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BMO 1st ART! Award: Georgia Dawkin

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Photo Credit: Georgia Dawkin

BMO 1st Art! Competition

The NL winner for the BMO 1st ART! Award has officially been announced!

This achievement is awarded each year to a student from each province in Canada and to a National winner. It is a way to celebrate and highlight the young artists across our country and the incredible work that they are accomplishing.

“BMO 1st Art! celebrates the creativity of art school students from over 100 post-secondary institutions across Canada.”

BMO

For more information on the competition, visit:

https://1start.bmo.com/about.html

The NL provincial winner,

Georgia Dawkin, a recent graduate from Grenfell’s School of Fine Arts, is the provincial winner here in Newfoundland and Labrador; Originally from Victoria, BC, she moved to NL for university. She has created numerous works and prints, including an exhibit titled Infestation and a digital photo series that can all be found on her website – https://www.georgiadawkin.ca/

Her submission piece entitled “Professional Woman: Coming Soon” critiques and comments on misogyny and sexist themes that affect women in modern professional environments. Creative, humorous, and thought-provoking, her piece showcases the many aspects of what professional women endure daily.

Luckily, Dawkin was able to chat with us about her work and what this achievement will mean for her moving forward. Read on to discover more about the artist and the piece she created. The following conversation has been condensed and edited.

How did you find out about the BMO 1st Art award?

Well, we’re actually nominated by our profs. It’s nice because there is only one art school in NL, so everyone in our graduating class was nominated together. It’s your choice if you want to put forward an application; out of those applicants, a winner is chosen. I received a phone call earlier in the year; then, I had to sign a non-disclosure agreement so the winners could be kept a secret until the announcement went public.

What made you choose to attend Grenfell?

Believe it or not, I came to St. John’s first; I came to MUN for Neuroscience and then switched programs, made a big switch, and moved to Corner Brook to do visual arts. I did two years here and then four years there, and now I’m back living in St. John’s again! Haha

How long have you been creating art, and when did feminism become an inspiration for your work?

I was always creating art and painting at my house as a kid, which continued through my teenage years. My mom – who is a doctor – would always tell me,

“You don’t wanna be a doctor; that’s not for you. You need to be a tattoo artist!”

She always encouraged me the opposite way. Then, I got a job working for Paint Nite NL while I was still in neuroscience, regularly bringing art back into my life. I was able to spend more time painting, which is what encouraged me to want to apply for art school.

Is there a particular event/thought that inspired you to create Professional Woman: Coming Soon?

There wasn’t really one particular event that inspired Professional Woman. I’ve always been passionate about and interested in feminism and those kinds of topics. I think some of my work started with things that I thought were funny. I find a lot of the video funny and I always like to include humour in my artwork. I like to talk about serious, concerning, and/or frustrating topics and find a way to incorporate a humorous aspect. Some parts come from me just wanting to make a joke of something.

A particular scene in the video caught my attention; the clip of you conducting to an audio recording was so well executed. How difficult was it to put together?

So, I wouldn’t consider myself a musical or rhythmic person at all, and I originally had so much trouble with that scene. When making that scene, I made an audio clip of different internet recordings and recordings of my friends’ voices. Then I went into the studio to film, put on a piece of classical music and tried to conduct the music. I didn’t, however, consider that it wouldn’t match up with the recording I made. When I put it together and showed my advisor, I was like, ‘this feels so weird,’ and she was like, ‘yeah, cause it is,’ haha.

So, I had to remake the song. I got a metronome online of the same count as the classical piece and then re-filmed it so that my conducting matched the counts of the backtrack.

The video format of this piece is quite different from your previous work, what made you want to take on this kind of project?

I had never done any video like this before this past year. I was taking a new media class at school, working with video and sound art – I really loved it. At the same time, I was doing a lot of research for my fourth-year project about feminist art history and Canadian feminist artists, specifically how performance and video are such a huge theme throughout that topic. A lot of feminist artists say that using the feminine body as a woman is the best way to put yourself in history and to put women in history. So, that came into play a little bit.

The concept of Professional Woman partially came from how I would say it all the time. I would call myself and call other people ‘Professional Woman.’ I drew her as a comic book character for a long time. She wasn’t a performance character at first; the project developed that way because it was the only approach that could fully convey what I wanted to get across.

There are many different dimensions to this piece. Watching it again, it’s easy to see aspects you may not have noticed the first time. Was this intentional?

Everything throughout the video is well thought out and personal to me. Even things like font choices and colours are very specific. The billboards in the background of the shots have been redone. Lots of little things like that to make it exactly what I want it to be in that Professional Woman universe.

In the construction scene, the first time we filmed it, I got an actual bucket of dirt and wheeled it up to the studio – a studio monitor saw me, and I just said, ‘please just ignore me; I promise I’ll clean it up!’ – But then I had to re-film it because I had new props and a different outfit. By that point, it was winter, and I couldn’t exactly get dirt, so I decided to edit them in instead – it was pretty funny!

