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Dragonfly – Artists work here: welcome to visit

March 4, 2021   ·   0 Comments

By Constance Scrafield

“It was always a goal to have studios,” Joan Hope, owner of Dragonfly, told the Citizen. “Educating the public is a huge part of art in general. Because when you actually get to talk, to find out how they do something – it demystifies it and gives a deeper understanding of what it takes for handmade work to happen.”

Martha Pagel, the landlord and a potter, as Ms. Hope mentioned, is her friend: “We grew up together. When she was thinking about that, the store and studios, we approached some people to come and be part of it, in the back.”

Opening in 2002, the idea of Dragonfly included good front windows to show artists’ work for a week or as much as a month at a time; a decent area indoors, front-of-store for shopping, a space that is plenty big enough to display all the kinds of art that comes into Dragonfly, from within the store’s community and further afield. Beyond that is an additional area where several artists have small studio spaces for working.

‘I had a store like this before and, so, I had a lot of ideas,” said Ms. Hope. “When we opened Dragonfly, it was always my intention to have the artists there to interact with the public. It was pretty easy because we were working on consignment. I had an idea of how to go ahead. In the almost 20 years of doing this, we’ve only had two that were not a good fit.”

She explained, “It’s a quiet enough space, that you could get into your zone. People try not to interrupt, yet, for the most part, the artist might like to be interrupted.

Occasionally, there are people who are a little afraid to come but we try really hard to demystify ‘artists.’”

The chance to meet the very individuals who create the fine pieces you might hang on your wall means people love to order commissions. They met the artist and can say, “She did this just for me.” 

Ms. Hope elaborated, “Having the store with pottery accessible, things are handmade. People in impressed when you tell them, ‘Yes, this pottery was handmade;’ a painting was really painted by hand and then, they go into the back and realize: ‘Oh – you mean it was made here by a person.’

“I like to give the opportunity to have people think about how things are made.”

Ms. Hope was pleased to confirm that they are “chock a block full, full, for some time,” for their artists. Sumi-é artist, Roselyn Levin has been there for about 12 years.

“They tend to stay,” Joan Hope commented. 

Naturally, every brick and mortar shop has felt the pressure brought about by the Covid-19 shut-downs but Dragonfly has weathered through it. All sales in the shop are on commission, so she does need to hire hire staff. 

“It’s just a one man show,” she said. “I do have helpers. We had a good summer and fall and this last December was pretty good. It wasn’t the drama that some people had.” 

Withal, she admitted, that it has not business as usual. The first shut down through the summer, saw reduced numbers of customers and involved all the cleaning. 

Once customers could come back, she noted, “On Broadway. all the shops have their own entrances and that helps. Not like the malls.” 

A bigger struggle was the second shut down. “Everyone’s tired of it,” was the comment. To try to help, the BIA has an online Shopify with www.shopdowntownorangeville.ca The Dragonfly website is more conducive to browsing than online shopping, although there were sales every week.

As a definition of Dragonfly’s mantra, Ms. Hope said, “Every single thing that I have here is a one of a kind.”

This is wonderful but it changes the approach to online shopping: “There are no guarantees about matching a photo with something else. Handmade means there will be variations, not like manufacturing.”

One of things that she wishes the town would do is pay attention to some of the suggestions offered by consultant, Roger Brooks, who was hired and he did “a really great presentation. He would have the town look for the right sort of retail mix, keeping in mind the Heritage look of Broadway.

“The BIA and the town are doing some of the things he recommended. One of the things Roger Brooks suggested that everybody put out blade signs to say what that shop does. There are lots of good ideas.” 

Joan Hope is clear that she has learned from the experience of 2020: beginning with “to slow down and small the roses. Certainly, the things that are important in life is art essentially, of course, it is. I hope that people slow down and see that art will be, it’s all around us – music. The outside is generic but a vibrant downtown is someplace different, it’s important. 

“Our artists have had reasonable response from websites. They’re all working on new pieces for fresh new work now that we’ve opened up.”

Like so many of us, she put the bleak 2020 to good use, saying, “I’ve always been a very optimistic person. I’ve been painting the house – what everyone is doing. I am back into making silver jewellery by teaching myself over the internet. Right now. I’m making a ring that has a little sapphire. I will be making more beads, just enjoying the creating.”

The town ran a competition for downtown stores Christmas decoration window displays, which Dragonfly won. “We put as much magic as we could into it with twinkly lights and a forest. There were boxes, all sorts. The first prize will be an ad in In the Hills Magazine.”

A true environmentalist, Joan Hope’s daughter, Tamara Lindeman, an actress of film and television and musician, having released several albums, records some of her YouTube music videos in a woodland. Check out “Robber” and “I tried to tell you.”

“When we first moved to our present home, we planted trees,” said her mother. 

As for Joan Hope’s long term plans – they rest in the Dragonfly.

“I expect to be dragged out feet first,” was her commitment.

Dragonfly is at 189 Broadway – got a moose in front of it. www.dragonflyarts.ca

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