art of the Peace | Issue #15

fall 2010

ISSUE 15

A PUBLICATION FOR THE VISUAL ARTIST

Carrie Klukas not a quick read

‘10 AOTP SYMPOSIUM

3 ENCAUSTIC ARTISTS

DORIS MaCFARLANE

BE WHO YOU ARE AND BE THAT WELL

f e e n d t r a r i f r l e a e u s g l u e s a f c o e r u o cp etriciousoriginal fashsy cool m g etc commibtessdeesxovtiec r o i a i e s i o a c e t v f m uc o s

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THE FINE ARTS DEPARTMENT AT GPRC offers courses in Music, Art and Drama with a focus on student learning and success. The Department provides in-depth learning opportunities and one-on-one instructor time not often found at other institutions. We offer a range of programs in both traditional and new medias.

MUSIC

VISUAL ARTS

ACOUSTIC INTERACTIVE DIGITAL DESIGN

STUDIO PRACTICE INTERACTIVE DIGITAL DESIGN

Bachelor of Music

Bachelor of Fine Arts

UNIVERSITY TRANSFER PROGRAM

UNIVERSITY TRANSFER PROGRAM

Diploma in Music

Diploma in Visual Arts

finearts.gprc.ab.ca | 780-539-2909 | Toll free 1-888-539-4772 ext. 2909 10726 106 Avenue, Grande Prairie, AB, T8V 4C4 | Email: finearts@gprc.ab.ca

DRAMA

We offer a wide variety of Drama courses.

in this issue: 4.

artist’s statement

4.

contributors

5.

Art out there

8.

10.

‘10 AOTP Symposium

Unabashed celebration of visual art

three encaustic artists

waxing poetic

12. artcetera

the beauty of encaustics

14.

Editor: Eileen Coristine

carrie klukas

not a quick read

Design, Layout & Advertising: imageDESIGN Publisher: Art of the Peace Visual Arts Association, Box 25227, Wapiti Road P.O. Grande Prairie, AB T8W 0G2 Phone: (780) 532-2573 (Jim Stokes) E-mail: art@artofthepeace.ca Printing: McCallum Printing Cover: Carrie Klukas and a collection of her work.

Photo by Debbie Courvoisier

Art of the Peace Visual Arts Association acknowledges the financial assistance of:

20.

doris macfarlane

nothing happens unless you make it happen

22. sitebytes

art & the smart phone

23. art books in review 24.

Centre for Creative arts Re-Opening art activities apace

25.

alberta arts days something for everyone

26. gallery of artists ©All rights reserved Art of the Peace 2010 Reproduction in whole or in part is strictly prohibited.

Art of the Peace makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of the information it publishes, but cannot be held responsible for any consequences arising from errors or omissions.

28. exhibitions & opportunities 30. sarah alford

What wonderful news we have to report in this issue: there has been measurable growth at the Centre For Creative Arts in Grande Prairie, there was a wildly successful Alberta Arts Days celebration, a new centre for arts is under construction in Dawson Creek and a new arts collective has formed in Peace River.

Candace Hook’s observation that it was hard to avoid art during the Alberta Arts Days celebration in Grande Prairie could be expanded to state that it has become hard to avoid art in the Peace region.

The artworks, shows and events, and the fact that these folks come together and create form another layer in the rich and delicious offering that we’re all invited to share. Yum, it’s so good.

Artist’s Statement

How about joining us in making this one? Art of the Peace Visual Arts Association is baking up a growBy Eileen Coristine ing, living, giving buffet of treats: two magazines per year, an annual symposium with top quality speakers and workshops, opportunities to show your art in well-attended regional shows, notification of other exhibition opportunities, a variety of retail discounts, inclusion in a directory of artists and road trips to sample the goodies at shows throughout the Peace.

grow your arts community

Sure, you can do it if you are a diehard recluse who eschews this type of thing as baffling or silly. But if you’re a citizen of even the tiniest community around, you’re going to come across art and arts events in your locale. It could be at a fundraiser for your school, or at the café where you enjoy your coffee and muffin.

It truly is inspirational to see all of the events and all of the visual art that can manifest in a season. It is also staggering to note the amount of energy and effort that artists and art lovers will put into creating these opportunities to share art.

Here’s more good news: membership only costs $10 per year. If this is to your taste, contact us at artofthepeace.ca or 780 532 2573. We’d love to add you to our list of fresh local ingredients.

Contributors

Kim Fjordbotten

is an artist and the president of The Paint Spot, an art materials store where in-house artists love to share their product knowledge and experience to create an environment full of inspiration, technical advice and unique materials.

Eileen Coristine

Rob Swanston

Since 1992, I have resided north of Fairview. Shortly after moving here, and while working as a free-lance journalist, I discovered that photography just didn’t capture everything I wanted and began to create my own visual art. Paper, clay, paint, found objects and the written word are my main materials and mixing them all together is my fun, fun, fun.

degrees in English Lit and Education, as well as a diploma in Visual Arts. She is by turns (or all at the same time) an artist, a writer, a teacher and a mom. She was editor of Art of the Peace magazine from ‘06 to ‘08.

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works at The Prairie Art Gallery in publications. He studied film, video and audiovisual techniques at Grant MacEwan College and the Vancouver Film School. He is drawn to the variety of human experience that artists interpret and express through a diversity of disciplines.

JODY FARRELL

photo by Paul Pivert

Wendy Stefansson has earned

art of the peace

If you really liked it, you can help create the next one. Maybe it will be sweet. Maybe it will be serious.

Maybe you’ll make one that shocks or one that soothes. It truly takes all kinds to satisfy.

has spent 25 years writing for newspapers and magazines across Canada. A sometimes teacher, artist and contractor in the oil and gas industry, she raised her three daughters to find and follow their passion in life. Hers revolves around finding a way to live on English Bay in Vancouver.

art out there...

Valhalla Centre

fort st. john fence

Old Post Office, Dawson Creek

The Celebrate! Fort St. John committee has worked hard over the summer to organize a Community Art Project for a newly constructed fence at the former Fort Hotel, located downtown.

dawson creek art space The Calvin Kruk Centre for the Arts is no longer just a dream, but is quickly becoming a reality.

Rather than a bare fence being a target for graffiti and vandalism, the mural paintings provide an aesthetically pleasing asset that beautifies the downtown core.

Dawson Creek’s arts community is excited by the recent renovations going on inside the historic “old Post Office. Located in the downtown core of Dawson Creek, this development will be a perfect cornerstone for downtown revitalization.

This project was a great success and the Celebrate! Fort St. John committee is eager to continue this program in the years to come.

Youth painting Fort St. John Fence

This Community Mural Project allowed youth to showcase their pride in the community by establishing ownership of the art pieces and this in turn helped restore community pride and economic development.

The project also allowed youth to be seen as assets rather than liabilities.

The Troll Park was a gift from a group of cousins descended from Simon and Anna Hanson to the community.

The cousins wished to honour their ancestors and create a pleasant spot for their neighbors and visitors to the hamlet.

A quick trip through the park leads to the café, inside a Provincial Historic Site known as the Melsness Mercantile. Along with fresh food made from local and Alberta grown products the café sells local arts and crafts and features a museum that pays tribute to the area’s Scandinavian heritage.

The 42,000 sq. ft. heritage building is in the process of being converted into a community and cultural centre that will feature the Kiwanis Performing Arts Centre, a multi-purpose theatre space, meeting rooms, dance, pottery, and textile studios and administrative offices. The new facility will also provide a much needed home for the performing arts.

