Created by
Gavin
Eaton School History Collage by Gavin W, Sewekk in Montreal
Eaton School History Collage
This large-scale collage was created as a visual history of Eaton Elementary School and its namesake, General John Eaton. Developed through archival research and community context, the work brings together historical references, symbolic imagery, and layered materials to create a surface that can be read both up close and from a distance.
Fragments of text, image, and color are arranged to suggest multiple timelines unfolding at once—linking the past of the school to the present-day life of its students and neighborhood. Rather than presenting a single narrative, the piece invites viewers to move through it, discovering connections between figures, ideas, and moments in history.
The collage combines painting, drawing, and image transfer techniques with sculptural elements, giving parts of the surface a physical depth that shifts with light and perspective. This layered approach reflects the idea that history itself is not fixed, but built from overlapping stories, interpretations, and lived experience.
Installed within the school, the work is intended to function both as a visual landmark and as an ongoing point of curiosity—something students can return to over time, finding new details as their own understanding grows.
Meet the Artist
Meet the Artist
Montreal, CanadaI’m a Montreal and New York-based visual artist working across painting, collage, and sculptural wall pieces. My practice moves between abstraction and figuration, often layering found imagery, drawn elements, and painted structure into surfaces that feel both constructed and alive.
I’ve been working professionally for over twenty years, with projects ranging from private commissions to public art installations. My approach is collaborative—I work closely with clients to develop pieces that respond to a space, a story, or a particular energy they want to live with.
Alongside larger works, I offer smaller commissions, including portrait drawings and custom paintings, as a way of keeping the work immediate and accessible. Whether the project is intimate or architectural, the goal is the same: to make something that holds attention over time.
I’m particularly interested in work that sits between image and object—where painting starts to take on a physical presence, and where materials carry their own history into the final piece.
