Pam Wright
The Independent

Bloom where you’re transplanted.
That’s what artist Daisy Fresh is doing since she moved to Alvinston last fall.
The former big city dweller and her husband are loving their new community.
“We’ve been searching 10 years for a place,” says Fresh, a corporate marketer who lived most of her life in the Greater Toronto Area.
“You think T-O is the place to be but it’s not,” she says. “Some of our friends thought we were crazy, but we love it here.”
Fresh is clearly making her mark. She’s already had a show at the Judith and Norman Alix Art Gallery to display her work.
Recently, she was commissioned by Brooke-Alvinston-Inwood council to create a mural to grace the second floor of the municipal building.
Fresh came up with a self-portrait where she is peeling back a white curtain to reveal a riot of colourful shapes.
She likens it to awakening to “endless possibilities,” adding the municipality wanted to raise awareness of the arts.
Fresh was among the vendors set up at the 4th annual Alvinston Arts and Music Fest held Saturday in the village.
Liana Russwurm, who co-organizes the event with Elisa Nesdoly, says Alvinston’s art community is getting bigger, drawing people who want a less expensive, slower-paced lifestyle.
Also an artist, the former Torontonian says she was attracted to Alvinston by the area’s natural beauty.
“I need the earth and the grass and the outdoors,” Russwurm notes. “And you have that here.
“People want to come here. They like what they find.”
Russwurm says money from the Lambton Creative County Grant Fund allowed them to expand this year’s event and rent a stage for this year’s festival and hire the popular Mudmen band for a street party.
“We hope we can do that again,” she adds.