The vision of former Mayor, Calvin Kruk, the new arts centre is a legacy that is more than just his namesake.

It is also a tribute to his commitment to the arts and the environment. The new centre is slated to open September 2011.

Valhalla Trolls

The project involved 16 young artists aged 13 – 25, two artist mentors and two full nights of fun, painting and design. The overall mural incorporated summer themes with bright colors.

Each fence panel portrayed the interests, history and ambitions of the area’s diverse population.

Owned and operated by the Vahalla Heritage Society, the Mercantile Café rests within a garden of Norwegian trolls. The carved wooden trolls depict a charming rural life of fishing in the fjords, gathering from the woods and hanging out in a beautiful and well-tended garden.

art of the peace

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The Peace Country Goes to The Works

The 2010 Alberta Summer Games were held in Peace River from July 20 to 24. Winner of the People’s Choice award for the Regional Juried Art Show was Peach Myers of Berwyn with her watercolour portrait called Dream Come True. Also a winner in visual arts was Lee Beaumann, of Grimshaw, who took home the top award in the Alberta Summer Games High School Visual Arts category.

The Peace Country was well-represented at Edmonton’s The Works Art and Design Festival this summer, with three artists putting on solo shows in Winston Churchill Square, the hightraffic epicentre of the two-week long event.

Live Gallery at Peace Fest

Alberta Summer Games 2010

Along with the Regional Juried Show there were opportunities for regional artists to sell at an Art Market and an Alternative Art Show that included fantasy art, spray art and sculptures.

The Artistry The Artistry is a new collective of artists in the Peace River area. Founded in the spring, the rapidly growing group boasts painters, sculptors, beat-boxers, graffiti artists and airbrushers.

Dream Come True, Peach Myers

Pebbles of the Peace, an interactive display conceived by Summer Games Cultural coordinator Rhonda Warren, was in her words, “really, really successful.” Thirty rocks, painted

by Dixonville school pupils formed the initial display outside Athabasca Hall. People attending the art shows were invited to paint a rock to place on the display and then take one as a souvenir. “The rocks multiplied,” she says. “We had painters from all over the Peace as well as South Korea and Croatia.”

“We call ourselves an ‘open collective’ because we are non-hierarchical and encourage all types of creative people to join, no matter their level of experience or the way they express their creativity,” says Artistry member Susan Thompson. “We are functioning at this point as a sort of hub or directory of artist in the area and now have active members all the way from Manning to McLennan.”

This new group has had an active summer including a 100 person Zombie Walk through downtown Peace river, a Live Gallery during Peace Fest featuring two ‘living statues’, an art market during the Alberta Summer Games in Peace River and invitations to participate in the Alberta Arts Days celebrations in Grande Prairie and Reach for the Arts at Lac Cardinal.

More info on the Artistry can be found by searching for The Artistry: An Open Artists’ Collective on Facebook or by contacting Susan at 780-3223325 or vantom@explorenet.com.

art of the peace

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Photographer Olivia Kachman’s video installation Out of the Blue and Into the Red provided a virtual campfire, with three flat-screen televisions set up inside a circle of tree stumps.

Another larger screen outside of the circle played different footage, examining the idea that “what we do to the earth, we do to ourselves.”

Immediately in front of the City Hall, Laura St. Pierre’s AutoPark featured four defunct cars turned into terrariums growing plants that are native to central Alberta. The juxtaposition of greenery under glass, museum-like, with the comparatively large expanses of paved urban park surrounding the installation left the viewer on the outside looking in, isolated from the natural world.

A few tents away, Tina Martel performed a new work as one of three Artists in Residence at the festival.

Responding to the work she made at the Grande Prairie Street Performers’ Festival in 2008 – a cast of a half-ton truck in handmade paper – Martel cast five Smart cars this time.

Titled Evolve, the piece shows some optimism that in the two years since Tenuous (the truck) there has been a shift towards more sustainable environmental options.

Meanwhile, Peter von Tiesenhausen of Demmit exhibited in a group show called Out on a Limb at the Art Gallery of Alberta, and Peace River artist Kristine McGuinty showed in Diversity 2010, a juried show put on by the Visual Arts Alberta Association at the Harcourt House Gallery.

The Willmore Several artworks by Robert Guest will be included in the upcoming film The Willmore.

Manda Maggs’ display at Reach for the Arts

The film’s producer,Ted Ritzer of Parks Alberta, says that the idea of the film was to “capture authentic voices of individuals and organizations working in the Willmore Wilderness Park”.

Guest has worked at Adams Creek Lookout 11 summers out of the last 12 years and hopes to return again this fire season.

Birgit Sorenson’s paintings

“They singled me out as the only person who has lived back there in various seasons,” says Guest. “I was delighted to participate in a project to sanctify and preserve the area in its present pristine form.”

Thirteen of Guest’s images of the peaks were photographed for inclusion in The Willmore and cinematographer Andrew Manske visited the Guests at their home twice during filming.

October 2, 2010 marks the date of the second annual Reach for the Arts evening of performing and visual art.

The Front Range, Evening Moon, Robert Guest

“Robert is absolutely passionate about the park,” says Ritzer, “and his paintings are an absolute treasure.”

The Willmore, the first film ever that tells the story of a mountain park, will be featured on a national network within the next year.

Reach For the Arts

The event, which was moved to Lac Cardinal Hall this year, is the annual fundraiser for the Lac Cardinal Regional Performing Arts Society. “We are planning to buy the hall and turn it into a theatre and art school,” explains event organizer Manda Maggs.

“We need a place to bring in workshops and run theatre camps.”

Last year the event, which was held at the Grimshaw Elks Hall was sold out. The night combined music, drama and art displays featuring 50 artists and performers from the area.

PCCIC Peace Country Cultural Industries Coalition was formed in early 2010 after several months of brainstorming between the Peace Regional Economic Development Alliance (PREDA) and representatives from regional arts and cultural organizations.

The coalition’s objectives involve accessing grants to increase opportunities for artists and performers of all genres as well as addressing mutual issues and working on collaborative events, activities and initiatives.

The volunteer directors of PCCIC are Ada Lovmo, Lana Onaba, Ray Shrepnek, Geoff Whittal, Teresa Wouters, Stephanie Hadley and Theresa Maggs. Nicole Nelles of PREDA acts as a resource for the board.

“Our goal is to increase cultural visibility and to create more regional economic development as a result,” says Ada Lovmo, board chairperson.

Membership in PCCIC is free. To become a member or for more information on the coalition contact them at preda@peacecountrycanada.com or at the Peace Country Cultural Industries Coalition page on Facebook.

Anyone wishing to be in attendance or participate in the show next fall is invited to contact the group at maggs@unbc.ca.

art of the peace

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‘10 AOTP Symposium unabashed celebration of visual art

ternational publications, and her garden photography and writing published in Canadian, American and Japanese magazines. She has exhibited internationally since 1981 and is most widely known for her construction and use of pinhole cameras. Many of her exhibitions also feature walkin light installations and sound pieces.

by JODY FARRELL

A highly-anticipated annual event for visual artists and their fans, the Art of the Peace Symposium runs this year from Friday, October 15, to Sunday, October 17, 2010, at the Centre for Creative Arts in downtown Grande Prairie. The weekend, which has garnered past praise for its inclusive, unabashed celebration of visual arts, once again hosts a wide range of presentations, panels, mixers, and hands-on workshops for participants from throughout Alberta and British Columbia. This year’s symposium will feature three Alberta artists, all women living in the Calgary area, all having practiced their vocation both here and abroad.

