I first met Toller Cranston, Canadian Olympic Figure Skating Champion, in 2010, in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. I was immediately struck by his confident personality and by the environment he had created and immersed himself in. He is both an artist and avid collector of the beautiful ceramics of Mexico.

I was fascinated by his story. I wanted to try to capture the essence of him in his surroundings, and combine this with his artistic performance as an Olympic skater. With a background in Visual Art and Graphic Design as well as Ceramics, I wanted to integrate these practices by incorporating a visual art component within the context of ceramics. I also felt this very graphically portrayed Toller within his present environment, and was representational of him as an artist and past Olympic skater.

My goal was to translate the ephemeral moments of his artistry on the Olympic oval, into a solid, yet fragile oval form, offering each up on a ceramic plate. I began by researching his skating performances, watching numerous video recordings. I was struck by the unique artistry of his movements. In his career as a skater, Toller had very radically transformed the sport - the figure skating performance a collection of artistic movements and “moments” that transformed the physical skill of skating into an art form. It was this artistry of movement that I wanted to capture. By converting a You-Tube Video of his 1976 Olympic Performance into “stills”, these movements could be broken down into a spit second of time….every one significant in that they documented a “moment of art”. With the images from these stills, I then created approximately 500 porcelain ceramic oval plates (hand made and hand painted), each portraying a split second of movement of Toller’s performance.

The plates have been photographed and sequenced in the same order as the actual performance. A stop-motion video was then created that becomes a replica of his 1976 performance, complete with commentary by Dick Button.
By creating a film that animates the series of plates, I draw his movement through time and space into three-dimensional objects, and finally, into a moving image, a hybrid of his art and mine. The art project is made up of two components - a dramatic wall of ceramic plates which gives visualization to the scope of the project, and the video, that brings his 1976 Olympic performance to life once again. The project’s aim is to preserve the beauty of a moment that can never be repeated, that can only be told as a story.

Sketches for Tollermania: watercolor on paper and oil on canvas

This is my opening speech for TOLLERMANIA Show:

"There are a couple of things I would like to say about this show: The TOLLERMANIA project has many layers. I would like to point out just a few.
First, it is a celebration of the phenomenon of the genius that is the Artist. And when I speak of Toller, I refer to this genius. When I first met him I was overwhelmed with his creative energy which emanates from his personal “Cornucopia”. Every object or person is attracted and affected by the charming and brutal power of his charisma. One may like or dislike his art, but one cannot ignore the presence of the Great Artist. I have been affected myself, and chose to put this received energy into my project.
Now we come to the second layer where explained why I came to do the way it is done. I have been a ceramics artist all my life, so when I opened the door to this ceramic paradise, where we are standing now, my ceramicist heart and soul began to tremble. Material for this project was chosen that very moment. My intent was to marry the facets of the Toller’s talent, and glue his past and present in one art piece. And my goal was to combine the oldest art medium – ceramics - with one of the newest mediums – film. The result you see here.

I would like to thank each and every person involved in this year and a half long project and I will do this personally, but now I want to thank Toller Cranston for been an inspiration, the subject and the host of this event."

Natalia Laluq, San Miguel de Allende, March 28, 2014

Sketch on paper - Digital sketch/frame - Porcelain plate/ frame

Groups of three images reflecting part of the creating process. First I sketched on paper to marry image from Tollers art - "petrushka" with the movement of his own performance on ice. Then I created digital images, set on oval for the plate, also corresponded with the frames of actual Olimpic performans - trying to minimise the number of unick images, for later I would have to make them in porcdelain. And actual porcelain plate/frame.