of the Peace

www.artofthepeace.ca

Spring/Summer 2009 Issue 12

Iskoteo Arts FestivalThree Soapstone ArtistsThe New Prairie Art Gallery

Bibi ClementVigil of Angels

A Publication for the Visual Arts

Diploma in Music, Acoustic Interactive Digital Design

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New This Year!Diploma in Drama, Technical Theatre Drama & Performance

Visual Arts, Certificate Program Diploma in Visual Arts, Studio Practice Interactive Digital Design Bachelor of Fine Arts, University Transfer Program

CONTACT US:

finearts.gprc.ab.ca | 780-539-2090 | Toll free 1-888-539-4772 ext. 244310726 106 Avenue, Grande Prairie, AB, T8V 4C4 | Email: finearts@gprc.ab.ca

Unlock the potential that is discovered through unlimited creative energy and freedom of expression at GPRC. Acting, improvisation, dynamics of movement and collaboration are explored as the actor in you develops.

An artist looks at the world a little differently. Learning to express oneself is a journey and an adventure all at the same time. At GPRC, we will inspire, motivate and encourage you to explore the visual process.

Most musicians are only happy when they are playing, singing, performing or at the controls in a recording studio. A career in music is a possibility with the right tools to pursue your dreams.

F INE ARTS

IMAGINE YOUR FUTURE. YOU’RE CURIOUS. YOU’RE COURAGEOUS. I M A G I N E Y O U R S E L F H E R E .

M U S I C V I S U A L A R T D R A M A

contents

Editor: Eileen CoristineEditorial Committee: Dale Syrota, Carrie Klukas, Suzanne Sandboe, Jim StokesDesign, Layout & Advertising: imageDESIGNPublisher: Art of the Peace Visual Arts Association, Box 25227, Wapiti Road P.O. Grande Prairie, AB T8W 0G2 Phone: (780) 539-4046 (Dale Syrota) E-mail: art@artofthepeace.caPrinting: Parsons PrintingCover: Bibi Clement, photo by Marijke Dronyk

©All rights reserved Art of the Peace 2009

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 conse-quences arising from errors or omissions.

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

The Alberta Foundation for the Arts

City of Grande Prairie Arts Development Fund

Artist’s Statement 4Contributors 4Artcetera 14Edna McPhail 15Iskoteo 20Site Bytes 22Art Books in Review 23A Gallery of Artists 26Exhibitions & Opportunities 28

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Paul Qayutinnuaq,

Bibi Clement

Blaine Askew

3 Soapstone Artists30

from Rolla, BC

1624

The New Prairie Art Gallery

there...

1957-2008

Three Artists

artist’s statement

Eileen Coristine began as a writer of poetry, fiction and journalism. The photography required in newspaper reporting led her into the visual arts. Each piece of art or writing, created through the struggle be-tween her limited skills and her fanciful ideas, is greeted with a sigh of celebration and then sent out into the world to find a life of its own.

Wendy Stefansson has earned 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.

Ellen Corea is a graduate of the Alberta College of Art and Design with a focus on media research and sculpture. She has also studied at Emily Carr College in Vancouver, the University of Calgary and the Ontario College of Art. Ellen is the Curator/Director of the Daw-son Creek Art Gallery and also has the position of Execu-tive Director of the Peace Liard Regional Arts Council.

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 experi-ence to create an environment full of inspiration, techni-cal advice and unique materials.

Jody Farrell has spent 25 years writing for news-papers 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 pas-sion in life. Hers revolves around finding a way to live on English Bay in Vancouver.

Robert Steven is the Executive Director/Cura-tor of the Prairie Art Gallery. He is also a current member of the Premier’s Council on Arts and Culture and an ac-tive volunteer with various clubs, associations and com-mittees, including the Art of the Peace Visual Arts As-sociation.

David Olinger is Manager of Marketing and Communications with the City of Grande Prairie. David’s varied career has included newspaper reporting in vari-ous cities and assistant editor/writer at the Ontario Lottery Corporation. He also operated his own communications company, The Write Stuff! David served as communica-tions officer with the Huron-Superior Catholic District School Board prior to returning to his Western Canadian roots two years ago.

contributors

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The essence of three-dimensional art is that it invites us to touch or to imagine what it would feel like to touch the

object. We touch it with our eyes in a more complete way than we would a picture. We see the curve of a wing made of carved and polished stone and our finger wants to run along its satiny surface.

Even if we’re looking at a two dimensional representation of a statue or a pot, it is measured and weighed by our previous experience and our curiousity.

Paul Qayutinnuaq’s meticulously crafted Inuit hunting tools represent things that were once everyday and functional. Through his dedication to making the ancient tools from their original materials, we are able to see the textures and imagine what it felt like to work with a bone knife or a fishhook carved from an antler.

There can be immense pleasure in making something that we know other people will want to pick up and use. Something thats very form gives them pleasure and thats function satisfies a need. A beautifully treened cup or pottery bowl can be a plea-sure to look at, a pleasure to hold and a pleasure to use. What could be more pleasing to a sculptor than to create something like this?

The humble materials, stone, wood and clay speak to us of our human roots. In the right hands those same simple elements can evoke a prairie storm or imbue an angel with the magic of art. Imagine yourself eye to eye with a life-sized vessel full of Bibi Clement’s moods and memories. Then remember, she made it from mud.

The sculptor invites us to experience the sculpture: Do we want to touch it? Do we want to pick it up and use it? Or do we want to give it a hug?

Eileen Coristine

Touching- a multi dimensional sensation

With this issue, we would like to introduce two new features we’ve added to the magazine. siteBYTES is a column by guest writ-ers exploring the field of electronic art. artcetera, is about the latest in art technique and materials.

Art of the Peace is always looking for ideas that will make our publication fresh and informative. If you have any information you’d like to share, or any comments please contact us at artofthepeace.com.

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art out there...

100 Dresses for Grande Prairie

In November, the Prairie Art Gallery hosted artist Nicole Bau-berger for an artist residency and an exhibition. Nicole’s series

called, 100 Dresses has her creating 100 paintings of dresses in 10 days in the city where they will be exhibited. 100 Dresses for Grande Prairie was her 9th 100 Dresses. All 100 dresses were painted in encaustic (en kô stik), a form of painting with melted beeswax and pigment, fused to a surface with heat. The public was

invited to watch her brush, layer, and scrape wax to make 100 small paintings of dresses. Nicole was painting on location at the Grande Prairie Regional College in the Pillars area, and all of the paintings were exhibited in the Glass Gallery at GPRC. In addition to Nicole’s 100 dresses, she welcomed sixty “Guest Dresses” made by members of the community. All of Nicole Bauberger’s 100 Dresses for Grande Prairie can be seen on the Gallery’s website, www.prairiegallery.com.

A Brush with Success

Would you donate worn-down, paint-encrusted brushes to an art installation? Kimberly Fjordbot-ten’s desire is to create an installation of many used brushes. Transforming the tool into art

seems appropriate - creating a place of honour and remembrance. For several years, artists have given their used, abused and otherwise non-functional brushes to this project. Donors are asked to write or carve their name into the handles, inviting the curious to ask who owned this brush; how was it used; and what was created?

An exhibition will be held this fall. There is no deadline for the brush project, as this will be a life-time collection; however, to be included in the fall installation, please send brushes by July 31, 2009. Thank you to everyone taking part in this project. Send brushes to Kim Fjordbotten c/o The Paint Spot, 10516 Whyte Avenue, Edmonton, Alberta, T6E 2A4. Contact info@paintspot.ca

The Centre for Creative Arts Moves Home

The Creative Arts Centre is on its way back home. July first is the target date for the move back to

the updated Old Courthouse building. “The renovat-ed space will provide Peace Area residents with the functional, healthy and accessible creative space that they deserve,” says Candace Hook manager of the centre. “A creative space where everyone is welcome to explore, experience and celebrate art.”

Along with a gallery space and gift shop for the showing and sale of regional art exclusively, the centre will also boast studio space for their ceramics, glass, jewellery, drawing, painting, textile and digital classes. Six additional private studios will be available for rent to local artists. The building will be wheelchair accessible, properly ventilated and even offer a bistro serving healthy food.

“We hope that this renovated space will act as a hub for Grande Prairie’s arts community,” says Hook.

Nicole Bauberger at GPRC.

Worn Brushes by da Vinci Brush Company

The permanent home of the Centre for Creative Arts.

Heating Up The Works

For 13 days this summer, June 19 to July 1, The Works Art

& Design Festival will present The Big Picture, featuring more than 400 artists showcased in 28 sites housing 44 exhibitions and special events,

The Works, the largest Art & Design Festival of its kind in North America, is a free event that showcases the best in cut-ting edge design, digital art and new media technology along-side traditional visual art me-diums.