TOP

Listen to...

Trudy Golley

CENTRE Light Echo Installation Dianne Bos

bottom

Silvey Larissa Doll

art of the peace

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Dianne Bos’s photographs have been featured in in-

The Mount Allison, New Brunswick BFA graduate, who resides in both the foothills of the Alberta Rockies, and the Pyrenees in Europe, is fascinated with the science of light and how different devices change the perception of time and space.

On the About Dianne Bos link on her website, www.diannebos.com, a short video explains how, for Bos, shooting subjects using anything more modern than her rudimentary, hand-built pinhole cameras “put too much between me and the picture.”

“Viewers have said that my work evokes the memory-image that remains for them long after they have viewed a familiar location”, Bos says. “I think this recognizes the importance I have assigned to time, memory and capturing the essence of the place.”

Bos will present images of the installation piece Light Echo, a collaborative work with Doug Welch, a professor of physics and astronomy at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. Presented in 2009 in honour of Unesco’s International Year of Astronomy, Light Echo recreates the Tycho supernova, a stellar explosion that was witnessed in 1572 and a later one, that went unnoticed, in 1680. Light echoes are leftover streaks of light that last up to thousands of years following the explosions of supernovae. Dr. Welch and a team of astronomers identified light echoes linked to those centuries-old explosions in a study thats success is now seen as having contributed to new ways of looking at the sky.

Bos and Welch’s recreation of the supernovae featured thousands of computer-controlled light bulbs arranged in constellations on the ceilings, walls, and ground, giving participants the illusion of sitting amidst a sea of stars. Suddenly, a silent explosion lights up the sky. A 16th century astronomer’s lab was recreated for the installation, with candles, ancient charts and globes. Bos will explain how Light Echo ties into photography and her use of the pinhole camera.

Trudy Golley is an internationally exhibited, award-winning ceramic artist who completed her undergraduate training at the Alberta College of Art + Design and the University of Calgary, and her graduate studies at the University of Tasmania in Hobart, Australia.

An instructor in the Visual Art Department and Head of Ceramics at Red Deer College, Golley has participated in workshops throughout the world, and has conducted ceramic artist residencies in China and tours of pottery studios in the UK. A recent exhibition at the David Kaye Gallery in Toronto, featured work she did in collaboration with metal-smith Paul Leathers while in China.

They share the website www.

Alluvium.ca Golley’s interest in unconventional ceramic surfaces follows her desire to challenge more familiar notions regarding the medium.

To this end, she incorporates elements including space and light.

Golley will speak about her international studio practice, why she does these residencies, and how they inform her art. A survey of her work will show her gradual move from the representational and symbolic to the sublime, which sees negative space becoming as significant as its surrounding form.

Larissa Doll

, a graduate and extension faculty member of Alberta College of Art + Design, will speak of her figurative work, focusing primarily on paintings she made while living in the Congo, Africa, between 2004 and 2006.

A profile of the artist and her profound experience in that war-torn region appeared in the last issue of Art of the Peace (see www.artofthepeace.ca/issue-14).

Doll’s African subjects, mostly women, many with babies, were painted in a way that afforded them a dignity not often apparent in the sorrowful images of hunger and despair that were once fed to the Western world in order to drum up support and donations.

“In the Congo (painting) series, it was important for me to empower each character,” Doll says in the article, entitled Just Under The Surface. “... I wanted to portray these women and children as symbols of strength and resilience. They should be celebrated for their strengths rather than their hardships.”

Still, those same women, whose stories Doll came to know intimately as she befriended and painted them going about their everyday activities, endured unimaginable hardships. So affected was the artist that only now, years later, has she begun painting what she calls “the rest of the story.”

“I create novel forms and experiences for the viewer to encounter,” Golley explains. “Without depicting a specific event, object, or place, I aim to capture a sense of the sublime in order to hold the viewer’s attention and trigger their imagination.”

“It will be interesting to see how it’s going to evolve now that I’m not in the country anymore,” Doll remarks. She expects the work to be heavier perhaps, addressing not only the courage and resilience, but also the darkness and difficulties she shared and lived through.

Her stoneware wall piece Listen to... which Golley created “in response to the seemingly endless Canadian winters,” is designed and positioned so that sunlight passing over it creates an aurora along the wall that grows from a tiny glimmer to a significant arc.

“What remains the same, is it has to move me and mean something to me... I explore the act of seeing on all levels. Seeing to the extent of feeling. Painting from life captures the experience. It is a series of events pulled together forming a still impression.” art of the peace

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Three Encaustic Artists waxing poetic by wendy stefansson

“Encaustic paint is simply beeswax, resin and pigment.” Yet its “surface can be polished to a high gloss for a luminous effect, or the wax can be modelled, sculpted, textured, and combined with collage material,” according to Wisconsin encaustic artist, Jessie Fritsch.

Dating back to the 5th century BC, encaustic is making a comeback among Peace Country artists nearly two and a half millennia later.

LEFT

Forces Carol Bromley Meeres

art of the peace

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CENTRE

Diffusion 1 Tabitha Logan

RIGHT

Ladies In Red Darlene Dautel

Carol Bromley Meeres Grande Prairie artist Carol Bromley Meeres admits that she finds the materials she uses for her encaustic work “sensually pleasing to use.”

Although encaustics are paints, Bromley Meeres’ approach doesn’t necessarily involve brushes at all. She might use brushes just to get the warm wax onto the surface of the work. After that, she uses a heat gun to keep it flowing while she pours, tips, tilts the paint, or moves it around with sticks.

It’s a fluid process, literally.

When it hardens, she buffs it to translucency – or not. Buffed, encaustic takes on a clarity and luminosity akin to oil paints.

Unbuffed, the wax becomes opaque. It takes on a whitish colour referred to as a “bloom.” Traditionally considered to be a mistake, Bromley Meeres sometimes uses it to deliberate effect.

“I find the bloom very attractive,” she relates. It has an organic quality, “like the bloom you find on really dark grapes.”

But then, Bromley Meeres is not afraid to break the socalled rules.

She sometimes uses encaustic paints on loose canvas or paper instead of the traditional wood panel. These surfaces bend and flex, causing the wax to crack and resulting in random and unpredictable textures; batik-like. Or she integrates found materials into her work – anything that serves her purposes from the ‘precious’ to the throw-away, from copper leaf to delicate pieces of ink-stained paper to bits of plastic.

Bromley Meeres likes the way encaustics “get materials into the piece.” Submerging an object in wax makes it immediately integral to the work of art; not just an addition to it.

She also likes the texture encaustics can add to otherwise flat pieces.

Tabitha Logan It’s a warm art in a cold climate. That’s one of the things that Dawson Creek artist Tabitha Logan says she loves about encaustic.

Eight or nine years ago she discovered the work of Torontobased encaustic painter Tony Scherman and immediately became “infatuated with the idea of using wax.” And although there have been moments since then when she felt “the wax wouldn’t co-operate,” Logan says the thing that kept her coming back to encaustics was that “the warmth of all the wax was like therapy.”

