In October of 2022, I tagged along with a friend to the Pointe de Bute home and studio of Tom Henderson (1936 -2019) where a charitable auction of his work was underway. Collectors were welcomed by a vibrant painting draped over wood pallets and pinned by a weathered concrete head.
As I crouched to take a photo, a man paused in front of the arrangement and shouted “Fuck!” and more quietly, “It's fine to do that to your own work, but don't do it to someone else’s.” I guess he felt the estate should take better care of the work. But if an artist’s studio is a sort of self-portrait, Tom’s revealed a man who's devotion to creating outpaced any desire to preserve what he achieved. His disregard for preservation could be viewed as a wry installation about why we make art and who it is for.
I didn't know Mr. Henderson, but I did live in rural New Brunswick for many years. Artists come to this area not only for its beauty, affordability and proximity to Mount Allison University, but because you can do what you want. You can make large sculptures and let them sink into the ground like tractor parts.
I loved Henderson's prolificacy - his tottering, moulding stacks of paintings on paper. I loved how the sun glowed on the plane of a concrete sculpture and the contrasting shadows in its broken corner. Nancy, Tom's partner, told me that Tom loved the idea of his work breaking down and returning to the earth. It's difficult to explain why I felt comforted by a yard full of rusting steel and a falling down barn, but I did.
In the final moments of the auction, I overheard my friend begging a woman to stop bidding on a statue. The figure, a man resting his head on a hand and gazing at the ground, was one of a pair. A third woman protested that this wasn't how things are done, but her rival gave in and my friend brought the contemplative man home to her garden. The last several years have brought my friend heartache and I understand why she was so intent on having the piece. Henderson's work communicates something honest and tender.
I brought home two nearly identical maquettes of men, also sitting in a thinking position, and a large oil painting on paper. I was the sole bidder on the broken geometric sculpture which I haven't collected yet because of its size. I hope to put the piece in my own garden where it can catch the late afternoon light. If it was my own work I would repair the break and protect the piece from further damage, but I don't know if I can do that to Henderson's work.
Tom Henderson (1936 - 2019), Associate Professor in Fine Arts at Mount Allison University (1975 - 2009).