Over the next two years, The Works will feature themed exhibits that focus on sustain-ability and environmental con-sciousness. These exhibits will bring together art, sustainability and social responsibility in an exciting and thought provoking way. The themed program for 2009 The Works Art & Design Festival is Heat.

For more information visit www.theworks.ab.ca

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Prairie North 2009

The Fine Arts Department of Grande Prairie Regional College in Grande Prairie will host the ninth Prairie North Creative Residency from June 7 to June 20, 2009. The residency provides

participants an opportunity to network with other professional artists from across the province and country. It is a chance to learn and share within an intensive, open studio environment. Available during the residency are two guest artists, who will act as facilitators, providing mentorship, studio visits and both formal and informal critiques. This year the guest artists are painter Monica Tap and performance/installation/mixed media artist Adrian Stimson. Organizers encourage applicants in traditional media, new media, combined visual studio disciplines, and other creative fields such as writing, poetry, dance and music. For more information please visit prairienorth.org or contact Tina Martel, Coordinator at tmartel@gprc.ab.ca or (780) 539-2814.

PNCR is the only residency of its type in northern Alberta and has facilitated numerous ideas and op-portunities for exhibitions, collaborations, and performance.

Northeast Aboriginal Artworks Society Formed

Artists Garry Oker and Brian Jungen have joined forces with Fort St. John area native elders to create the Northeast Ab-

original Artworks Society. The resulting group is dedicated to the innovation of a new cultural mythology. “We want to develop new disciplines and fuse mythology with communicative arts,” says Oker. “Using things like story telling, music and crafts we will help organize the cultural talent at a local level.”

Both artists are of the mind that, by using modern methods, the arts can empower and can break down barriers that cause racial stereotyping. Training more young people in various artistic dis-ciplines is also an important goal of the society. Oker is currently working on an animated video game to teach the traditional stories and songs of the Swan People, the mythical teachers of the Beaver Indians.

High on Ice

Ice carvers from around the world gather in northern B.C. every winter to compete in the High On Ice Winter Carnival. Since 2005, the City of Fort St. John and the Fort St. John Arts Council have

partnered to put on the carnival and every year the event has grown in scope and in international re-pute. High on Ice is one of only three National Ice Carving Association sanctioned events in Canada and draws competitors from Russia, Japan and Belgium. The Arts Council makes the event very friendly to local artists by organizing the amateur snow and ice sculpting competitions and offering ice-carving workshops throughout the year.

Monica Tap, Split, oil on canvas.

Tenth Annual Matta Fest

Each year since 1999, Histor-ic Dunvegan Park has wel-

comed May with a fair called Matta Fest. It is the time when people gather outside, rain or shine, for a gypsy style gather-ing celebrating spring, Mother Nature and coming together as one. Artists and crafters who have earth friendly creations are invited to sell, barter or sim-ply display their treasures. Bel-ly dancers, aboriginal dancers, temple dancers, circle dancers, Tai Chi practitioners, singers, musicians, story tellers and jug-glers also embrace the spirit of ‘come in unity’ by donat-ing their talents to this family friendly event.

Matta Fest 2009 will be held May 3, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at His-toric Dunvegan Park.

Dane-zaa Dreamer’s Musical Notes by Garry Oker

Belly dancer at Matta Fest. Photo by Eileen Coristine.

Juggling by Peter Vogelaar and David Ducharme. Second place in realistic cat-egory. Photo by Sue Popesku.

art of the peace 6

Muskoseepi Park Mural

Look for plenty of painting action when you’re strolling in the park this summer.

Heart of the Peace is the theme of a huge mural project that will change the face of Muskoseepi Park over the coming months. With 2000 square feet of surface to cover, the Ampitheatre Bandshell will be transformed from its graffiti covered state into a collage of Grande Prairie’s history, culture and natural environment.

Renowned muralist, Tim Heimdal, is leading the project and will be joined by interested area artists and youth who are referred by the Emergency Shelter, the John Howard Society and Sunrise House.

Mural Master of Vision, Chris Thiessen has been working on this project for four years. He says, “The project will begin May 1 with workshops with Tim and the painting will run to the end of the summer. Anyone wanting to become involved can call the Centre for Creative Arts.”

Creations, Inc.

Creations, Inc. is a newly developed fundraiser for

the Fairview Fine Arts Centre’s elementary student’s program Artists at School. This year the Grade 4, 5 and 6 students from E.E. Oliver Elementary and St. Thomas More will enjoy five weeks of instruction in pottery, with instructor Heather Mc-Nair, and watercolour painting with instructor Carolyn Brown. The program always ends with a show of the students’ works in the Fine Arts Centre Gallery.

This year local artists will share the show and help raise funds necessary to keep Artists at School going. For Creations, Inc., regional artists are being asked to create original art on 5x7 canvasses. The canvasses will be displayed and raffled at a wine and cheese reception on June 12 at the gallery. Any-one interested in helping out by donating a canvas, or attending the event, can call the centre at 780 835 2697.

Grant Berg, There’s A Storm Movin’ In III, Soapstone Carving. Photo by Cheryl McCartney

Art in a Raw State

This fall, Emilie and Larry Mattson will host the third

biannual Sweetwater 905, a multi-arts festival held at their family farm near Rolla, BC. Musicians, dancers, poets and visual artists will converge on the location from September 11th to 13th. Confirmed art-ists on the 2009 roster include award-winning documentary filmmaker Nettie Wild and Peace Country photographer Wayne Sawchuk among many others, both from the local arts community and from farther afield.

The theme of this year’s festival is Monumental. Contributing visual artists will be display-ing large-scale works within the farm environs. According to publicist Inge-Jean Matt-son: “The event aims to bring art into a more raw state as it is viewed and heard in barn stalls, old granaries, or in the dirt.”

Rounding out the weekend, there will be street perfor-mances, a hypnotist, and horse-drawn wagon and pony rides. Local artists will be selling their wares in “Chicken Coop Alley.” Festival-goers and par-ticipants can camp in the horse pasture for a nominal fee.

For up-to-date information or to get involved, go to www.

Firedancer at last year’s Sweetwater 905.

There’s a Storm Movin’ Out

In mid January, Grande Prairie artist Grant Berg received word from the Calgary-based Alberta Society of Artists that one of

his sculptures had been accepted into its group exhibit, Planet Earth. Berg’s work was one of only 58 selected from a total of 379 submitted by Alberta artists.

Entitled There’s a Storm Movin’ In, Berg’s piece is a soapstone sculpture which depicts the spectacular but destructive force of a prairie thunderstorm. As part of the Planet Earth show, it was exhibited at the Leighton Art Centre in Calgary from March 14 to April 11, 2009. Berg was in attendance for the opening.

Tim Heimdal stands in front of his Kakwa Falls Mural. Photo by Mel Ebelhauser.

Figure Study by Kevin Yasinski.

The New Prairie Art Gallery It’s a Living Thing

by Jody Farrell

Grande Prairie’s Montrose Cultural Centre, located

on the site of the former Prairie Art Gallery (PAG), is scheduled to open this June. The modern and airy downtown building is home to both a new gallery and The Grande Prairie Public Li-brary. The PAG will double the

former exhibition space with its 8,000 square foot expansion, while the library will feature 37,400 square feet on two floors. The facade of the historic Central High School that housed the PAG

since 1975, and was damaged when its roof collapsed in 2007, will form the cornerstone of the Montrose Cultural Centre. Its repair is due to be completed by 2011.

Since 1975, Grande Prairie’s only public art gallery has pro-duced a wide range of both pro-fessional visual arts exhibitions and hands-on programs. In its unstuffy, people-friendly envi-ronment,

it helped foster an appreciation of regional artists, as well as national and international ones whose works adorn galleries around the world.

Public galleries are perhaps so-ciety’s most recognizable “go-to place” for a peek at what’s in store for our future. Every-where, as has always been the case, visual arts reflect expe-riences and changes that we all experience, often even be-fore they’re recognized by the world at large. Robert Steven, PAG Director-Curator, tells us some of what we can expect from our own Prairie Art Gal-lery during its first years in its new home.

“It’s hard to guess what the fu-ture holds,” Steven says when invited to imagine what the PAG will look like in the years to come. “We may be fooled. Right now though, I see the art world fully adjusting to the in-formation age.”

Steven points to the ever-changing world of online

communication. While until recently, computers offered a “read only” experience, the latest internet sites including YouTube and Facebook make the actual sharing of informa-tion possible. These sites’ dem-ocratic approach, with content entirely produced by the public and not the programs’ creators, have radically changed the way we relate to our world. It’s an appealing feature for the PAG, which seeks to engage its users in genuine and open dialogue about the visual arts.

