By Emily R. Zarevich, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
A concerned owner in the city of Burlington brought in a giraffe, missing two of its legs and its tail. They needed a healer, someone compassionate and qualified who could restore their poor injured animal, bring it back to life. The person they were looking for, and found, was Joan Ng. Using the skills and care honed over decades, Ng reattached the creature’s appendages, manufactured a functional tail, and made it stand tall and proud again. Nothing from the Toronto Zoo could compare. Naturally, it was anticipated that the owner would return to collect the patient and bring it back home, but they never did. Ng has, essentially, adopted the abandoned giraffe and made it her own. It has existed as a companion and fixture at her place of work for ten years.
But Joan Ng isn’t a veterinarian, as one might presume at first after reading the above. She is actually an artist and an art restorer, and her business is the Burlington Artist Gallery on 3500 Commerce Court. The giraffe in question is, according to Ng, “mosaic, and usually they [these types of art pieces] are found in the Mediterranean area. The ancient churches and synagogues in this area would have the floor done that way. They [the materials] are pieces of ceramic, porcelain, stones, and china that were broken. They were put together with mortar cement or plastic glue materials to make decorative designs on floors and artworks.” So, to summarize, this special giraffe is beautiful to look at, but you probably won’t ever see it on safari.
Ng, the craftswoman responsible for the giraffe’s second chance at life, was born in Saban, Malaysia, but moved across the continents to settle here in Burlington, Ontario, in the 1970s. She joined her husband Howard, who was employed at the time at Canada Centre for Inland Waters (CCIW), Environment Canada, located right under Burlington’s well-known landmark, the ever-looming Skyway Bridge. Ng and her husband’s first art supplies store was originally opened in November 1976 in the Fairview Street Plaza. However, an opportunity to switch locations came about in November 1986. At their new base of operations at Commerce Court, they were able to establish not only an art supplies shop but also a gallery, a school, a customer framing centre, and — of course — a restoration workshop.
Along with her work restoring elegant pieces to adorn people’s homes, Ng is an accomplished professional artist in her own right who creates framed masterworks in different mediums to hang up on display around her gallery. When you step in and take a look around, it’s guaranteed that something your eye falls on will be one of her pieces. It makes perfect sense that the same person who is able to save another’s work of art from ruin is also adept at producing fine art herself. It is not just mosaic animals that Ng restores; much of her restoration work is cleaning, refreshing, and re-painting paintings, and she splits her time between the artistic and business aspects of the Burlington Artist Gallery.
Ng engaged in an in-depth conversation about the work she does at what is essentially Burlington’s second prominent art gallery and resource centre (after the Art Gallery of Burlington on Lakeshore Road). Here is what she had to say on the process of restoring a painting or another work of art. Answers have been lightly edited for flow.
“It depends on how bad they are when they [the artwork] come in,” says Ng. “I usually clean the piece first with a solution that is already mixed by a company. That will take off some of the dirt and smoke. I go over it gently. I usually start with a corner first to make sure that the chemical will take it off properly. You can tell right away that you’re not lifting off any paints.”
And what is it that happens to works of art that necessitates restoration? What creates cracked or flaky paint, rendering a long-admired painting an object in need of some TLC?
“Sometimes they’re old and they have not been taken care of, as they say, by generation passed down to generation,” Ng continues. “The newest owners have not really kept the temperature changes flexible with our very cold winters and our very warm summers. Sometimes, the painting has not been painted properly. When I teach oil painting, for instance, I suggest to the students that they do a light coat of wash first onto the canvas. The next coat is a little heavier, and then the third coat a little bit heavier.”
On the training and education she received for the various roles she plays in the art world, Ng divulges, “I do read quite a bit about how to restore art. I’ve been in the business for a long time and I’m in the art supply business. I took a few lessons from people who have done art restoration before and I have tested myself and tried new things myself. As an artist, you do know more. I have been an artist for over fifty years now and I have tried almost every medium. I can teach any medium. I can teach any medium from watercolour, pastels, acrylics…I have taken workshops in all of these. I’ve also taken classes at Sheridan and the Dundas Valley School of Art. Also, some elderly artists who are well-known have guided me through from the very beginning in the 70s.”
At the Artist Gallery, as a visitor, you have the option of stocking up on supplies, exposing yourself to high culture, taking a class, and visiting the giraffe all in one trip. Also, if your artwork has been damaged, or you’ve inherited a fragile relic, and you don’t know how to fix the problem yourself, you know where to go now.
This is the second article in a series on people in Burlington performing what has become uncommon professional roles in our increasingly digitalized world. We hope that you are enjoying this series so far and feel that you are establishing a happy connection with other people here in Burlington. For the series’ first article on Helen Peacock, Burlington-based psychic, please click this link. If you know anyone who would make a suitable subject for this ongoing series, or if you feel that you would be a suitable subject yourself, please feel free to reach out to articles@local-news.ca.