Under the glow of a heat lamp, Logan applies the wax in strokes she describes as “chunky,” developing sensual new textures with each layer. Sometimes she engraves the surface or cuts away parts of it in a one-step-forward-onestep-back kind of process. Sometimes she integrates collage elements into the work -- charcoal sketches she has made, for example. Sometimes she burnishes a photocopy face down on the still-warm wax to transfer it onto the surface, leaving behind an imperfect image like a partially forgotten memory.

Logan says: “If I am trying to understand something ... I’ll take those ideas and work them into my collages.” In a recent anthropology class, for example, a professor was describing the dispersion of early humans out of Africa and throughout the world. Listening, Logan’s “mind went off into the art zone.” The result was Diffusion, a work in which she transferred a map onto the background, then layered it with an image of a homo sapien skull and various masses of colour – brown, green and red – ‘moving’ in different directions like our early ancestors did.

Logan says, art is a part of the process of “making sure I understand it all.”

Darlene Dautel “It’s absolutely freeing!” That’s what encaustic artist Darlene Dautel has to say about the medium.

For years Dautel, who raises honeybees with her husband on a farm near Beaverlodge, has used the wax her bees produce to make batiks. In that process, hot wax is applied to a fabric as a resist to the dye which is used to colour it. The artist works through the process alternately applying wax and dye, wax and dye. Along the way, water spots of dye become embedded in and between the layers of wax, sometimes creating beautiful and surprising effects. Dautel was often sad to iron off the wax in the end. She found herself wanting to leave the work as it was. So when she discovered encaustics through a magazine article five or six years ago, she could immediately see the possibilities.

“It’s sort of magical,” Dautel says, because you can take something that is hard and set one minute, and apply heat to it and completely transform it into something else. From a solid to a liquid: “You can really get the whole board moving.”

“It’s that fluidity. It’s the movement. It’s the surprise of it,” that keeps Dautel challenged and excited about encaustics. But she also enjoys the medium’s sculptural qualities; first building up texture in a work through layer-upon-layer of wax, then carving back into it, uncovering earlier colours, gestures, and ideas like an archaeologist digging; like a mind remembering.

Dautel concludes: “it’s the everchangingness of it that I really love.” art of the peace

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artcetera

the beauty of encaustics by kim fjordbotten

The history of encaustic includes paintings on the sides of Greek and Roman ships, Pompeian frescos and Egyptian Fayum portraits dating back to 150 A.D., many of which are still around today. What has particularly attracted modern painters, whether they are working in contemporary or traditional styles, is the spontaneity and variety with which encaustic can be used.

Encaustic is composed of natural beeswax, dammar resin and pigment. The wax paint is applied molten to a surface and fused to create a lustrous enamel effect. The waxy, semi-translucent natural colour of beeswax imparts an exquisite visual property. Encaustic is very durable. Since wax is impervious to moisture it will not deteriorate, it will not yellow, and it will not darken. Over time it will retain all the freshness of a newly finished work.

The process of working with encaustics is personal and experimental. It may consist of brushing wax in delicate thin glazes or pouring super thick impastos. The paint cools in minutes and additional layers can be added almost immediately. Images and collage materials such as foils, paper, glitter, string, and found objects can be impregnated or placed between layers of wax. Oil paints and oil bars can be painted and drawn on top of the wax.

For more painterly effects, a hot palette (or an electric griddle) provides a platform on which to keep knives and brushes warm and ready to use. Pigmented encaustic can be melted and mixed directly on the palette or separated in muffin tins. Specialty heated spatulas with temperature regulators and interchangeable tips are available to melt and manipulate the paint. Other tools can all be used to scratch into the wax to create distinctive marks. Pouring, molding and sculpting are also an option with this versatile wax paint.

Because of the non-flexible nature of encaustics paint it is best used on a rigid support, such as a wood or heavy card art of the peace

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Samples from The Paint Spot Encaustic Workshop by Kim Fjordbotten

and unprimed stretched canvas. A process called fusing (where a heat gun is used to melt together and unify each layer) is a necessary step to create a well-bonded and durable painting. Encaustic paint does not require the use of solvents. As a result, a number of health hazards are reduced or eliminated.

A finished piece can be buffed for a more polished look.

Encaustic paintings do not have to be varnished or protected by glass. Encaustic paintings are completely safe under normal temperatures and indirect sunlight, but avoid direct sunlight and temperatures in excess of 130 degrees which may soften the work. Encaustics can be gently cleaned with a soft cotton cloth. The painting can also be revised and reworked at any time – whether seconds later or years later.

This ancient medium is a hot topic at The Paint Spot in Edmonton. Be inspired by visiting the Wimmin in Wax exhibition in October. The Advice Library of www.paintspot.ca has lots more technical advice. The Paint Spot offers several Encaustic workshops.

THE CENTRE FOR

Grande Prairie

Unique Gallery Grande Prairie

Cultural Centre PWS

Beaverlodge

780-354-2165

Peace Country themes and wilderness vistas

For other information and images see www.beaverlodgegallery.com

U P C O M I N G

S H O W S

Check out all we have to offer: Classes for all ages and levels: -Children’s Classes -Glass -Fibre -Photography -Pottery -Workshops -Visual Arts Monthly Gallery Exhibitions Gift Shop featuring local artists Birthday Parties School and Group bookings Drop In Studio Use

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LOCAL ART | PHOTOGRAPHY | POTTERY

& CUSTOM FRAMING

Tel: (780) 538-2771 | Fax: (780) 538-2790 9929 - 100 Avenue, Grande Prairie, AB | www.UniqueGallery.ca

Dec. 3 - 17 Do all your Christmas shopping at the Centre. Find unique handmade gifts for everyone on your list.

Gift Certificates make great gifts for the creative people in your life!

Call for Artists We are looking for high quality art and craft items for our gift shop and our Annual Christmas Show and Sale. Please contact the Centre for more information.

Check us out on-line for more information

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www.creativecentre.ca

CREATIVE ARTS

Come visit us at our permanent location:

9904-101 Avenue, Grande Prairie info@creativecentre.ca 780-814-6080 art of the peace

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Carrie Klukas not a quick read

by Wendy Stefansson

art of the peace

14

Grande Prairie artist Carrie Klukas admits to being surprised at what people see in her abstract paintings.

“Sometimes,” she says, “my art takes them places it’s never taken me.”

Some viewers have seen whole universes in Klukas’ paintings; nebulae of colour and light amidst the primal darkness, the birthplaces of stars. Others have seen in them the veining of marble; the line drawings of the ever-birthing earth.

Creation narratives abound, not the least of which is the story each painting tells of its own creation. But also and equally present are stories of destruction; the consuming energy of fire, of storms or of waves. Klukas’ paintings are vessels for both beginnings and endings; each one a reliquary – a beautiful container into which a person can place what is sacred to him or her.

A story. A memory. A hope or a loss. A longing or a fear.

“Erotic” was the word used by well-known Demmit, Alberta artist Peter von Tiesenhausen to describe a large diptych LEFT Another CSI. Photo by Debbie Courvoisier

Klukas painted at the Prairie North Creative Residency in 2007.

With its arcing curves, softly modelled forms and warm, luminous colours, “erotic” is certainly an interpretation that is there to be made, though Klukas contends it wasn’t her intention when creating the work.

At the other end of the spectrum, the artist was recently asked to remove a painting she had created specifically for the Grande Prairie Cancer Centre.

The painting, originally titled And Then There was Light, is now (with characteristically dark humour) referred to by Klukas as The Rejected One. The work emanates a deep, enveloping darkness but for a pair of light-coloured forms at the top. It feels ominous.