“The Prairie Art Gallery space was initially created for art dis-course,” Steven says. “We are looking to expand that with a content-rich interactive format on a regional and international scale.” Under Steven’s guid-ance, the gallery will amass information and facilitate re-search and interaction with art-ists, allowing visitors to enjoy a wide range of experiences, including the chance to be a gallery curator. Visitors will be invited to locate art

Prairie Art Gallery seeks to engage users in a genuine and open dialogue about the visual arts.

The Montrose Cultural Centre, the new home of the Prairie Art Gallery is in its final phase of construction.

images on computer and proj-ect their personal favourites onto a wall. Steven envisions a virtual library that contains the latest in international and na-tional arts news, along with live web-cameras showing what a regional artist is doing that very day. He sees the ongoing dia-logue between gallery visitor and artist as essential in keep-ing Peace Region art relevant and alive.

In his earnest conviction that Grande Prairie and the Peace area is home to some of this country’s most interesting visu-al artists, Steven is determined to make the PAG “the best little art gallery in the world.”

His multi-faceted plan begins with acknowledging a major obstacle for any gallery: lim-ited storage. The 8,000 square feet that will be added onto the existing PAG heritage build-ing will feature new exhibition space for works on loan, but will only store so much donat-ed or purchased art. What space the new gallery has will have to do for the next 20 years.

Digital space, on the other hand, provides nearly unlimited stor-age at very little cost. Steven’s “best little gallery in the world” plans include creating “Peace Works,” an event he describes as a “tangible juried exhibi-tion” with a famous guest cura-tor whose presence would bring

international exposure to the gallery, while introducing its new patrons to the PAG’s soon-to-be virtual library of regional artists.

“Even the discourse an interna-tional curator creates will drive us to do more on an internation-al level,” Steven says. “We can-not bring our artists to the world if the world isn’t looking.”

His long-range vision involves creating a sustainable endow-ment program that enables the PAG to eliminate fees and fundraisers altogether, and fo-cus primarily on becoming a world-class visual arts informa-tion centre. Steven also dreams of developing a province-wide professional association whose goal is to make Alberta itself the “best place in the world.”

“People want us to do what we do well. Our job is to determine what that is and do it to the very best of our ability.”

The Montrose Cultural Centre will feature the 4,200 square foot Central Hall, an open, warmly decorated public facil-ity that will feature artwork and comfortable meeting spaces for community and private use. The Cultural Centre will be a stunning new addition to Grande Prairie, visible even at night, creating an inviting downtown go-to place for de-cades to come.

Located on Hwy 64, between Fairview and Hines Creek. Phone: 835.8043 or 835.4554.

gagemercantile

Antique FurnitureCollectablesPolish PotteryGift ItemsAmish Pantry ItemsLocal Art

Featuring work by:Erin StelmaschukPaul MartelCharity DakinPaula FiorniEileen Coristineand more

Open May 1st to ChristmasThurs. thru Sun.1:00 - 6:00 p.m.

Opening ReceptionJune 4th, 7:00pm

Grande Prairie Guild of Artists

Expressions of Light

9929 100 Avenue, Grande Prairie, AlbertaT: 780.538.2771 | F: 780.538.2790 | W: www.uniquegallery.ca

Show & Sale

June 4 - 23

Paint

ing

by L

ouan

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art

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m a g a z i n e d e s i g n e r s e x t r a o r d i n a i r e

#103, 9856 97 Avenue, Grande Prairie, AB T8V 7K2P: (780) 532-8111 | F: (780) 539-9522 | E: info@prairiegallery.comJune 8th, 2009 we will be in our new location in the Montrose Cultural Centre 9839 103 Avenue, Grande Prairie, AB T8V 6M7

For a complete list of exhibitions visit www.prairiegallery.com

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:

Northwest Alberta: The Prairie Art Gallery

Northeast and North Central Alberta: Art Gallery of Alberta

Southwest Alberta: The Alberta Society of Artists

Southeast Alberta: Esplanade Arts & Heritage Centre

The Alberta Foundation for the Arts Travelling Exhibition ProgramTREX For the 2008/2009 Travelling Season the

Prairie Art Gallery presents four new Exhibitions:

Anne McKenzie, 2007‘Studio B’ Prairie North Participant from Calgary

Collective Soul: PNCR 2007

Common Threads: Textiles in ArtMelanie Jenner‘Pink and Yellow Petals’, Artist from Grande Prairie

displace/graft/retrace: Catherine HamelCatherine HamelArtist and Professor of Architecture at University of Calgary

Checkerboard and Other PatternsDaniel Campbell from the Prairie Art Gallery Permanent Collection

art of the peace 10

Carving in soapstone, caribou antler and wood, Paul Qayutin-nuaq created detailed depictions of a way of life that he saw

vanish in his short lifetime. Born on the land near Gjoa Haven, Nunavut, Paul was mentored by significant master carvers in the area. At nine years of age Paul sold his first carving. By his early twenties he was receiving wide recognition for his unique style and was represented by a gallery in New York.

Trips out to hunt with his father provided Paul with his inspiration for his carvings. Paul carved hunting scenes and was meticulous in his reproduction of the detailed snow-knives, spears, knives and lures. His early life was a combination of time spent using these tools on the ice and time spent trying to preserve this way of life in his art. Although hunting traditions that evolved over thousands of years disappeared during Paul’s lifetime, they still live on in what Paul described as his Stories In Stone.

While in his twenties Paul and his wife Sue moved to Yellowknife where he became a journeyman painter and decorator. A job in-terview first brought Paul to Fairview. Although he didn’t get the job, Paul liked the Fairview area and the nearer access it gave him to the B.C. stone that he liked to work in. Paul and Sue moved to Fairview where he spent the next 25 years painting houses, carving and helping Sue raise their four daughters, Shelly, Kim, Melanie and Lindsay.

As well as creating his elegant animal forms and exquisitely de-tailed hunting tools, Paul also loved to teach. “He liked to be with people and demonstrate and answer their questions,” explains his wife Sue. “He also taught all of our girls and they’re all talented.”

When Grant Berg, a longtime admirer of his work divulged to Paul that he himself had begun to carve, he was immedi-ately taken into

Paul’s carving shed and shown around. “That visit taught me more than I would have learned in years of chopping away on my patio,” Grant says.

After years of carving for galleries and on commission, in 1999 Paul began participating in the Great Northern Arts Festival in Inuvik each year. There he taught soapstone carving and found the most appreciative audience for his artworks ever. The Great Northern Arts Festival is attended by collectors from around the world. Paul found that actually meeting the buyers, and answer-ing their questions was much more gratifying than never knowing those who purchased from a gallery. After his first year, Paul began carving almost exclusively for that event, and every year he sold out there.

During the last five years of his life, Paul endured a battle with cancer that often left him with too little energy to work on his art. While in what was believed to be a remission, Paul resumed carv-ing at a very productive pace. Unfortunately, the cancer was still present and Paul died in September 2008. “Although Paul lost his voice, and then his life to cancer, he continues to tell his ‘stories in stone”, says his friend Grant Berg. “The wonderful thing with stone is that these stories will be told for hundreds, and maybe even thousands of years.”

by Eileen Coristine

Paul Qayutinnuaq, 1957-2008Farewell to the author of Stories In Stone

Paul Qayutinnuaq, Seal Hunter

Paul Qayutinnuaq at work

art of the peace 11

Grant Berg

Prairie people are sky watchers. The concept of “landscape” here necessarily includes a vast and animated sky; a sky that’s

a force to be reckoned with. In the work of Grande Prairie sculptor Grant Berg, this sky is a recurring motif.

His soapstone piece, There’s a Storm Movin’ In, depicts a big prai-rie thunderstorm rolling across the plains; the kind you know is going to hit you like the wrath of God. The sculpture curls in successive waves coalescing around a central void. Laced with marble-like veining, the stone itself gave Berg “lightning ripping across the storm front.”

In another work, Berg uses a pale green, translucent stone to depict rippling waves of northern lights. In a third, he has sculpted not a sky, but a bird; a phoenix. Berg struggled with this piece because it didn’t seem light enough to fly until he removed large amounts of stone from the wings, abstracting the bird to create a visual balance between strength and lightness.

Berg uses stone – dense, inert and earthbound – to represent air and flight. He feels compelled to, in his words, “carve the intangibles.”

Leslie Bjur

Grande Prairie artist Leslie Bjur talks to me about her recent soapstone sculpture, The Argument. It is solid stone rendered

organic and fluid; its sinuous curves seem almost animate. Mul-tiple tendrils strain in different directions, all trumpet-mouths and taut nerves. It reminds me of Yeats’ line, “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold” – except that this is the moment just before disintegration, while the centre is still intact. While there is still hope for resolution. While dissolution is not yet inevitable. Bjur points out that there is a narrow part of the sculpture, so narrow that the stone comes close to breaking. It sticks out; has sharp edges. This piece is like the last verbal barb you aim as you are leaving the room.

