenties, while I was working as a photojournalist at a newspaper, I had an attack of constant migraines . . . morning, noon and night, every day, all day for over 3 years.

As a treatment, one of the doctors suggested a daily swim. While swimming, which did provide relief, I would think, “If I ever get well, I’ll become a full-time photographer and open my own studio.”

I did eventually get well, and I opened my studio in the 80’s. In the meantime, I kept on swimming as much as possible. I refer to the pool as “my office” because so many art projects were conceived there.

It took some time before I was able to connect the two passions in my life -- photography and swimming. But from the first underwater roll of film, I knew I had found a deeply personal means of expression.

I’ve had the good fortune to use the freshwater available to me in Canada. I think I took it for granted all these years. I’ve been shooting underwater since 2000, but I never questioned water’s availability. It was always just there.
 

Waterbody
Lake of Bays, ON
Collector
Krystyn Tully
Contributor
Barbara Cole

Related Watermarks

Foote Lake, ON
Anita Kunz
Georgian Bay, ON
Andrew Peycha
Georgian Bay, ON
Ann MacIntosh Duff
Georgian Bay, ON
David Marshak
Lake Ontario, ON
Nicole Katsuras
Ragged Lake, ON
Ian Busher
Stoney Lake, ON
Adam Colangelo
Welland Canal, ON
Edward Burtynsky