Suzanne Pasternak @ Blizzmax Gallery

Blizzmax Gallery is hosting the world premiere of Suzanne Pasternak‘s Tales From the Point Traverse Schooner Tavern and Life Saving Station, Saturday August 27 at 7:30 PM and Sunday August 28 at 2 PM.

Suzanne has spent over 33 years collecting oral histories, filming and documenting her subjects. Her focus has been in Eastern Ontario and the various islands in Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River. This work has led her to create historically-based folk operas, musicals, plays and mulitple books, documentaries and albums. Suzanne also has a lecture series that she presents regionally.

When the environmentally-protected South Shore of Prince Edward County, Ontario, came under the threat of 300 foot Wind Turbines being built, Suzanne spent one year documenting the fragile ecosystem of the South Shore and Ostrander Point. She has collected hundreds of hours of oral histories from Canadian lumber jacks and lake faring families of Eastern Lake Ontario. She is currently cataloging and curating these interviews and photos for a book aimed at teens and young adults.

Her folk opera Minerva is a dramatic and true cross border story that tells the tale of a young 17 year old ship’s cook from 1878. Minerva McCrimmon was a famous heroine in both Oswego, New York and Prince Edward County. Another cross-border work between Halifax, Nova Scotia and Boston, Massachusetts is told in her newly published book titled The Story of the 1917 Halifax Explosion and the Boston Tree. This book has been donated to every library in Boston by the esteemed A.C. Ratshesky Foundation.

Tickets are $25 and can be purchased by calling Suzanne (613-847-9842), or Alice Mennacher (613-476-7748). Seating is limited.

Blizzmax Gallery’s current exhibition, As I See It, runs until August 14. Open Thursdays-Saturdays, 11 AM-5 PM.

Following this, the Gallery will be showing works by Peter Mennacher – open by chance or appointment. Peter has been in numerous group and solo shows locally and throughout Canada. Peter was always interested in the arts and as a teenager created drawings, paintings, monoprints and linocuts. After moving to Canada and opening Blizzmax Gallery and studio with his wife, Alice, in 1993, he also took up wood carving and sculpting.