Created at a time when a close friend was at odds with her partner and living with Bjur, The Argument expresses some of the intensity of that moment. That energy finds its way into the work. Bjur con-tends: “I don’t do pretty work. I do work that is organic,” growing naturally from life as it is lived.

“Living in this moment,” she says, “means making this piece right now.”

Three Soapstone ArtistsTapping into universal narratives

by Wendy Stefansson

Grant Berg, Northern Lights, Soapstone Carving. Photo by Cheryl McCartney.

Leslie Bjur, The Argument, Soapstone Carving

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Rénald Lavoie

Inside Rénald Lavoie’s workshop at his farm outside of St. Isi-dore, he casually lifts a cloth off of a seemingly nondescript

mass. What emerges surprisingly from beneath is La voix de la mère (The Voice of the Mother), a 28” tall sculpture he has carved in Brazilian soapstone. All roundness and encircling, the piece depicts a raven arcing upward along the spine of a mother engaged in an intimate conversation with the child in her lap. The figures seem to form a complete universe unto themselves; whole and self-contained.

This kind of uncomplicated humanity comes through in all of Lavoie’s work. Choosing the human form for its expressive possi-bilities, Lavoie is able to tap into universal narratives – beginnings and endings; intimacy, possibility, regret, grief and loss. One fig-ure stands erect, her head cast down, her arm drawn protectively across her chest to her mouth. Another drops to the ground on all fours, sway-backed and stricken. Perhaps most poignantly, on a gravestone Lavoie carved for his brother, a figure in the fetal posi-tion emerges from – or returns to – the rough, uncarved mass of the stone.

Lavoie says simply: “We’re all part of this same rocky world.”

Rénald Lavoie, La voix de la mere, Soapstone Carving

The Prairie Art Gallery is pleased to announce its grand re-opening in the new Montrose Cultural Centre.

Coming Soon:Bibi Clement: Vigil of AngelsYasuo Terada: East Wind Blows WestHAN: Voices from the EarthIskoteo Arts Festival: Iskoteo Public Galleries Conference

Funded by:

Visit: www.prairiegallery.com

art of the peace 13

Sculptors are pioneering a new and spectacular art form that

is literally reshaping our world. Carving styrofoam has been done since the material was invented. In the hand of hobby artists, sty-rofoam has been used to create contoured bases and mountains for dioramas, model railroad scenery, puppet stages, Hallow-een props and Christmas decora-tions. In the hands of artists, this material is finding acceptance as a valid way of producing larger public art works. With a basic knowledge of tools, proper stu-dio practices, and an exercise of imagination, artists can carve out an exciting profession. The process of traditional carv-ing takes patience, care and time. Sculptors respect the influence of natural materials, be they stone, wood or metal. Consequently, when a buyer wishes to commis-sion a specific work, many artists are hesitant, not knowing if they can find the raw materials to suit the image requested. They are of-ten asked to create larger works but the scale, weight, and time make life-size and over-sized projects cost prohibitive for art-ists and patrons. Styrofoam is lightweight and easy to carve. Several sheets can be glued together to create mas-sive works; sculptures carved from styrofoam can be painted with special effects and faux finishes. Special hardeners can coat the surface for works to be displayed in public spaces and outdoors.

Using a heated wire tool solves the messy problem of cutting sty-

rofoam. Just turn on the power to cut and make forms without the dust and mess produced by a saw, rasp or knife. The hot wire slices through styrene foam like a hot knife through butter. Safe studio practices should be observed when using materials for sculpting. Anything that can be carved or sanded creates fine dust that, once airborne, can get into the lungs. A dust mask is re-quired when working with stone, wood, and plaster. Styrofoam and all other extruded polystyrene sheets give off fumes when heat-ed by hot-wire cutting or vigor-ous sanding (even by hand) and also by application of hot glue. The fumes, hydrogen halides, cause eye and nose irritation and can be smelly. Styrofoam should be worked on in a ventilated en-vironment and the artist should wear a graded fume-mask with a filter capable of removing the ap-propriate fumes and preventing their inhalation. The demand for foam sculpture is as varied as the artists who cre-ate them. Sculptors can make fine art replicas, statues, and museum exhibits. Mural artists could transform any wall space into an eye-catching 3D sculpture. There is steady custom work for architectural shapes and faux landscapes, tradeshow advertis-ing, window displays, billboards and signage as well as props and 3D cartoons for parade floats and festivals. Not only is the work varied and fun, artists can use their talents to make a living as well as fine art.

artcetera: Tips for Artists

by Kim Fjordbotten

Artists Carve Out New Opportunities

Picture Perfect Unique Gallery Cultural Centre Grande Prairie Grande Prairie Beaverlodge

780-354-2165Peace Country themes and wilderness vistas

PWS

Bush Cabin in Winter 5 x 7”Original Oil, 2008

Robert Guest

Douglas Udell Galleries:EDMONTONCALGARY

VANCOUVER

art of the peace 14

10516 Whyte Ave.Edmonton, Alberta

Toll Free 1 800 363 0546www.paintspot.ca

your creativitywe have beautiful art materials to inspire

From Palette to Gallery,

Brought to you by The McNaught Homestead Preservation Society and the Peace Watercolor Society

PHOTOGRAPHING THE PEACE Instructor: Don PettitDates: June 6th and 7th

Cost: $130WATERMEDIA PAINTING

Indoors and OutInstructor: Sharon Lynn WilliamsDates: June 12th, 13th, and 14th

Cost: $250

For more information and to register call 780-354-3600 or email bacs@telus.net

For more information and to register call 780-354-3600 or email bacs@telus.net

Following Betty’s TrailFollowing Betty’s Trail

For Information on the McNaught Homestead Preservation Society see www.mcnaughthomestead.org-a.googlepages.com

Spring Workshops & Retreat at the McNaught Homestead 4 miles southwest of Beaverlodge on Hwy.722

Shar

on

Lyn

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illia

m, C

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al C

olo

ur Edna McPhail

by Ellen Corea

Visionary never lost enthusiasm for art

On October 20th, 2008, Dawson Creek lost a driving force in its arts community. Edna McPhail was a dynamo; she never

sat around waiting for someone else to provide what she saw lack-ing in her community.

In 1982, Edna was the first to envision creating an art gallery from a discarded prairie grain elevator. She started the “Save the Eleva-tor Project” and, with her group of dedicated volunteers, brought to life an idea that has given Dawson Creek an international repu-tation and provided one of the icons for which the city is famous.

Edna volunteered tirelessly in the arts, forming the first Arts Coun-cil in the early 1980s, and bringing much need provincial fund-ing into the region for local groups and organizations. Edna’s art classes inspired countless artists of all ages to explore painting and to find pleasure in the act of creating beautiful things.

Edna was experimental, embracing all types of creativity. Her work reflected and transcended the passage of time. She was an innovator and with the help of her paint brush, a story teller. Her work reflected the splendor that she saw all around her in the land-scape and the people of the Peace.

On a personal level, for many of us, Edna was a mentor and coun-selor. She was the person that we wanted to “be when we grew up.” Edna was flamboyant; her ideas were new, fresh and vision-ary. Edna’s friendship transcended the generations and she never lost her enthusiasm for life or for art.

Edna McPhail was featured in the Fall & Winter 2005 issue of Art of the Peace

art of the peace 15

Bibi Clement:

by Eileen Coristine

Vigil of Angelsart of the peace 16

After a lifetime of experience and three years of building, Hythe potter Bibi

Clement is preparing to share her angels with the world. Each is a vessel contain-ing the memories of good times and bad times. Some of the angels are white, some are black, some have 18 carat gold wraps around their heads; every one represents someone, someone who has taught Bibi a lesson.

Vigil of Angels, will be the first show held in the new Prairie Art Gallery’s Contempo-rary Gallery at the Montrose Cultural Cen-tre. “This exhibit would have taken place in 2007, had the gallery not collapsed shortly before its scheduled opening.” says Robert Steven Director-Curator of the Prairie Art Gallery. “ The Gallery has always believed strongly in this project, and intends to pres-ent it at this, its earliest opportunity. We feel proud to feature a Peace Country art-ist at this time, and want to set a tone for frequent exhibitions of Peace Country art to come.”

This inaugural show invites visitors to walk among more than 100 angels and wonder, “who are you?” Although not portraits, each of the angels represents a real person, maybe it’s someone you know, or maybe it’s you.

“Each one represents a very special person in my life,” Bibi explains. “The angels are a tribute to the kindness given to me. But, there are dark angels, too, representing dark moments and experiences in my life. There are people who make our lives more dif-ficult, but there is always a lesson. Maybe it is that we are not going to be like them. Maybe it is that we learn to understand an-other person’s pain. If you haven’t had dif-ficulty then you can’t have compassion.”

“Our journey is so delicate,” says the artist. “These vessels are very delicate, yet have strength.”