Something is about to happen. In front of this painting, you stand motionless. You wait. You hold your breath.

According to Beverly Hildebrandt, Nurse Manager at the Centre, several patients asked to have the painting taken down within days of its arrival, saying it “reminded them of

TOP And Then There Was Light

BOTTOM Carrie Klukas. Photo by Debbie Courvoisier art of the peace

15

their cancer cells.” Hildebrandt had no reasonable choice but to comply. Klukas removed the painting.

Dr. Brenda Millar, who works at the same hospital, describes what happened this way: “Carrie’s paintings have this wonderful movement and flow to them, and an incredible sense of light. They’re so reflective – they have a shininess and a sheen to them – and that reflectiveness makes you go into your own soul, your own emotion. If you are emotionally grounded, you will find hope in them with this light coming through. But if you are in a fragile state, you could really get into that lost sort of place. For an artist, it’s amazing to be able to pull that out of people.”

While Klukas clearly didn’t intend to bring pain to anyone through this painting, pain exists. It’s already there in every human life. It’s especially there in the lives of cancer patients, who are clearly at their most vulnerable. Pain surfaces in a person’s response to a painting because it has already surfaced in his or her life. Pain is as valid and honest a response as pleasure is; darkness is as real as light.

Klukas has come to realize that what any given painting means to her as its creator is only part of its totality. A viewer

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comes to it with his or her own associations; own experiences, thoughts and ideas; and own life lived and understood and most importantly, felt. The viewer brings him or herself to the work of art and completes it.

“People will always bring their own meanings to it,” says Klukas. In the absence of an obvious, concrete subject, the viewer reaches into the void and grasps for something solid; waits for the separate particles of paint to coalesce into something that means something. It could potentially be anything. It could be many things at the same time. It could be something different every time you look at it. Each painting is redolent with possibilities.

“That’s what I love about abstract art,” Klukas enthuses.

“You can come back to it again and again and see something different in it.” It is open to multiple and divergent interpretations. It is layered. It avoids the limitations of being onedimensional, a single narrative. It is “not,” in Klukas’ words, “a quick read.”

Nor is it, in Klukas’ case, a quick process.

She often works on a single painting over a period of weeks or months. Beginning with a white, gessoed panel, she ap-

plies liquid acrylic paints in an intuitive process; unplanned and wide open in her approach. Many times, her first colours are metallics. When the first application of paint is dry, she’ll sand selected areas of the painting, revealing what is beneath it. Then she’ll alternately paint and sand again and again. In some places she’ll take the work back to its beginnings, abrading the top surfaces in order to move back through layers of creation to the original light of the gesso.

ish that begs to be touched (again, like sculpture). More importantly, perhaps, it adds the reflectivity in which one sees oneself.

For Klukas, “the meaning (of a painting) is in the process.”

The alternation of additive processes (applying paint) with subtractive processes (sanding the paint away) is a metaphor for life as it is lived; growth and pruning, if you will.

She sees the removal of paint as the “releasing of blocks,” enabling her to “find the truer, inner beauty of the work.” Her approach is almost sculptural – in both the physical effort required, and in the process of paring away material in order to discover the ‘figure’ within (so to speak). The artist has to hold onto a belief in the essential being of the work, in the inevitability of it.

Beauty is a quality that has been marginalized and maligned by some in the art world in recent decades, but Klukas says of her work: “It is what it is. I won’t apologize for it.” Maybe beauty won’t change the world, Klukas concedes. But, she says, “Maybe it’s time for beauty to make a comeback. Maybe there’s just too much ugliness in the world right now.”

And then there is the polish. Once satisfied with colour and composition, Klukas applies a thick, glassy layer of varnish to each painting. This creates an absolutely flat, smooth fin-

Rich and complex in depth, colour and visual texture, with soft-edged, weightless masses and fluid, organic line; Klukas’ work has a female quality about it. It is a woman’s art. It is intense. It is emotional. And it is beautiful.

FAR LEFT (2) Dyptick from the Prairie North Creative Residency CENTRE (3) In the Garden Series. Photo by Debbie Courvoisier TOP RIGHT Follow the Yellow Brick Road, Inspiration III, The Great Divide BOTTOM RIGHT Copper Arabesques. Photo by Debbie Courvoisier

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Carrie Klukas Wax On, Wax Off

Carrie Klukas laughingly describes her process when painting with encaustics as being like a scene from The Karate Kid, the 1984 comedy. In this movie, martial arts teacher Mr. Miyagi gives bullied teenager Daniel an unconventional education in karate. For his first lesson he instructs Daniel to wax a car by applying wax with his right hand and removing it with his left. “Wax on, right hand.

Wax off, left hand. Wax on, wax off. Breathe. In through nose, out through mouth. Wax on. Wax off. Don’t forget to breathe. Very important.”

Over the last three or four years, Klukas has been experimenting with encaustic, an ancient form of paint that uses melted beeswax as its basis rather than oils or acrylic binders. As in the work she has been doing with acrylic paints, Klukas uses both an additive process and a subtractive one, applying paint then selectively removing it – in this case, melting it off – applying another layer, and so on. Hence: “wax on, wax off.”

Klukas has used encaustic on its own and has also incorporated it into mixedmedia paintings in combination with her acrylics. The wax gives a different texture in the areas where it is applied, offering a new tactility to Klukas’ work. Juxtaposed with the absolutely glass-smooth finish that she achieves with her acrylics, it creates an interesting tension.

Enigmatically, Klukas says, “there is something there to explore.”

by Wendy Stefansson

above art of the peace

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Puff the Magic Dragon

Having achieved a familiarity and confidence with acrylic paint, Klukas has been finding it less challenging than she used to. But encaustic is newer to her, and still full of surprises. Sometimes, even “little faces or animals appear.” She admits that at this point, “there are lots of duds involved,” and it takes her longer to come up with an effect that satisfies her using encaustics than it does with acrylics.

But she also says that she is finding “absolute joy in the process, so it’s right.”

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Doris MacFarlane nothing happens unless you make it happen by eileen coristine

When Doris MacFarlane came to nurse at the Beaverlodge Hospital in 1949, little did she know the role the building was going to play in her life and in her community forty years later.

“My love for the arts all happened because of my association with them,” Doris recalls, “Betty thought there was no such thing as not being able to be an artist.”

That hospital later became the Beaverlodge Area Cultural Centre, opening in September 1992. After three years of negotiation and renovation the community had the facility for the arts that had long been the desire of Doris and her friend, Euphemia MacNaught.

“Doris was the first local person to recognize the potential of Euphemia McNaught and to mount a public show of her work, via an exhibition at Doris’s home,” says painter Marjorie Henn, who lives next to Doris. “That helped people to see the work and realize the impact that it could have on the area and its artists.”

Shortly after moving to Beaverlodge, Doris, who until that point had no interest or knowledge of the arts, met the McNaughts, well-known painter Betty (Euphemia) and her sister Isabel, a potter. art of the peace

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“Doris is what I would call a collector and a philanthropist,” says Marjorie. “She was the main drive and continual force behind the establishment of the Beaverlodge Area Cultural Society and until a year ago was its chairperson.”

In 1989, the 10-bed hospital, which had operated from 1942 to 58, had to be removed from its location to make way for a new hospital. At that time, Beaverlodge did not have a meeting place for artists as their former location in the Community Centre had been closed down. During November of 1989 a meeting was held to discuss the possibility of moving the hospital and converting it into a cultural centre. Thus, the next three years of Doris’s life were filled with meetings, negotiations, and untold hours of hard labour.

