West Bare Hill Road resident Doug Slade is one of several local artists who will exhibit on this year’s Harvard Historical Society House Tour and Artisan Show, “Kitchens, Gardens, and Barns: Then and Now,” Saturday, June 9, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. In all, 20 artisans will be spread among the eight homes and gardens on the tour, with seven of them set up in the society’s building at 215 Still River Road. Their crafts, all of which are for sale, include watercolor house portraits, jewelry, baskets, pottery, garden items, and silk scarves. Slade’s works of art will be hung in an alcove at the society, where they may be viewed during ticket pickup, throughout the day and during the late afternoon reception.

(Courtesy photo)

Slade created this series of 11 pieces called “Noise in the Silence” last winter. He was inspired by images from nature—the bare trees, mist on the pond, expanses of wetlands—and was simultaneously struck by how noise intrudes upon the silences of nature, especially the noise of highway traffic.

“Everywhere in Harvard, one hears road sounds,” says Slade. “One can hear the noise from Route 2 while walking on Holy Hill conservation trails; even at my house I can hear the faint sound of highway traffic.”

In each piece, a bold segment of checkerboard is superimposed on impressionistic images of the landscape. The juxtaposition creates a startling contrast: the intrusion of traffic noise on the peacefulness of nature. When asked why he chose a checkerboard pattern to signify noise, Slade responds with an artist’s truth: “I just created it.” He then adds that checkerboards have been in and out of his art over the years.

Slade’s technique in these works is complex. They are not pen-and-ink drawings, nor collages, nor photographs, but rather a combination of all three. The creation begins with a small drawing, inspired by early Japanese and Chinese watercolor and calligraphy. A variety of paper, from handmade to blotting, is used for the original pen-and-ink drawing. Then the work is collaged; next it is photocopied and blown up. The print is inserted into a vinyl sleeve, such as those used for protecting photographs, and then put into a frame. The frame (17 by 22 inches) is actually an old silk-screen. The screens were given to Slade by the owner of a T-shirt business in Provincetown for whom he used to do silk-screening. She gave him 30 or so, which sat on his burn pile for two years. Fortunately, he discovered this re-use for the former screens before he burned the brush pile. Each screen now bears a small brass number—117, 495, 111, 6—to denote the highway, through Harvard or Bolton or Truro, which carries the noise into the picture.