Bibi’s angelic representations range from life size to 20 centimetres. Either they stand, kneel or float. Symbolic wings wrap them each in a cloak, which Bibi describes as a “cloak of comfort.” Her earlier careers in fashion, dance and theatre inspired the draping clothing they wear and the expres-sive movement of each piece. Through the clay and the firing methods that she has been developing over the past twelve years, each piece manifests as an individual.

These scupltural angels have no faces. Bibi likens them to characters in the classical Japanese Noh theatre. In Noh the charac-ters wear masks and as Bibi explains, “the mask is the same in every pose, just the movement of a hand or a shoulder gives the emotional expression.” Although the an-gels in her Vigil of Angels won’t be named (they are, after all her angels, not ours) at least one has already been recognized.

Bibi’s process begins with the idea of the person she wants to recreate, and moves through her experiences with them. Some of the pieces begin on the wheel, some are built out of clay slabs and others are me-chanically extruded and altered. Then the robes and heads are added.

Once the building is complete, the angel is fired in either the wood-firing kiln, the salt firing kiln or the downdraught kiln. “The porcelain angels will be fired in the salt kiln, because they are so light,” she explains.

Bibi’s wood-firing kiln, Bishogama, was built by Bibi’s friend and mentor, Yasuo Terada. Yasuo brought a crew of seven people with him from Japan, built the unique wood firing kiln and named it. “The B stands for his father Bizan, sho means flying ash and flames through the kiln,” Bibi explains, “and gama means kiln.”

The Prairie Art Gallery re-opens with a celebration of Bibi Clement’s delicate journey.

A selection of angels from the Vigil of Angels Exhibition. Photos by Ross Bradley.

art of the peace 17

Firing the Bishogama requires a crew of six people who will commit to a six day and six night firing regime. Carefully loading the kiln, which requires up to 1000 pieces to fill, can take three days. Once the kiln is lit, Bibi says you must “let the kiln speak, it will dictate what to do.” One firing can require thirteen cords of wood. Vagaries of weather can have a significant effect on the outcome of a firing.

All of this requires very hard work com-pared to flipping a switch on an electric kiln and waiting a day or so for it to fire and cool down. The wood has to be cut, hauled and chopped. The fire has to be minded in long shifts and built up according to the kiln and the weather. A firing demands a lot of the peo-ple, but there is a centuries long tradition that has taught Bibi patience and awe.

Risk is also an element in the wood fir-ing practices that Bibi im-plements. “ I want the fire to do all sorts of things; it adds another dimen-sion. Canadian clay only goes up to Cone 10 (1280 degrees C.) but I fire up to 1300. It doesn’t sound like much of a difference,” she explains, “but beyond that things quite often slump.” Con-sequently some pieces are broken, bent or ruined during the firing.

“Compared to the Japanese,” she explains, “we are young to understand the work that goes into wood-firing so we don’t have the appreciation. The wind can shift and knock the temperature of the kiln down. This can

be frustrating with so much at stake. But when you open the kiln there is so much beauty looking at you.”

Those angels that are ruined in the kiln are replaced. Every person will have their an-gel, even if it doesn’t work the first time. This isn’t to imply that all of the angels are pristine. Some angels have flaws and some have cracks that Bibi has repaired with 18 carat gold. Such extreme firing can also re-sult in angels that come out of the kiln look-ing even more like the person who inspired them due to surprising changes in the glaze or the colours of the robes.

Most of the pieces for the June installation are ready, but some are still waiting for their

turn in the kiln. To this firing, Bibi will add the dozens of small-er angels she’s been creating to accompany special editions of her upcom-ing book. The book, which is being written by her daughter Dymphny Dro-nyk, will be a retrospective on Bibi’s 35 years as a potter.

Later this spring the crew will be assembled and the ardu-ous but exciting kiln vigil will take place. Her subjects have

evoked Bibi’s memories and their lessons have been poured into these angelic vessels. Now they and their creator have only to lis-ten to and obey the dictates of the kiln.

“These pieces encompass my life; all of these people have influenced me. After a life time of wonderful things,” she says, “the moment is now.”

Bibi Clement. Photo by Marijke Dronyk

A selection of angels from the Vigil of Angels Exhibition. Photos by Ross Bradley.

art of the peace 18

Yasuo Terada is in essence the complete potter. His involvement in each of his vessels or sculptures starts with digging clay near

his home in Seto, Japan, and ends with firing it in a kiln built by his own hands. Whatever the results, he couldn’t be more invested in what he has created.

Since he met Bibi Clement in Japan eleven years ago, Yasuo has been visiting her studio and home near Hythe almost yearly. In June, he will be sharing the spotlight with her at the newly reopened Prairie Art Gallery’s first show. Their dual show Vigil of Angels and East Wind Blows West, will celebrate their friendship and growth together as artists.

Yasuo specializes in building large outdoor wood-firing kilns. These kilns, called anagama, have been used for centuries in Japan. Pottery fired in these kilns is usually unglazed. The ash resulting from the fir-ing process creates unique glazes, colours and surface textures. Over the years Yasuo has built 50 of these kilns in Japan and another 10 throughout the world, one of which is Bibi’s Bishogama.

This spring Yasuo will visit Hythe twice. In March he will bring some of the work he’s been creating at his home studio and to participate in a gold firing with Bibi. Then in June, he will return for the opening of their show, bringing with him a group of students, his tea master group and his family.

According to Bibi, we can expect Yasuo’s show to include some ex-ceptional works. “The Japanese have a very traditional outlook,” she says, “but he says ‘clay is clay and anything should be possible’.”

From a family legacy that goes back 150 years and an ancient culture with its origins in pottery, Yasuo Terada is Japanese pottery’s destiny manifest.

East WindBlows West

Traditional work in a contemporary style

Yasuo and Bibi unloading the wood salt kiln. Photo by Gerry Emas.

A selection of angels from the Vigil of Angels Exhibition. Photos by Ross Bradley.

art of the peace 19

June promises to be a feast for the creative senses of Peace

Country residents.

The Iskoteo Arts Festival, in conjunction with the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Arts Awards Gala, will provide six days of arts and cultural activities for the entire family.

Alderman Helen Rice chairs the organizing committee. The orga-nizing committee has represen-tatives from the City of Grande Prairie, Grande Prairie Regional College, The Grande Prairie Pub-lic Library, the Prairie Art Gal-

lery, Wordspinner, the Grande Prairie Friendship Centre, The Art of the Peace Society and the community at large.

“We want to make this celebra-tion something to remember and to leave a legacy,” she says. “Grande Prairie was chosen to host the Arts Awards because of its demonstrated commitment to the cultural community and our ability to host major provin-cial, national and international events.”

Iskoteo, a Cree word meaning fire in the sky, was the cultural component of the 1995 Canada Winter Games, making it natu-ral to reintroduce it as a festival built around the awards. The date enhances the significance of the event, occurring during National Aboriginal Day and the Summer Solistice.

The festival includes music, vi-sual arts and literary activities. Each day focuses on a different sector of the area’s arts and cul-tural communities, highlighting an array of performers and arti-sans.

It starts with Municipal Govern-ment Day at the Montrose Cul-tural Centre on June 16.

Grande Prairie’s Public Library will feature several children and young adult authors and a Pup-pet Play and Story Time.

The Centre for Creative Arts will exhibit forty creatively designed skateboard decks, present a pot-tery demonstration with Potter Bibi Clement and home to vari-ous Wordspinner events; poet and author Sid Marty is deliver-ing a fiction workshop, Angela Kublik, publisher for House of Blue Skies, and David and Rose Scollard of Frontenac House, are offering informational seminars.

The Farmers Market will host a Summer Solstice Super Market on 101 Avenue.

Art of the Peace Society will open a Juried Art Show at GPRC. GPRC is launching an Art Walk

of their permanent collection and an exhibit from the Grande Prai-rie Friendship Centre, as well as hosting “Songs of Solstice” at the Douglas Cardinal Perform-ing Arts Theatre.

The Prairie Art Gallery is host-ing the Provincial Curators Con-ference and an exhibit from Bib Clement’s Vigil of Angels and East Wind Blows West by Yasuo Terada.

The focal point of the week is the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Arts Awards Gala. The Honor-able Norman L. Kwong, C.M., A.O.E., Lieutenant Governor of Alberta will present the awards.

“The gala will be a spectacu-lar event, celebrating the sum-mer solstice with a fire and ice-themed dinner,” says Gala Chair Janet Longmate. “We are honoured to welcome artists and guests from across the province to this prestigious celebration.”

Two Distinguished Artists will receive $30,000 each, a hand-cast medallion, pin and framed citation. Recipients are Alber-tans who have made a signifi-cant contribution to the arts in Alberta.

The weekend concludes with the Aboriginal Day activities on Sunday at Muskoseepi Park.

Visit www.iskoteo.com for more information.

