Discovering local places, people and their stories

LEWISPORTE -

Feeling the pull of the east, Kay Burns made the move from life out west to "a better life" in Newfoundland.

Ms. Burns has joined The Pilot as a freelance reporter/photographer.

The story that led her to settle down in Lewisporte begins with Ms. Burns and husband Curtis having spent nine summers at their cabin in Little Burnt Bay. Mr. Burns says the beauty, pace and lifestyle of Notre Dame Bay was a siren song, drawing her back each year. The end of summer each year brought with it sadness as she headed back to the "intensity, noise and busyness of Calgary."

They made the move to permanently call this area home last year.

Ms. Burns, a contemporary artist, is in the process of remodeling her home and studio in Lewisporte. She views the opportunity of freelancing for The Pilot as a chance to connect with the community even further.

"When I first got here I had a sense that I wanted to find some way to become involved in the community in a more active way in terms of getting to know people and more about the place," she said. "For my own artwork I do a lot of site specific art so I research a place before I create a piece about the place. I'm very much into that mindset of wanting to know about the place that I'm in, the people who live there and what their stories are.

"The Pilot was one avenue of doing that and I thought it would be a great fit because I have a lot of background in writing. It's very flexible. I like the idea of freelance work. It allows me to continue doing what I do with the flexibility of interspersing other projects along the way."

While Ms. Burns has an obvious interest in covering arts related stories, she has a variety of interests that she would like to explore through her writing, such as environmental and water issues, as well as historical pieces.

"I do a lot of historical research when I go to a place," said Mr. Burns. "Some of my artwork pertains to the idea of sort of creating fictions about places that actually have their foundation in historical fact. This is embellished and there are fictitious characters that come into play in the context of the project itself. For example, I do walking tours as a part of my walking practice. They would be site specific to where I go. I do research about those places, both historical and physical attributes of the place. Then I develop the fictional embellishment around that kind of core substance."

One of her performance art projects was about the Flat Earth Society. Her performance persona Iris Taylor is the new membership coordinator for the Flat Earth Society and she does recruitment lectures. Part of her research for this project was carried out in one of the four corners of the Flat Earth, Fogo.

Ms. Burns looks forward to learning more about Fogo Island through her work with The Pilot.

"Fogo Island is fascinating," she said. "I do want to go and explore a little more what is happening there with the Shorefast Foundation and the artist residency program. I have been to Fogo Island, but not since this project has started."

Ms. Burns future experiences covering items from Fogo Island will lend to her desire to connect with the artistic community in Central Newfoundland. Her surroundings have proved to be beneficial for her work and the type of mindset she wants to be in, but what she has yet to find - and notes it is just a matter of time to develop - is a sense of a greater community of artists locally.

"I do know some people in St. John's so I've made a little bit of a connection there and I am starting to get more of a sense of what is happening in Central Newfoundland with artists as well," she said. "It's that process of building a larger community to hang out with and talk with about art."

In the meantime she is enjoying the tranquility that a life in Central Newfoundland offers.

"I grew up in a rural location in southern Ontario and I spent a lot of time in cities and I like spending time in cities, but I really don't like living in cities," said Ms. Burns. "I was in Alberta for 30 years, 10 of them in Edmonton and most of the other chunk in Calgary with some years in rural Alberta, but I was really eager to get out of the city."

On that note, as part of her work with The Pilot, Ms. Burns would like to hear from other "come from aways" to feature for articles in the newspaper.

"I'd like to know what drew them here, why they are here, what keeps them here and what they left to come," she said. "That sense of displacement and leaving one place to go to another is very much a part of that."

Ms. Burns is looking forward to sharing the stories of Lewisporte and area with readers. She welcomes people to contact her with story suggestions related to the interests she expressed in this article or anything else they feel would make for an interesting story idea. Any "come from aways" and others with story ideas that may be of interest to Ms. Burns are encouraged to contact Mr. Burns at 535-8518 or e-mail kay@burnsmail.ca, or you can contact an editorial staff member at The Pilot at 535-6910 or editor@pilotnl.ca.