“We were given the property, a gem of a place right on the highway,” says Doris. But the $100,000 for renovations still had to be raised. Designating the building as an historic site and developing it into a combination of art centre and hospital museum provided federal funding. “Preserve and promote is our motto,” says Doris.

“For some reason our idea struck a chord with people so contributions from the town and county, the Alberta Government, the staff of the Enterprise Centre, the Beaverlodge Historical Society and the Agricultural Society along with fundraising and untold volunteer hours, we got to open up in September, 1992.”

One of the fundraising projects involved contacting all of the people who had been born at the hospital and asking them to donate to the cause and send along a baby picture of themselves. The display of those pictures, combined with the Beaverlodge Agricultural Society’s historical materials, medical artifacts and works by regional artists make Beaverlodge Area Cultural Centre an eclectic mix create by what Doris describes as a caring, responding community.

As well as a public gallery, the centre offers a gift shop selling regional art, rents studios, has fully equipped pottery and weaving studios and a program director. Thanks to the local Lions Club, their elegant tea-room features a stained glass mural by Eric Bask based on the works of Euphemia McNaught.

Proud as she is of what they’ve accomplished, Doris is even more proud of the on-going operations of the centre.

“The important thing is that it is a place for an artist to display their work. Some don’t have the material or the courage to show in a major gallery. We can give them a start.”

“We hold twelve gallery shows annually, “ she explains. “There is always a show by the Grande Prairie Regional College students in January and a show by Beaverlodge High School art students in the spring. Those are the best things we do.”

LEFT Beaverlodge Area Cultural Centre TOP RIGHT Doris with one of Euphemia McNaught’s works BOTTOM RIGHT Eric Bask mural in the BACS Tea Room

Although her past association with the McNaughts has been her inspiration, Doris is focused on up-coming area artists.

“They are the nucleus. Our reason for being is the next generation.” art of the peace

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siteBYTES art & the smart phone by rob swanston Wikipedia’s smartphone definition: ‘A smartphone is a cell or mobile phone that is more advanced in computing ability and connectivity than a traditional feature cell phone. Smartphones and feature phones may be thought of as handheld computers integrated within a mobile telephone, but while most feature phones are able to run simple applications, a smartphone allows the user to install and run advanced applications (apps). Furthermore, smartphone’s run complete operating system (OS) software, providing a platform for application development.’

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Artists can now consider using a smartphone for on-the-go research and to assist them in their creative process. Artists and graphic designers can benefit from a host of smartphone applications to help them with editing, painting, color, drawing, font and typography tools. ‘Smartphone ART’ is a new area of exploration and applications that provide audio and virtual exhibition tours are now available. Resources, content and applications are becoming plentiful and more sophisticated everyday.

Local Art

Smartphone’s are far more than just cell phones; they provide instant access to the web while enabling the user with a vast array of applications. The choices are staggering and range from those geared toward hardworking business tasks to entertainment, games and everything in between. With thousands of applications available to download in a range of prices, there’s sure to be something that will appeal to everyone.

To give you an idea of the variety of apps available, here is a list of category names at the Apple App Store, keeping in mind that collectively within these categories there are two hundred thousand choices available. Games, Entertainment, Utilities, Social Networking, Music, Productivity, Lifestyle, Reference, Travel, Sports, Navigation, Health & Fitness, News, Photography, Finance, Business, Education, Weather, Books, Medical...

The best Smartphone’s are compact, have great input and display options, and enough battery life to last through a full day’s work and more. Third-party apps are becoming a key component of a Smartphone, allowing the user to customize their phones to support their lifestyles. art of the peace

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by John Logan

red: a new play

by wendy stefansson

Okay, I think we can all agree that the Peace Country is off-off-OFF-Broadway! Which means most of us won’t get the opportunity to see John Logan’s play Red, a drama about Abstract Expressionist painter Mark Rothko. Happily, we can read the script of the play. Even more happily, we can see clips of the Broadway production on YouTube.

If I could, I would go see this play ten evenings in a row just to watch the scene in which Rothko and his young assistant, Ken prime a large canvas in a deep maroon; the older man covering the top of the canvas, the younger the bottom. The sheer physicality of painting is rendered as a dance, as a struggle. Both men emerge from it covered with red paint. They look like they’ve just come newborn into the world, or from a battlefield.

Red depicts Rothko at the height of his success but staring down the spectre of his own irrelevance. He is in love with, and at the same time tortured by his own ideas. Even as he creates the canvases that are arguably the culmination of his life’s work – all in pulsating, throbbing, swelling, breathing reds – he contemplates his own end.

This is clearly a dark work. It’s also a seriously intelligent work. It presumes the audience has a good general knowledge of art history from Michelangelo through to Warhol. But, at the same time it reminds us that painting isn’t just a cognitive activity; it is something to be grappled with bodily. It is hand-tohand combat. It is and always has been a struggle to the end.

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When the Centre for Creative Arts officially re-opened on July 24, a crowd of 400 people came to watch Joanna Moen, chairperson for the centre, cut the ribbon and welcome everyone inside. All afternoon the celebration continued with music, performance and loads of interactive art including demonstrations in all of the updated studios.

A model was available for anyone wanting to do figure drawing, jewelers and potters were hammering and spinning, Moen held a watercolour workshop and there were even Raku potters at work in the blustery parking lot.

Located back at the old courthouse building, the Grande Prairie facility now has open concept studios, enhanced ventilation and full accessibility.

Since the re-opening activities have continued apace.

This is no surprise to Candace Hook, executive director at the centre. Even while the centre was relocated at its three different venues during the renovation she had detected a definite pattern of growth.

“People accessing our programming and openings increased by 30 per cent in 2008 and then by 30 per cent again in 2010,” she explains.

“Being back downtown we’re so much more visible that I predict we’ll increase our growth again.”

The gemstone at the heart of the centre is the new 800 square foot gallery that will host the monthly shows.

“Now that we have this beautiful gallery art of the peace

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we can have exciting exhibitions and honour the art properly,” Candace says.

“The centre has a casual, welcoming atmosphere,” she says, “and the openings are a hoot. They are free to attend and we have a children’s space, so they’re very familyfriendly.”

“Our exhibitions are very inclusive and we offer a wide variety,” she continues. “We may show an established artist one month and then an emerging artist the next month.”

Twice a year the centre holds a call for artists from across the region to participate in a themed show. This August, the Teacup Show featured glasswork, photography, paintings and even an installation interpreting this everyday vessel.

Centre for Creative Arts Re-opening Art activities apace by eileen coristine

“Another opportunity for artists to exhibit is through is our gift-shop. The pieces for sale are by regional artists exclusively.”

All of the studios at the centre have been remodeled to make them as user friendly as possible.

These include a digital room with updated computers, a large bright drawing studio, pottery and textile studios and an oil painting studio.

There are also rental spaces available for group functions.

TOP

The new gallery

bottom

Art in Action on opening day

Alberta Arts Days Something For Everyone

BY EILEEN CORISTINE

LEFT

1st Prize Winner Candace Gunsolley Expression Birch Lady Sculpture

CENTRE

2nd Prize Winner Candice Popik Forever Love Photograph

RIGHT

3rd Prize Winner Niki Sangra Oh those pesky teacups Installation

Avoiding art during the Alberta Arts Days celebration in Grande Prairie was undoubtedly harder than finding it according to Candace Hook, executive director of the Centre For Creative Arts.