IskoteoA Six Day Celebration of Arts and Culture

by David Olinger

“We want to make this celebration something to remember...”

Alderman Helen Rice

art of the peace 20

of the Peace

Juried Art Show

Opening Reception & Awards AnnouncementJune 16th, 7:00pm - Everyone Welcome

Vi r tua l Show on ar tof thepeace.ca launching June 17 th, 2009

June 16-21, 2009Glass Gal leryMain F loor, Grande Prair ie Regional Col lege

ARTS FESTIVALi s k o t e o

Funded by

Carol Adrian-ClarkEd Ashton

Kim DettlingPauline Freed

Dianne GabouryBarb Greentree

Wanda HollingworthRay Laurin

Gordon Mackey

ARTISTS

ANN

ORTH

Megan MackeyAnne PatrickIrene Pearcy

Emily SchudloMarty SherburneLinda ThetraultTannis Trydal

Donna Thorpe-Andersen

Phone 780-568-3334

Annual Show & Sale November 14

Jim StokesWallace Galleries - CalgaryScott Gallery - Edmonton

secret@telus.net (250) 262-1445www.judiroberts.artspan.com

Northern Arts Studio & Gallery 8038 - 100 Street South, Fort St. John, BC

www.northernartsmagazine.com

Artist

Judi RobertsJudi Roberts

secret@telus.net (250) 262-1445www.judiroberts.artspan.com

art of the peace 21

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Call studio 2120 at (250) 784-75471-866-463-6652Student Services (250) 782-5251www.nlc.bc.ca Dawson Creek, British Columbia, Canada

VISUAL & GRAPHICCOMMUNICATION ARTSNORTHERN LIGHTS COLLEGE

During January 2009, The Prairie Art Gallery pre-

sented an exhibition of works by artists from across Canada, and abroad, in Grande Prairie’s streets. Was it successful? Was it worth the cost and the effort? Why did we do it? What does it all mean?

If you didn’t see the exhibition, Here Now or Nowhere, you can get a sense of it by visit-ing www.herenowornowhere.com. There, you’ll see that the projects included a variety of videos shown in shop windows and at the Gaiety Theatre, a number of drawings that were published in the Daily Herald Tribune, an interactive instal-lation that connected the audi-ence with volunteers through an artist-made telephone, a comic book that was distributed freely throughout the downtown and for one weekend only, a family home that was transformed into a giant installation of light and rhythm. It also included a day of talks when the guest cura-tor, two prominent journalists and four of the artists shared their comments and their roles in the exhibition to a capacity crowd in a vacant downtown storefront.

Our mission in building and sharing this exhibition was to provide a special experience for many diverse participants. All experienced something that they had rarely, if ever, seen in Grande Prairie.

But what did it mean? And why did we do it? We did it because we believe that art is a special kind of food for the human spirit, and that our community should not be starved of any forms of art. Our community deserves the full experience that the world of art has to of-fer. Without that experience, we are left at a disadvantage, not in our knowledge of art (for no one can truly and thorough-ly know art), but rather in our knowledge of ourselves and in our humanity.

We brought this show to the streets so that the people who saw it there would be empow-ered to respond to it however they might. This is how we serve the community; we offer this little bit of emotional pow-er, this little bit of intellectual freedom, to everyone we meet.

siteBYTESHere Now or Nowhere

by Robert Steven

Deb Davidovits at Urban Home

art of the peace 22

Throwing a pot is a profoundly political act. Not in the sense

of partisan politics, of course; more in the sense of committing a small, personal act of resistance. To be a potter in an age of quickly and cheaply mass-produced ceramic goods is to keep alive the skills to make useful and necessary ob-jects. It’s to resist the passive con-sumerism of a world shaped by Walmarts and ebays. It’s to understand the true value of labour and production.

This is just one of the recurring themes in Utopic Impulses: Con-temporary Ceramics Practice. Structured as a selection of articles by diverse artists (or ‘makers’, as they describe themselves) and writers, it delves into multiple topics from multiple points of view. Photos and descriptions of selected ceramic projects – largely but not exclusively from western Canada – accompany the discus-sion.

The book Craft Perception and Practice: A Canadian Discourse, Volume III is similar in format and covers much of the same ter-ritory, but casts a wider net. Not limited to ceramic artists, this volume also includes knitters, weavers, glassmakers, metal smiths, jewellers and woodworkers. It even includes artists not usually discussed in terms of craft; notably Fort St. John’s own Brian Jun-gen. It expands upon the theme of political activism or resistance through craft, but also delves into discussions of craft and its rela-tion to the body, its relation to language and to time, its materiality and its conceptuality.

Both books (to borrow a phrase from newly-minted American President Barack Obama) propose “the audacity of hope” through small acts of craft.

Art Books in Review

Utopic Impulses: Contemporary Ceramics PracticeEdited by Ruth Chambers, Amy Gogarty and Mireille Perron

Craft Perception and Practice: A Canadian Discourse, Volume IIIEdited by Paula Gustafson, Nïsse Gustafson and Amy Gogarty

by Wendy Stefansson

Watch for Spring Exhibits featuring Kristine McGuinty, Carmen Haakstad and Heather McNair

www.fairviewfinearts.com

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

Gift Shop

Spring Courses• oil painting • stained glass • pottery • acrylic painting • watercolour • mosaic • jewellery • kid’s art

Gift Shop

Spring Courses

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OUTDOOR IMAGESOUTDOOR IMAGES

#104, 10814 - 100 St, Grande Prairie, AB T8V 2M8

Phone: (780) 532-3701Fax: (780) 532-7301

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WE’RE MOVING... to the Montrose Cultural Centre

in June 2009 Located on 98 Street at 103 Avenue

the destination for discovery, enrichment, inspiration

and education

For more information on our moving dates, please watch our website at www.gppl.ab.ca

or call (780) 532-3580

9910 - 99 Avenue, Grande Prairie, AB T8V 0R5

9918A 100 AvenueP: (780) 513-1933 F: (780) 513-1949

Pottery | Glass | Jewellery | Hats Home Decor | Handpainted Silk

art of the peace 23

Two young men and their mother paddle silently across a moonlit pond in a canoe. It’s a performance and an image with echoes throughout human

history – the family, the boat, the journey. Displacement, travel, migration; ges-tation, birth, death, transcendence – a whole life journey is summed up in it.

The mother, in this case, is painter and mixed-media sculptor Emilie Mattson; and the canoe is an artwork completed in collaboration with her two sons, Dean and Karl, each an artist in his own right. Made from willow branches stretched with cow placentas and coated with fibreglass, it is called simply The Craft.

Emilie MattsonIt is the use of cow placentas as a medium which marks Emilie Mattson’s dis-tinctive contribution to The Craft. Having farmed in the Peace Country for 41 years, she has been observing placentas for a long time, drawn to them by their inherent colours and transparency. They have become for her an art me-dium which by its very nature speaks of the feminine, of motherhood. Emilie has used placentas sandwiched between soldered panes of glass to construct a larger-than-life sculpture of a chalice, a sacred vessel. In another work, she has stretched placentas across a frame of branches to create a kite wielded by a female figure made of clay, the ‘kite string’ an umbilical cord.

Emilie feels that, “using the materials that are right in front of [her]” gives her art authenticity. Drawn directly from the life she lives, her materials have a resonance that just can’t be bought in an art supplies store.

Dean Mattson Dean Mattson is a poet, singer and song-writer. He is also a painter and, inter-estingly, something of a closet cartoonist.

Dean’s paintings are characterized by simplified forms, vibrant colours and bold, black outlines. Each canvas tells a story, often featuring a recurring char-acter – Crooked Man, who is bearded, and frequently depicted in a boat – much in the manner of cartoons. But don’t be lulled into an expectation of childlike innocence. Dean’s paintings regularly depict guns, razor wire, Viking ships, scythes and dripping daggers. In the painting Covet, there are several figures engaged in gaping, silent screams reminiscent of the famous painting by Edvard Munch. Comic books – and even more so, the video games which are their interactive equivalents – have long been violent in content. Perhaps this candid violence is one of the largely unacknowledged truths of childhood.

I ask Dean if the Crooked Man character is autobiographical, and he waffles. Clearly the journey the character is making is a dark one.

