Judi Burgess

“Although,” she admits, “he did annoy me a bit when we went for coffee. We had our sketchbooks with us and he made fun of my drawings from high school. I guess they weren’t ‘edgy’ enough for him.”

Paul states emphatically, “I knew from the moment that I first saw her that I was going to marry her.”

The studio programme at McMaster had been instilled with new vitality during those years as the department had recently hired several youthful instructors. The teachers were only a few years older than the students and immediate bonding occurred. Judi and Paul became particular friends with Graham Todd, a universally loved and respected teacher of sculpture.

Judi recalls, “Graham and his wife Lorraine Samuel were huge influences on us.”

The older couple were both working artists who lived and worked in one of the massive warehouse-size studios at Queen and Parliament, close to what was to become Toronto’s trendy Distillery District. Paul and Judi visited them there and were “awed” by the huge work spaces.

And, then – they lucked upon a huge studio space downtown, overlooking the oldest bar in Hamilton, the Balmoral (which has now been torn down), at Wentworth and King.

This seemed ideal at first, 2400 square feet with two window walls. Paul did the renovations in exchange for a good deal on the rent. And, Judi says, “there were many parties here and a lot of art making – both painting and printmaking.”

But, alas, reality intruded. The area was noisy with a fire station close by and a bar across the street fostered constant bar brawls. Clamorous late night arguments, with neighbours shouting at each other, echoed across an alley and – well – they moved, once again, in 1993, when they found a place in the North End.

This building was a fixer-upper that was originally part of a pickle factory, a corner store and deli. Languishing on the corner of Mary and Macauley Street, it had been boarded up for twenty years and was seedy and dilapidated to begin with. But there was a big, beautiful studio space – so once again, Paul rolled up his sleeves and began a series of strategic renovations, adding a new roof and plumbing. This time, the North End neighbourhood was more amenable to tranquil family life and the two ended up living there for 24 years.

How ever did they survive on part-time wages?

By living very frugally. They both learned to cook and rarely went out for dinner. They took advantage of the HSR and didn’t have a car until 1992. They scoured junk shops and bought used furniture. “It was a struggle,” says Paul.

It’s possible, of course, for artists to do some kind of work almost anywhere – in a dining room, on a patio, in a garage or basement, even outdoors. But storage for artworks is always problematic and a workable studio space makes everything so much easier and more convenient. The two learned to share and to improvise.

“We shared studio space”, Judi says, “but we have always had delineated areas for ourselves since approaches to our art couldn’t be more different… I would work meticulously and hours later [the artwork] wouldn’t look much different. [Paul] on the other hand, works more intuitively, with less planning, more expressionistically.
My work used to verge mildly on the expressionist side during the student years… Paul used to do figurative/objective work – over time he has gone pretty much strictly to abstract work, and, although I am experimenting more with pattern and form and less definitive subject matter, I would say my work still has a refined, illustrative feel to it.”

And she is quick to make the point that they have never worked collaboratively nor tried to make their work tie together for a show.

“We do actually both like a lot of the same artists whose influences are probably evident in our work but our takeaway from these artists is a completely different thing which is quite the beauty of individual creativity.”

One thing that they did agree on, in their individual practices, is the importance to change from one way of working to another so that their creative ideas do not become tedious or stale. Although both artists are primarily painters, Judi has tackled everything from printmaking to furniture painting to sculpture and Paul has pivoted from making large, narrative paintings and landscapes in oil to abstractions in acrylic.

Throughout the 80s and 90s, each followed their own path and they were fortunate to get commissions and participate in both solo and group shows in the many new galleries that had sprung up locally. But the really exciting event in their lives occurred in the early 1990s when Judi was surprised to find that she was pregnant.

“It was a shock,” she says. “We weren’t planning to have children. We liked the idea of being able to work part-time and live as cheaply as possible in order for us to have time to work in the studio.”

Judi recalls, “It was very difficult because my part of the space was always so crowded and messy, it was a mammoth task to clean it up to fit in guests. There were times when it looked like an episode of ‘Hoarders.’”

Still, she states, “We wouldn’t have it any other way, as being parents has been such a wonderful experience – but it does make being an artist that much more difficult in terms of time and energy devoted to your practice..”

She notes that all of the Contemporaries’ children had extensive exposure to gallery openings and art events and, as a result, several of them are now studying art-related subjects at university. Zach, for example, has just graduated from the University of Waterloo and is continuing his education as an architect.
And Judi and Paul now have recently moved into a more manageable space, a sunny, art-filled bungalow on a quiet street – still in the North End. (“Where else?” asks Paul. “It’s close to downtown and five minutes from the water.”)

Looking back thoughtfully at those last decades of the 20th century, the two ponder their practices and lifestyle and discuss their differences with the slightly barbed comments of the long and comfortably married. Judi explains, “these days I work late, Paul goes to bed early. I get up late, Paul gets up early, and we have completely separate studio spaces.”

There have been on-going interior design battles:

“As two artists with contrasting design ideas, we rarely agree on how things should be arranged. Paul is the one with house-painting experience, but when our son got old enough… we waited until Paul went up north with the guys and [would] sneakily re-paint rooms and change furniture around. Paul would then return home and move artwork around – maddening! It’s a hobby of his to move art around so that we’re always looking at pieces differently – which I agree with in principle, but practically-speaking in terms of setting up a room in a way that looks aesthetically pleasing… it’s a nightmare. Paul looks at it from a curatorial perspective. I look at it as what in our collection balances and works in a room.”

Both of the artists have had shows in Toronto and have been reviewed in the Toronto papers. And yet they were never tempted to make the leap into the big city.

Paul says, “Well, partly it was economic. We were able to find spaces in Hamilton in the 80s and 90s that would rent for $300 or $400 per month. Unfortunately that’s just not possible now – those same places rent for $3000 or $4000.”

But it was also a period of optimism in Hamilton when minor exhibition assistance grants were easier to acquire and a whole community of art activists, gallery owners and artists’ collectives formed a web of support and camaraderie that kept the young artists going.

The couple’s plans for the future are very far from a slow-down to peaceful repose. Work remains a priority. Paul is intending to take two years off just to paint and Judi is pondering a whole new series of artworks. The partnership remains strong.