Recent Class Notes

Books and Beyond

  • Kettle Harbour by Kyle Vingoe-Cram

    Kettle Harbour

    Kyle Vingoe-Cram, MA’14

    A young artist reunites with her cousin on the muddy banks of Nova Scotia’s Fundy coast where the two spent memorable summers, but the reunion reveals a shared, uncomfortable past. Kettle Harbour is the debut graphic novel by Kyle Vingoe-Cram, MA’14, who explores, through innovative illustrative methods, the reliability of memory and the cascading effects of trauma. is available from Conundrum Press.

  • Behind the Pickle Jar by Wendy McQuaig

    Pickle Jar

    Wendy McQuaig, Artsci’82

    A couple’s escape from the city to a family farmhouse in northern Ontario leads to an unexpected discovery of a diary from the early 1900s. Behind the Pickle Jar, an historical novel by Wendy McQuaig, Artsci’82, weaves together Canadian history from the turn of the 20th century with the present, providing points of reflection for the woman, in particular, who grapples with her past and modernity. is self-published.

  • J.E.H. MacDonald Up Close: The Artist's Materials and Techniques by Kate Helwig and Alison Douglas

    J.E.H. MacDonald Up Close: The Artist’s Materials and Techniques

    Kate Helwig, MAC’92 and Alison Douglas, BFA’94, MAC’96

    J.E.H. MacDonald, one of the members of the Group of Seven and famous for his striking landscapes and views of the Canadian wilderness, is the subject of interest for two Queen’s art conservation alumni: Kate Helwig, MAC’92; and Alison Douglas, BFA’94, MAC’96. In J.E.H. MacDonald Up Close: The Artist’s Materials and Techniques, the authors provide a fresh interpretation of the painter’s artistic development, looking at questions of authenticity and dating. Excerpts from the artist’s diaries, letters, and lectures are used to provide socio-historical context to their in-depth reading of the artist’s paintings as physical objects. is available from Goose Lane Editions.

  • Doom Eager, Poems by Karl Meade

    doom eager

    Karl Meade, Sc’85

    Inspired by the Icelandic term doom eager, referring to an artist’s feeling of isolation and restlessness when sick with an idea, Queen’s engineer-turned-poet Karl Meade, Sc’85, set about penning a collection of poems about love and grief that convey an insistence that lost loves are never gone. doom eager also includes illustrations by Queen’s alumna Celia Meade (Scott), Sc’86. is available from Raven Chapbooks.

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