Three Artists from Rolla, BCDivergent Journeys

by Wendy Stefansson

Top: Emilie Mattson, Hangin On; bottom: Dean Mattson, Covet.

art of the peace 24

THE CENTRE FORCREATIVE ARTS

Check us out online for more informationwww.creativecentre.ca

(780) 814-6080

• Monthly Gallery Exhibitions• Store featuring local artists• Classes for all ages and skill levels

Exhibition Opportunities Available by contacting Carrie at 780-538-7583

Original Works by Local Artists

CourtyardGALLERYCourtyardGALLERY

Marilyn Gourlay

Lower Level, QEII Hospital10409 98 Street, Grande Prairie, AB

• By Donation• Artists Run Centre• Year Round• Gift Shop

• 13 Exhibits Per Year• Art Rental• Education Programs

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

101 - 816 Alaska AvenueDawson Creek, BC V1G 4T6

June - August9:00am - 5:00pm, Daily

September - May10:00am - 5:00pm,Tuesday - Friday

12:00 - 4:00pm, Saturday

WESTSIDE #101, 10635 Westside Drive

IVY LAKE #701, 10003 - 92 Street

MONTROSE Montrose Cultural Centre

FORT ST. JOHN - #5, 10011 - 96 Street, FSJ Medical Centre

3 convenient locations in Grande Prairie

Karl Mattson, Dark sky - reflection - from Keeping the Peace

Karl MattsonKarl Mattson and his wife Inge-Jean made an epic canoe trip from their family farm in Rolla to the Arctic Ocean in 2005. The expedition was a turning point for Karl’s art career.

Already an established painter and sculptor, Karl packed a video camera on the trip north and discovered a love for filmmaking. His first film, Sweetwater to Saltwater, recounted the journey itself. This led to an impassioned documentary, Keeping the Peace, about in-dustrial threats to the Mackenzie River water-shed including both the proposed Site C dam near Fort St. John and the tar sands operations in Fort McMurray. More recently, Karl’s in-terest in visual storytelling and concern for social justice have led him to southern India where he began work on a documentary on the “migration of HIV/AIDS” among child sex workers.

Karl says, “The constant battle of life is the subject of [his] art.” Perhaps video is the medium best suited to this subject, unfolding over a period of time like a journey.

art of the peace 25

a gallery of ARTISTSShowcasing a selection of Peace Region art www.artofthepeace.ca

(780) 864-3608 www.telusplanet.net/

~jchbrown/

Three Generation Watercolour Artists

Evelyn E. Harris

Judith A. Brown

Carolyn Brown

Grandmother

Mother

Granddaughter

Carol Adrian-Clarkrealistic renderings of nature in coloured pencil and oil painting

Ph: 780-532-0846 | acdesign@telus.net(780) 539-4483 | www.carmensimages.com

Carmen Haakstad

(780) 876-5432 9807-97 Avenue,

Grande Prairiedrsales@telusplanet.net

Dale R. Sales

Painting from life experiences,

landscapes, portraits, horses

and western themes

Signature Member, Artists for Conservation

Portraying wildlife in a way that people can appreciate

the beauty of nature...

Available at Unique Gallery

(780) 567-3114 www.natureartists.com/

emily_lozeron.asp

Emily Lozeron

(780) 568-4124 www.suzannesandboe.com

ASA, PWS

Suzanne Sandboe

art of the peace 26

(780) 814-7430 | www.meanderworksofArt.com

Photographic and Digital Art

Klaus and Rika Peters

“Unique rural art from the Peace Region” available at the Beaverlodge Cultural Centre

(780) 354-3712svhotte@telusplanet.net | www.vickihotte.com

Vicki Hotte

(780) 494-3410 | ecoristine@hotmail.com

Eileen CoristineEileen Coristine

(780) 532-0355 | mataylor@telusplanet.net 9506 77 Avenue, Grande Prairie, AB

Marj Taylor

(780) 624-8522 | wstef@telus.net

Visual Artist

Wendy StefanssonWendy Stefansson

(780) 532-7562 | mshilka@telusplanet.net | Grande Prairie

Intuitive Painting in Acrylic, Watercolor, Mixed Media

Marian Jacoba Shilka

(780) 539-4046

Exhibits with the Grande Prairie Guild of Artists and the Peace Watercolor SocietyWatercolor Artist PWS/CSPWC

Dale Syrota

(780) 568-4400 | www.grantcberg.blogspot.com

Grant BergStone Carver

art of the peace 27

BEAVERLODGE, ALBERTA• Beaverlodge Cultural Centre

Exhibits & EventsAll shows & sales open at 2 pm at the Centre.

Angie Patterson Show & SaleApril 26th – May 28th

Beaverlodge Regional High School Art Students ExhibitionMay 31st – June 11th

Beaverlodge 100th Anniversary ExhibitionJune 14th – June 25th

Tammy McGee Show & SaleJune 28th – July 23rd

Bibi Clement Show & SaleJuly 26th – August 27th

Erin Brown & Greg Schmidt Show & SaleAugust 30th – September 24th

Peace Watercolour Society Show & SaleSeptember 27th – October 29th

Jan Olson & Wendy Olson-Lepchuk Show & SaleNovember 1st – November 26th

ProgramsOngoing programs in pottery, stained glass, batik, weaving, acrylic, oil and watercolour painting. Call 780-354-3600 for dates and details.

OpportunitiesGallery exhibition and gift shop sales opportunities are available. Call 780-354-3600 for further information.

• McNaught Homestead

EventsEuphemia McNaught FestivalMcNaught HomesteadJuly 25th – 26th

ProgramsPlein Air Painting & Drawing Weekend Workshop with Sharon Lynn WilliamsMcNaught HomesteadJune 12th – June 14th

Photography Workshop with Don PettitJune 6th – 7th

OpportunitiesSchoolhouse Studio is available as a retreat, event, classroom or gallery venue. For more information call 780-512-6316.

DAWSON CREEK, B.C.• Dawson Creek Art Gallery

Exhibits & EventsMixed MediaVisual Arts Students from School District #59 April 20th – May 9th

M-KArtists of the Muskwa Ketchika May 12th – June 7th

Earth, Sea and SkyLori Shea, Tracy Wandling, Laurie EmbreeAugust 11th – September 12th

Kindred Spirits - Minds Alike - Wood-firing FriendsBibi Clemt, Greg Crowe, and Tasuc TeradaSeptember 14th – October 2nd

Converging ConversationsSpencer Goldade & FriendsOctober 3rd – November 8th

ProgramsJewellery Making May 11th – June 8th, 1 - 3 pm or May 7th – June 4th, 7 – 9 pm(Beginner - $170)April 6th – May 4th, 1 – 3 pmApril 2nd – 30th, 7 – 9 pm(Advanced - $150)

Open Studio - Life DrawingStarts May 31st, 7 – 9 pm$10 drop inFor info and registration contact the Gallery at 250-782-2601

Opportunities Opportunities for exhibition in the gal-lery are available. Guidelines for exhi-bitions can be viewed at www.dcartgal-lery.ca.

FAIRVIEW, ALBERTA• Fairview Fine Arts Centre

Exhibits & EventsFunction from Dysfunction Heather McNair Pottery Show & SaleApril 3rd – May 2nd

Domino IIICarmen Haakstad & Jim StokesMay 8th – 30th

Banner Project for Grade Three StudentsMay 8th – 30th

Creations, Inc.Artists at School gallery displayJune 6th – 20th

FAC Members’ Show & SaleJune 26th – July 25th

Melanie Hellum & Christen Cook August 1st – 29th

Annual Ag Society Quilt and Fibre ShowSept. 4th – 26th

Kerry-Ann Schatz Show & SaleOctober 2nd – 31st

Erin Stelmaschuk & Paula Fiorini Show & SaleNovember 6th – 26th

ProgramsThe Centre offers fine art courses on an ongoing basis. For course and mem-bership information, phone the Centre at 780-835-2697 or send an email to finearts@telus.net.

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C.• Fort St. John Community Arts Council

Exhibits & EventsRegional Juried Art ExhibitionApril 5th – May 2Peace Gallery North

Spirit Dreamers Garry Oker Peace Gallery NorthOpening: April 3rd, 7 pmRuns through May 5th.

GRANDE CACHE, ALBERTA• Grande Cache Tourism & Interpretive Centre

Exhibits & EventsExhibiting the Palette Pals Art Club, lo-cal art, year round. Check out www.grandecache.ca for an up-to-date sched-ule of exhibitions and events.

GRANDE PRAIRIE, ALBERTA• Centre for Creative Arts

Exhibits & EventsArt BoardJune 16th – 21st

Programs Pottery WorkshopBibi ClementJune 18th

The Centre has classes for everyone! Check out our website, www.creative-centre.ca, to find out more.

Opportunities Are you artistic or crafty? Are you look-ing for an outlet to share your craft? We are currently looking for instructors to teach a variety of classes. Interested parties can contact the centre.

• Grande Prairie Museum

Exhibits & EventsWhen the Sun Goes DownUntil December 2009Rodacker/Campbell Gallery

100th Anniversary of the United Farmers of AlbertaApril 6th – June 30thHeritage Discovery Centre/ Kin Gal-lery

ProgramsTours and school programming avail-able by phoning 780-532-5482 for further information.