The three-day celebration, September 17–19, included live art, concerts, dancing, photography, poetry, films, architecture, exhibitions, cash prizes and even ended with a costume party on Sunday evening at the Montrose Cultural Centre.

At the opening reception of the Art of the Peace Members Show and Sale on Saturday, prizes were awarded to six participating artists. Visitors to the show voted on their favourite pieces and so determined the winners of the People’s Choice Awards.

Candace Gunsolley and her piece Expression Birch Lady won the first prize of $500. Second prize of $300 went to a photograph titled Forever Love by Candice Popik. Oh those pesky teacups, an installation by Niki Sangra was the one chosen for the $200 third prize.

Honorable mentions were awarded to Marjorie Henn for her watercolour Morning On Saskatoon Mountain, to Suzanne Sandboe for her acrylic painting Picket Fence and to Katarina Kardelisova for her mixed media piece called Monkey Bars in the Sky. The show, which was held at the Centre for Creative Arts included 74 pieces. Art of the Peace president Jim Stokes described it as “super fine, really fine with many snazzy extras.”

TOP

Honorable Mention Katrina Kardelisova Monkey Bars in the Sky Mixed Media

CENTRE

Honorable Mention Suzanne Sandboe Picket Fence Acrylic

Bottom

Honorable Mention Marjorie Henn Morning on Saskatoon Mountain Watercolour

Arguably the best-attended and snazziest event of the weekend was the Wearable Art Show. Those who came for the Friday evening fashion show filled the room at the Centre for Creative Arts and spilled down the stairs and into the hallways. The Wearable Art ranged from the fanciful to the sublime including a dress made of hair by Candace Gunsolley, one made of origami cranes by Skylin Mossing and delicate felt scarves by Carrie Klukas.

Video of the Wearable Art show was shown at the wrap-up Cultural Costume Party. Guest of Honour at that event, Alberta Minister of Culture and Community Spirit, Lindsay Blackett commented on the astonishing growth of the arts and arts venues in Grande Prairie since Alberta Arts Days began in 2008. art of the peace

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a gallery of artists Showcasing a selection of Peace Region art

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Barb GREENTREE 780-532-6658 barbgreentree@telus.net

Marian Jacoba Shilka

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Judith A. Brown Painting by Carolyn Brown

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Beaverlodge, AB Beaverlodge Cultural Centre Exhibits & Events Robin Hill, Corinne Cowan, Vivian Farnsworth & Angie Patterson Show & Sale September 26th – October 29th Beaverlodge Craft Club Sale October 22nd, 7 – 9pm October 23rd, 10am – 3pm Sarah Smith Show & Sale October 31st – November 26th Darlene Dautel – The Fire Within November 28th – December 23rd Clothesline Art Show & Sale January 9th – February 3rd Grande Prairie Regional College Art Students Exhibition February 6th – March 3rd

McNaught Homestead Opportunities The Schoolhouse Studio is available for retreats, classroom, gallery or meetings. For info call 780-512-6316

Dawson Creek, BC Dawson Creek Art Gallery Exhibits & Events Art a la Carte, A Silent Auction October 1st – November 2nd Feathers and Fur and Everything Else Denise Lindley & Judi Roberts October 5th – November 6th Annual Christmas Show & Sale November 13th, 10am – 4pm

Exhibitions+ Opportunities CHECK OUT WWW.ARTOFTHEPEACE.CA FOR MORE DETAILS, LOCATIONS AND HOURS Patricia Peters Show & Sale March 6th – March 31st 18th Annual Quilt Show & Sale April 3rd – April 28th Paint in the Soup Show & Sale Vicki Hotte, Karen McFarlane & Marilyn Snell May 1st – May 26th Programs How to Be Really Hot!!

Fused Glass Pot Melts with Wendy Olson-Lepchuk October 21st, 7 – 9pm November 13th, 1 – 3pm Cost: $47 includes all supplies Hot & Festive!

Fused Glass Christmas Ornaments with Wendy OlsonLepchuk November 18th, 7 – 9pm November 20th, 1 – 3pm Cost: $25 includes all supplies Programs in pottery, stained glass, batik, weaving, acrylic, oil and watercolour painting. Call 780-354-3600 for more info.

Opportunities Gallery exhibition and gift shop sales opportunities are available.

Call 780-354-3600 for info.

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A Bird in the Hand AFA Touring Exhibit January 11th – 28th Cheongju Selection AFA Touring Exhibit January 11th – 28th Fresh Paint AFA Touring Exhibit February 1st – 25th Eric Cameron AFA Touring Exhibit February 1st – 25th Janet Enfield March 1st – 19th Photography by Colleen Phillips March 1st – 19th Exploring Art Work by Gallery Painting Students March 21st – April 16th Mixed Media Work from Senior Art Students from School District # 59 April 16th – May 14th Annual Art Auction May 6th Opportunities Opportunities for exhibition. More info at www.dcartgallery.ca.

Fairview, AB Fairview Fine Arts Centre Exhibits & Events Drink - Contemporary Vessels Shannon Butler October 1st – 30th Heather McNair & Students November 2nd – 26th Christmas Market Members’ Show November 27th – January 7th Winter Sports Show January 10th – 29th Bag Ladies Juried Show February 4th – 26th Programs Phone the Centre at 780-8352697, email finearts@telus.net or visit www.fairviewfinearts.com

Fort St. John, BC Fort St. John Community Arts Council Exhibits & Events High on Ice Winter Festival January 14th – 17th Programs Potential Life Drawing Sessions October – June Uninstructed Cost: $5 drop-in The 2 Marys Printmaking Workshops Instructed by Mary Mottishaw & Mary Parslow October 22nd – Basic Relief Printmaking October 23rd – Multi-block Prints October 24th – Reduction Prints Miep’s Studio Cost: $50 / day Oil Painters of the Peace with Donna Folk Classes on-going Visit www.donnafolk.com for info.

For more information on these and other Fort St. John opportunities, visit www.fsjarts.org or call 250-787-2781.

north peace cultural centre Exhibits & Events Inspiration 6 Mary Parslow, Mary Mottishaw, Barb Daley, Judy Templeton, Sandy Troudt, Cindy Vincent Opening October 8th Prospect of the Peace Mike Kroechner Opening October 22nd

Magical Christmas Market November 14th – December 24th Annual Chocolate Festival February 12th, 6pm Cost: $10/adults Art Auction April 30th Programs Adult Art Basics November 1st – 29th, 7–9pm Register at www.npcc.bc.ca or call 250-785-1992.

Grande Cache, AB Grande Cache Tourism & Interpretive Centre Exhibits & Events Exhibiting the Palette Pals Art Club and local art year round.

Check out www.grandecache.ca for more info.

Grande Prairie, AB Centre for Creative Arts Exhibits & Events Openings Grande Prairie Guild of Artists October 8th - 29th Finding Balance Between Light & Dark Dan Arberry November 5th – 26th CFCA Christmas Show & Sale December 3rd – 17th CFCA Oil Painting Student Show January Red: Juried Themed Show February Rhett Demetrick March Janet Enfield April Programs The Centre has classes for everyone! Check out our website, www.creativecentre.ca or call 780-814-6080.

Opportunities We are currently looking for instructors to teach a variety of classes.

Grande Prairie Museum Exhibits & Events 3’s a Congerie!

