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Profile of Bradford's artists
Michael Owen

Local artist Denis Bolohan has a history in virtual space and giant flaming sculptures, but it’s his mind-bending labyrinths for which he’s best known now.

Initially sliced out of fields of soy and wheat, his works became so sought after, Mr. Bolohan eventually had to find a more permanent medium for them — stone.

It all started in the mid-1970s while Mr. Bolohan was attending Eastern Michigan University, experimenting with light pieces and physically drawing the viewer into the artwork.

While sitting at his desk, he noticed the intriguing reflection of a candle in a window with three panes.

“So you see one image, then you see three images reflected,” Mr. Bolohan said.

This inspired him to create a series of mirror-based pieces, in which the reflections created a virtual space.

“I wanted to expand further that virtual environment,” Mr. Bolohan said.

This led him to create the infinity mirror, which hung on the wall with a regular mirror and a two-way mirror facing each other.

“It constantly reflects into infinity, but the viewer is able to see that,” Mr. Bolohan said.

“From there I created the infinity centre, so the viewer could see 3-D infinity.”

The centre varied in size and shape depending on the gallery in which it appeared, but consisted of a mirrored room or rooms in which he placed various objects and the viewer could walk through.

His pieces went on display in various places across Ontario, including Sault Ste. Marie, Waterloo and Windsor.

After almost 20 years drawing viewers into his art with virtual reality and mirror-based pieces, Mr. Bolohan moved to Kingsville in 1992 to pursue other interests, including farming, but it wasn’t until 1998 when he received the right inspiration to turn crops into art.

A client requested a pyramid made out of copper, spurring Mr. Bolohan’s interest in experimenting with pyramids, hieroglyphs and labyrinths.

“I still wanted to create an environment for the viewer to walk through, so I thought, ‘Why not create a labyrinth in the crops?’” Mr. Bolohan said.

Using a lawn mower, he cut a circular labyrinth out of his soy field, measuring 105 feet in diameter.

“The interesting thing about that one was the soybean came up over a person’s knee, so, looking in at the labyrinth, you’d see people floating or flowing,” Mr. Bolohan said.

To add another level to the maze, he hand planted corn toward the centre, blocking it from view of anyone on the outside.

“The corn created an enclosed environment ... the womb of the labyrinth,” Mr. Bolohan said.

Hidden in this centre sanctuary was a sand medallion made with three tons of multi-coloured stone measuring 30 feet in diameter.

It only took him three days to draw the labyrinth and lay it out on a grid and one day to cut.

The next year, he created an even larger wheat labyrinth measuring 150 feet in diameter and he later created a labyrinth in the outdoor sculpture garden for an exhibition at the University of Waterloo. People were drawn into the labyrinths en masse, but with the end of the growing season, the labyrinths would inevitably disappear.

Eventually, clients began asking for more lasting versions of the labyrinths that they could hang in their homes, so Mr. Bolohan turned to one of the most time-tested media — stone.

Working primarily with slate and flagstone, he uses a combination of common wood chisels and diamond-enhanced tools to carve the mind-twisting patterns, which he said are actually an innate part of who we are.

“There’s a mathematical equation, but you have these patterns in you,” Mr. Bolohan said.

He works mostly with seven and 11-circle labyrinths, basing their design on anything from a shell to an apple core to his latest work in progress: a sea horse.

The carvings range in size from two to 16 square feet and take anywhere from a week to a month to create, depending on the size and time spent on design.

“If you’re looking from conception, it can take over a month,” Mr. Bolohan said.

He creates and sells rubbings of his carvings for people who are in a hurry or on a budget. For people looking for something more personal, he also sketches and carves portraits.

Mr. Bolohan still helps organize the Fahrenheit Festival, which he started on his farm in Kingsville. He now lives just south of Cookstown.

Originally inspired by a trip to France and an interest in the burning of wooden sculptures, the festival is now run by Artcite at the Vollmer Culture and Recreation Complex in LaSalle, where fire sculptures light up the night sky once a year.

Because Mr. Bolohan still works in light home renovation, his studio is only open to the public by appointment in the summer, but anyone interested can also see his works at the Gallery on Queen in Cookstown.