• Grande Prairie Regional College Exhibits & EventsArt of the Peace Juried Art ShowJune 16th – 21stOpening: June 16th, 7 pmGlass Gallery

Art WalkJune 16th – 21stLaunch: June 16th, 7 pmGlass Gallery

Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Arts Awards GalaJune 20th, 5 pmAdvanced Tickets available: 780-830-4729 or artsawards@cityofgp.com.

Glass GalleryRotating exhibits on an ongoing basis throughout the year.

ProgramsPrairie North Creative ResidencyJune 16th – 21st

exhibitions &opportunities

Refer to the Galley Directory for locations, contact information and hours.

art of the peace 28

The Fine Arts Department Classes include Diploma, University Transfer programs and courses in Mu-sic, Art and Drama. Programs may also fulfill Fine Arts option requirements with FAD credit courses. Non-credit Visual Arts courses include drawing, painting, digital arts and photography.

• Montrose Cultural Centre

EventsGrande Opening of the Montrose Cultural CentreJune 19th, 7 pmAdvanced Tickets

• Picture Perfect

OpportunitiesThe Robert Guest Gallery at Picture Perfect is available for exhibitions - call Allan at 780-539-4091 for information.

• Prairie Art Gallery

Exhibits & EventsSafe and Sound Ongoing until June 2009 Prairie Art GalleryOver 250 works from the Permanent Collection of the Prairie Art Gallery.

Voices of the EarthHANJune 8th – October 15thThe Prairie Art Gallery in the Montrose Cultural Centre

East Wind Blows WestYasuo TeradaJune 8th – September 15thOpening: June 19th, 6:30 pmThe Prairie Art Gallery in the Montrose Cultural Centre

Vigil of Angels Bibi ClementJune 8th – September 15thOpening: June 19th, 6:30 pmThe Prairie Art Gallery in the Montrose Cultural Centre New Travelling ExhibitionsDisplace/Graft/RetraceSeptember 2008 – August 2009

Checkerboard and Other PatternsOctober 2008 – September 2009

Common ThreadsSeptember 2008 – August 2009

Collective Soul: PNCR 2007September 2008 – August 2009

For a complete list of travelling exhibi-tions please check our website at www.prairiegallery.com.

ProgramsArtist Trading Cards Workshops and Trading SessionsLast Friday of every month, 6 - 8 pm

Check www.prairiegallery.com for cur-rent programs for all ages or call 780-532-8111 for information.

OpportunitiesTREXFor information about the Travelling Exhibition Program contact The Prairie Art Gallery 780-532-8111 www.prairiegallery.com

• Queen Elizabeth II Hospital, The Courtyard Gallery

Exhibits & EventsGALLERYMarilyn GourlayMay – June

AFA Travelling ExhibitionJuly – August

Janet EnfieldSeptember – October

Pat NelsonNovember – December

SHOWCASESSarah E. SmithMay – June

Chris JammerJuly – August

Marj Taylor, Susan Williams, Debbie Courvoisier & Andrea JohannsonOctober – November

Opportunities for ArtistsFor information about exhibitions contact Carrie at the QEII Foundation office 780-538-7583. Display cubes (showcases) are also available for col-lections or 3-dimensional art.

• Unique Gallery

Exhibits & EventsNatalie Green April 16th – May 4th

Noboru KuboMay 7th – May 26th

Grande Prairie Guild of ArtistsJune 4th – June 23rd

Laureena BraatzJuly 2nd – July 20th

Angie PattersonSeptember 10th – September 28th

Carrie KlukasOctober 1st – October 17th

Jim Stokes, Whitney Lee Hayes & Lynn LeCorreOctober 29th – November 16th

OpportunitiesOpportunities for exhibitions in the Gallery are available. Call Dan at 780-538-2790.

.....mind-altering..... stay tuned for the works festival 2009 June 19 - July 1More than 900 works of art by 500 artists featured in over 30 exhibits in Downtown Edmonton & Sir Winston Churchill Square.www.theworks.ab.ca

Chalk Art Contest Deadline - June 1, 2009 5 pm.

Volunteer! Download your application at online.

2010 Exhibit Call to Enter Deadline - August 28, 2009

© from left to right, top to bottom: Made in Germany by Precht Wikinge, Made in Germany by Weiland Lounge, David Susuki by Lisa Brawn, and Barry Manilow by Lisa Brawn

art of the peace 29

Blaine

Blaine Askew, Measures

I have been carving treenware for about 20 years. Treenware is an archaic English term; it simply means ‘ware made from trees.’ There are many kinds of treen-

ware, most are utilitarian items such as small boxes and containers, butter molds, maple sugar molds, tools, spatulas, spoons and scoops.

My kitchen treenware begins with a tree and proceeds through the use of hatchets, knives, chisels and files. Carving by hand allows me to expose and make use of hidden characters of the wood such as grain, shape and colour. The qualities of the wood, rather than the force of power tools, dictate what a piece will be like. Although there is usually some pre-planning, each piece takes shape, sometimes surprisingly, often serendipitously as it is carved.

I produce functional art that is intended to be used. The beauty of the piece can be appreciated fully when it is in your hand, stirring, mixing, serving, scooping...

Askew

art of the peace 30

The Prairie Art GalleryTemporary location

#103, 9856 - 97 AvenueGrande Prairie, AB T8V 7K2

The Prairie Art GalleryThe Montrose Cultural Centre

9839 – 103 AvenueGrande Prairie, Alberta T8V 6M7

PH: (780) 532-8111FAX: (780) 539-9522E-MAIL: info@prairiegallery.com

www.PRAIRIEGALLERY.com

www.ISKOTEO.comCelebrate our re-opening during the Iskoteo Arts Festival.

THE PRAIRIE ART GALLERY

We're Moving!

The Prairie Art Gallery and the Grande Prairie Public Library will be moving into the newly built Montrose Cultural Centre in Spring 2009. The Prairie Art Gallery will be closing temporarily to move into the new space. Dates of the move are to be announced. We hope everyone will visit us in our new location at 9839 – 103 Avenue in Grande Prairie, Alberta.

www.makeitgrand.ca

EXHIBITIONS

OPENING RECEPTION Friday, June 19, 2009 at 6:30 pm

Prairie Art Gallery in the Montrose Cultural Centre

The Prairie Art Gallery: Project Gallery Upper Level of the Montrose Cultural Centre

The Prairie Art Gallery: Main Gallery Main Level of the Montrose Cultural Centre

Yasuo Terada: East Wind Blows West June 8 - September 15, 2009

Yasuo Terada sets new boundaries in modern Japanese ceramics with his uninhibited forms, designs and glazes. His work flowing from abstract to naturalistic, represents a fusion of age-old

tradition and contemporary vision. Terada’s interest in raw materials and profound love for Canada’s still unbridled natural environment brings him back annually.

HAN: Voices from the EarthJune 8 - November 1, 2009

Voices from the Earth is a multi-media, moveable public art installation that develops the theme of hope for the world’s threatened environment.

CulturalM O N T R O S E

C E N T R EBibi Clement: Vigil of Angels

June 8 - September 15, 2009

Each “Angel” sculpture in this exhibit has an extraordinary significance. Not angels in a purely biblical sense, they represent the kind and wonderful incidents that have transpired throughout Bibi’s life and the people who have touched it with grace. To her, the layers and nuances of the ash and salt in the

wood-fired glazes are symbolic of her past and present experiences.

i s k o t e oARTS FESTIVAL

WordspinnerGrande PrairieFriendship Centre

J u n e 1 6 t hMunicipal Government Day at Montrose Cultural Centre

Art of the Peace Juried Art Show Opening Reception

Art Walk Launch

J u n e 1 7 t h The Local Connection @ Your Library

Chamber of Culture Mixer

J u n e 1 8 t h Pottery Workshop with Bibi Clement

Writing Your Life Workshop with Bob Stallworthy

Poetry in French Workshop with Pierrette Requier

Publishing Panel

Iskoteo Puppet Play and Story Time for Families

Clem and Muriel Collins Writing Contest Awards J u n e 1 9 t hReading by Sid Marty

Frontenac House - Quartet 2009 Launch

Lobstick Press Launch

Songs at Solstice

Opening of Vigil of Angels Exhibit

J u n e 2 0 t h Summer Solstice Super Market

Fiction Workshop with Sid Marty

Youth Writing Workshop with Anna Marie Sewell

J u n e 2 1 s tNational Aboriginal Day Celebrations

O n - G o i n g E v e n t s Art Walk

Art Board Exhibit

Vigil of Angels Exhibit

Art of the Peace Juried Art Show Exhibit

Prairie North Creative Residency

Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Arts AwardsJune 20th,Grande Prairie Regional College

J u n e 1 6 t h - 2 1 s t , 2 0 0 96 days of cultural events in

Grande Prair ie, h ighl ighted by

the Lieutenant Governor of

Alberta Arts Awards Gala

www.iskoteo.com

THE CENTRE FORCREATIVE ARTS