In front of a house on Pine Street, there stands a giant, metal bison.
For this week’s edition of People of Collingwood we spoke with John McCaffrey, 69, a local metal artist.
Q: For how long have you lived in Collingwood?
A: (My wife and I) live in the house I grew up in.
I started out at King George School. When we moved to Pine Street, I went to Victoria School.
I went to Collingwood Collegiate Institute for two years, and then I moved to Hamilton. I went to Central Secondary School in Hamilton.
Q: What took you to Hamilton?
A: The school had a solid art program, and it was a feeder school for OCAD (Ontario College of Art and Design).
From a fairly young age, that was a track I was on.
Q: Did you always know you wanted to be an artist?
A: I don’t think I ever sat down and thought if this is really what I wanted to do. It just happened. I was always pretty good. (laughs)
Q: Your medium of choice is metal sculpture. What drew you to that art form?
A: I made my living as a stone mason, where I would basically just hammer on things. I kind of carried on with that.
I’ve also been doing iron work since I was a kid. I would scrounge up (metal) at the shipyard and drag it home to make things with it.
Q: What inspires your art? Or, what are you trying to say with your art?
A: Sometimes, there’s a message. Sometimes, it’s just something that’s kind of neat.
I did the bison in my front yard. Normally a bison or buffalo in most cultures is considered to be a representation of calm and powerful. It also represents the Prairie wind. I made the feet small because there are cave drawings that represent the animal with small feet.
Originally, we were thinking of selling it, but when it was finished, we really liked it so we decided to keep it.
Sometimes, I try to say something, but other times I try to portray an attitude.
I once did one that was a large ballerina. The title of that one was Abandon. It basically said, ‘I don’t care.’
Q: There are a few pieces of your art around town. Can you talk about those sculptures?
A: There’s a turtle down at the Collingwood Labyrinth. One of the people involved chased me into my driveway one day and asked if I’d make (a sculpture) and donate it. I liked the outrageousness of it, so I said OK. (laughs)
When they were building the labyrinth they had to stop production because turtles were nesting right in the middle of where they were building. So, as a tribute to the turtles, they asked me if I would do this.
There’s also the Fish Fence at the harbour near the launch, and a Compass Rose in Millennium Park.
There’s also Merv the Welder who is behind Rexall Drug Store, which is on private property. The official title for it is The Last Shift.
Q: Are you currently working on any new sculptures?
A: I’m working on a couple of birds right now. They’re a commission.
Q: Do you work in art full time, or do you have a job outside of art?
A: I work part-time at Loblaws. I work a whole one or two days a week. It’s awesome. (laughs)
I was getting ready to retire from masonry. I enjoyed doing it but there were parts of my body that weren’t having a good time. I thought, I should really have a job of some sort.
I like the social part of my job at Loblaws. Otherwise, I’d just spend all my time out in the shop. I gotta get out of there sometimes.
Q: Is there anything else you’d like people in Collingwood to know about you?
A: I’ve done commission work for the City of Toronto.
There’s an intersection of Oakwood and Vaughan. I made a 17-foot-tall steel palm tree for the traffic island.
It was a funny story.
I was fooling around a bit on Patterson Reef, near Craigleith. It was a little island off Northwinds Beach. Many years ago I was driving by and sitting at a stop light, and the water was a beautiful aquamarine and I could see the island. I thought, that island needs a palm tree.
So I made one and I dragged it out there in my canoe and put it up.
The next year my friends helped me to bring out another. We spent many years doing this.
Storms would come through and knock some of the trees down. People would go over and use rocks to put them back up.
I like that people took ownership over it and made it their own.
Somebody in Toronto had a father who lived up here and they were having a conversation about public art, and how there’s some that’s supported by government, and some that’s supported by individuals. They talked about the palm trees near Craigleith. They phoned me and we put together a plan. Two years later, we put a palm tree up in Toronto.
The island near Craigleith is gone now. It’s submerged. The palm trees might still be under there.
For our feature People of Collingwood, we’ll be speaking with interesting people who are either from or are contributing to the Collingwood community in some way, letting them tell their own stories in their own words. This feature will run on CollingwoodToday every Saturday. If you’d like to nominate or suggest someone to be featured in People of Collingwood, email [email protected].