Until December 31st 13th Annual Lantern Tours October 22nd & 23rd, 7pm

Old Fashioned Christmas December 12th, 3 – 7pm Programs Tours and school programming available phone 780-532-5482.

Grande Prairie Regional College Exhibits & Events GPRC Homecoming Week October 15th – 23rd Opening: Friday, October 15th Alumni Show October 15th – 23rd Glass Gallery & Howlers Grand Re-Opening of the Fine Arts Department L-Wing October 22nd 2:30 – 4:30pm Peter Von Tiesenhausen Visitor in the Arts Lecture Series November 10th, 11:30 – 12:45pm Fine Arts Recital Hall Lyndal Osborne Visitor in the Arts Lecture Series January 26th, 11:30 – 12:45pm Fine Arts Recital Hall Janet Nichol Visitor in the Arts Lecture Series February 2nd, 11:30 – 12:45pm Fine Arts Recital Hall Tina Martel Visitor in the Arts Lecture Series February 9th, 11:30 – 12:45pm Fine Arts Recital Hall Geoff Whittall Visitor in the Arts Lecture Series March 9th, 11:30 – 12:45pm Fine Arts Recital Hall

Opportunities CALL FOR ENTRIES Capture the Beauty of the Peace March For exhibition opportunities call 780-539-4091.

Prairie Art Gallery

Exhibits & Events Art Insight Tours Free one hour tour of a behindthe-scenes look into the gallery’s mission to preserve, inspire and explore. To book a tour time call 780-357-7486.

Prairie Art Gallery Members’ Show November 4th – January 17th Opening: November 4th, 7pm Kin Gallery in the Heritage Discovery Centre, Centre 2000.

QEII Hospital, The Courtyard Gallery Exhibits & Events GALLERY Tending The Fire Sabine Schneider September / October

Visual Art Student Show April 4th – 9th Glass Gallery & Howlers

Seasonal Exhibition December

Picture Perfect Events Artistic Elegance Tracy Kosoloski, Geri Hives, Calvin Cornish, Barb Greentree, Linda McAusland & Diane Gaboury November Three Generations from Spirit River February Capture the Beauty of the Peace April

Exhibition opportunities available by contacting Carrie at 780-538-7583

Emily Lozeron

101 - 816 Alaska Ave, Dawson Creek, BC V1G 4T6

Tel: (250) 782-2601 www.dcartgallery.ca

Artists Run Centre | 13 Exhibits Per Year | Art Rental Education Programs | By Donation | Year Round | Gift Shop

Where The Wind Blows Patricia Peters January / February SHOWCASES Diana Lowther & Friends October / November

Exhibits throughout the year in the Glass Gallery.

Lower Level, QEII Hospital 10409 98 Street, Grande Prairie, AB

Wild Things Emily Lozeron November / December

Mash Up Arts Symposium March 16th Fine Arts Recital Hall

Fine Arts Student Awards April 8th, 8:30pm Howlers

Original Works by Local Artists

The Prairie Art Gallery is expanding. Construction is currently underway and is scheduled to be complete in Fall 2011 when we will connect to our current location in the Montrose Cultural Centre.

Aleeta Haas January / February / March Opportunities for Artists Any artist or artisan wishing to take part in this year’s Festival Of Trees Art Market, or have an exhibition please contact Carrie at 780-538-7583.

Fall Courses

Gift Shop

780-835-2697

watercolours, local pottery, knitwear, Calvin Cornish prints, dichroic glass, jewellery, quilted and hand woven items

www.fairviewfinearts.com

• print making • oil painting • stained glass • pottery • paper arts • watercolour • mosaic • jewellery • quilting

Monthly Gallery Exhibits

• Drink - Contemporary Vessels • Heather McNair & Students • Members’ Christmas Show

• Winter Sports Show • Bag Ladies Juried Show

Unique Gallery Exhibits & Events Dan Wourms October 7th – 23rd Shauna Hoffos October 27th – November 20th Patricia Peters November 25th – December 11th Opportunities Opportunities for exhibitions. Call Dan at 780-538-2790.

www.ArtofthePeace.ca

Frame & Gallery Ltd. Merged with Outdoor Images Canada (2008) Ltd.

Custom Picture Framing Art Supplies & Fine Art Gallery

780-539-4091 9934-100 Avenue Grande Prairie, AB

25% OFF

Watercolour Art Supplies Until November 30th 2010

art of the peace

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Sarah Alford in collaboration with Peter von Tiesenhausen Flaring from the Alliance Project, 2008

I am in the practice of reimagining what it means to know the world. As an undergraduate studying jewellery and metalsmithing, I learned it was once believed that the entire universe was made of light in varying densities.

The more reflective it was, the less dense it was— lighter. All that winter on my walks home from the studio I looked for signs of this, and they were abundant, salt strewn streets, snow, frost, the drops of water, broken glass‌ It changed how I saw jewellery making. I became more interested in adornment as an act, rather than as an object. In graduate school, however, as I became less focused on making, I understood how fundamentally important it was that I had learned to make things well. I came to understand what Walter Benjamin meant when he imagined that the reconstruction of the world will require an act of craftsmanship, an act in which we skillfully and artfully bring together the broken pieces of our history. Making is a form of understanding what might be, and I have also come to see how it forms an understanding of history, value and place.

Sarah Alford art of the peace

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art peace of the

membership benefits...

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NETWORKING LEARNING EXHIBITING

> Discounts on Symposium Registration & Workshop fees > Discounts on Art Supplies & Framing throughout the Region > Two issues of Art of the Peace per year > Email newsletters with updates about exhibitions & opportunities > A collective voice promoting BC & Alberta Peace Region arts

WE`VE MADE IT EASY! Registration for Memberships & Directory Listings online at:

artofthepeace.ca Art of the Peace Members Show, September 2010

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FREE WITH YOUR ONLINE ARTIST DIRECTORY LISTING: One image of your artwork and a short bio, plus, links to your website & email.

TREX

The Alberta Foundation for the Arts Travelling Exhibition Program

For the 2010/2011 Travelling Season the Prairie Art Gallery presents four new Exhibitions:

75 Million Adrian Stimson, Saskatoon Small Bison #10 - Running into the Future.

Conte and Charcoal on Paper Courtesy of the artist

ERIC CAMERON: A CONCEPTUAL APPROACH Eric Cameron, Calgary Gregory’s Wine Gum Acrylic Gesso on Wine Gum Courtesy of the artist

The Alberta Foundation for the Arts (AFA) has supported a provincial travelling exhibition program since 1981.

The mandate of the AFA Travelling Exhibition Program is to provide every Albertan with the opportunity to enjoy visual art exhibitions in their community.

Three regional galleries and one arts organization coordinate the program for the AFA: THE PRAIRIE ART GALLERY ART GALLERY OF ALBERTA

CAPTURING MOMENTUM Egon Bork Speed Skate Colour Photograph Courtesy of the AFA Collection

100 DRESSES FOR ALBERTA Nicole Bauberger, Whitehorse

THE ALBERTA SOCIETY OF ARTISTS ESPLANADE ARTS & HERITAGE CENTRE

For a complete list of exhibitions visit

PRAIRIEGALLERY.COM

Grande Prairie Grouping #1 Bees Wax Encaustic on Panel Courtesy of the artist Generously Supported By

Located in the Montrose Cultural Centre 9839 103 Avenue, Grande Prairie, AB T8V 6M7 P: (780) 532-8111 | F: (780) 539-9522 E: info@prairiegallery.com