Arts and Entertainment

Wonder in the Woods exhibit: A family collaboration at Headwaters Arts

July 2, 2026   ·   0 Comments

By Constance Scrafield

Marnie Cooke, local painter and dancer, is part of the upcoming Wonder in the Woods exhibit at the Alton Mill’s Headwaters Arts Gallery, opening July 5.

Cooke is joining Lawrence Kristan and his daughter, Lucy Kristan, both woodworkers who will feature a wide range of beautiful, unique furniture and household items, along with charming wooden bowls, hummingbird houses, and a variety of ornaments.

A couple of years ago, Lucy started making a range of adorable bird figures, which have become a crowd favourite, and she is bringing them along as well to delight everyone.

Based in Orangeville and Caledon East, they have invited a guest artist, wildlife photographer William Mitchell, coming from St. Catharine’s, is also part of the family.

Taking time away from his preparations for the show, Mitchell gave an interview to the Citizen this week about his recent surprise success and his approach to his budding career.

“It began with a built-up frustration when we were driving on the way to Mono with my family and I saw a snowy owl perched on a road sign but there wasn’t time to catch that vision in a photo,” he said. “Even if we had stopped, the owl wouldn’t have stayed there.”

As the years went by, especially during COVID-19, Mitchell took his bike out to explore the wider area near his home, seeking out moments with such wildlife he could capture on camera.

“I saw things I had never seen before, even in the city of St. Catharines where I live,” he reported.

Mitchell bought his first camera and started visiting the local parks, doing a lot of research on the animals he was seeing, on their behaviour and their habitats. He wanted to understand their lives, to search for knowledge about them. To honour the wildlife in his photographs, Mitchell has made a habit of keeping the locations where he finds them secret. The conservationist in him fears that too many people visiting the places he has found will not be good for the animals.

He noted that during his forays to Algonquin Park, he has seen people trying to feed wild animals, and he has warned them not to do so.

“If people feed the animals, they become less reliant on themselves and too friendly with humans, which can be dangerous,” he explained, adding with pain in his voice, “Sometimes the rangers have to actually put an animal down, where it has become too dependent on people, and they can begin to intrude on camps.”

Some people understand and thank him for the warning, but others maintain they can do as they want.

“I don’t like to be specific about the locations to keep the animals safe,” he commented.

Mitchell’s introduction to the Alton Mill Arts Centre began, as he put it, when he was a kid, coming there with his grandfather, Lawrence Kristan, who was exhibiting his wooden pieces at the Headwaters Arts Gallery.

Recently graduated from Niagara College, where he completed the photography program, he mentioned that it was mainly about studio work, portraits, and product promotion. However, it was a moment he is unlikely to forget, his first launch into the world as a wildlife photographer: his shot of a silver fox, somehow close up, almost intimate, against a darkened background without details, no trees nor grass, just the fabulous face, the eye – the strength.

It was published in Canadian Geographic without his knowing that his photo had been chosen from thousands of others. Someone told him while he was sitting in class, and the reality hit him when he dashed out to buy a magazine and saw it for himself.

“My heartbeat did go up.” he admitted.

The family’s connection to the Alton Mill spans three generations. Mitchell sees his photography as his career, with a clear understanding of the hill he has to climb and confidence in his passion to make the effort. He is learning all the way and is still in contact with his professors, who are helping him.

Withal, his ambition is to run workshops to help other photographers, particularly on YouTube; to enter his work in more shows; and to do workshops in Africa.

Money has its role – for equipment, time and transportation. Currently, he works in retail and guides walking tours around Niagara Falls.

Of the exhibition at Headwaters, Mitchell said, “I want people to feel as though they are there, to see each one as realistic as possible.”

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