Feminism is a big passion of yours. Will these themes promoting female equality and awareness concerning issues of misogyny continue to be voiced in your future/upcoming work?

I have done a lot with feminism in my past work. I previously did a collaboration with my friend and fellow artist, Stephanie Sheppard, called ‘she’s so edgy.’ I plan on continuing with that body of work with Professional Woman and making more videos. I have started to work on prints and drawings, focusing a lot on power dressing – with the visual of the suit and the jacket.

Have you noticed a difference in how men and women react to your piece?

I noticed that women tend to laugh a lot more; people seem to understand it in different ways. When I show it to guys for the first time, they’ll sometimes be more quiet. I definitely think that it depends on the person.

Your work has been featured in exhibits in both NL and MTL. Are there any new events coming up or a particular place you hope to be featured in someday?

Definitely Vancouver! I like the Vancouver Art Gallery because I went there a lot as a kid. I go there every time I visit home in BC; it’s just a really special spot. It was so extravagant to me as a kid that it would just mean a lot.

What has this achievement meant to you, and what will it mean for you now moving forward?

It was redeeming. I put a lot of hours, hundreds of hours of work, into this project – and a lot of heart. So, it felt really good. After graduation, you get so much rejection and a hard reality check. This achievement gave me hope and a sense that I’m doing the right thing. On the phone, they said that this year was incredibly close; I am biased – of course – but my class was really strong. I’m so proud that I get to represent my class; there are just so many strong artists there.

Lately, I’ve been applying to things. I hope to get my residency soon so I can have a place, time, and resources to do more of this work. I’ve been working a lot on residency applications and sketches, drafting ideas about what I’d want to make when I have access to sufficient supplies and a bigger space.

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A misspelled memorial to the Brontë sisters gets its dots back at last

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LONDON (AP) — With a few daubs of a paintbrush, the Brontë sisters have got their dots back.

More than eight decades after it was installed, a memorial to the three 19th-century sibling novelists in London’s Westminster Abbey was amended Thursday to restore the diaereses – the two dots over the e in their surname.

The dots — which indicate that the name is pronounced “brontay” rather than “bront” — were omitted when the stone tablet commemorating Charlotte, Emily and Anne was erected in the abbey’s Poets’ Corner in October 1939, just after the outbreak of World War II.

They were restored after Brontë historian Sharon Wright, editor of the Brontë Society Gazette, raised the issue with Dean of Westminster David Hoyle. The abbey asked its stonemason to tap in the dots and its conservator to paint them.

“There’s no paper record for anyone complaining about this or mentioning this, so I just wanted to put it right, really,” Wright said. “These three Yorkshire women deserve their place here, but they also deserve to have their name spelled correctly.”

It’s believed the writers’ Irish father Patrick changed the spelling of his surname from Brunty or Prunty when he went to university in England.

Raised on the wild Yorkshire moors, all three sisters died before they were 40, leaving enduring novels including Charlotte’s “Jane Eyre,” Emily’s “Wuthering Heights” and Anne’s “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.”

Rebecca Yorke, director of the Brontë Society, welcomed the restoration.

“As the Brontës and their work are loved and respected all over the world, it’s entirely appropriate that their name is spelled correctly on their memorial,” she said.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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Calvin Lucyshyn: Vancouver Island Art Dealer Faces Fraud Charges After Police Seize Millions in Artwork

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In a case that has sent shockwaves through the Vancouver Island art community, a local art dealer has been charged with one count of fraud over $5,000. Calvin Lucyshyn, the former operator of the now-closed Winchester Galleries in Oak Bay, faces the charge after police seized hundreds of artworks, valued in the tens of millions of dollars, from various storage sites in the Greater Victoria area.

Alleged Fraud Scheme

Police allege that Lucyshyn had been taking valuable art from members of the public under the guise of appraising or consigning the pieces for sale, only to cut off all communication with the owners. This investigation began in April 2022, when police received a complaint from an individual who had provided four paintings to Lucyshyn, including three works by renowned British Columbia artist Emily Carr, and had not received any updates on their sale.

Further investigation by the Saanich Police Department revealed that this was not an isolated incident. Detectives found other alleged victims who had similar experiences with Winchester Galleries, leading police to execute search warrants at three separate storage locations across Greater Victoria.

Massive Seizure of Artworks

In what has become one of the largest art fraud investigations in recent Canadian history, authorities seized approximately 1,100 pieces of art, including more than 600 pieces from a storage site in Saanich, over 300 in Langford, and more than 100 in Oak Bay. Some of the more valuable pieces, according to police, were estimated to be worth $85,000 each.

Lucyshyn was arrested on April 21, 2022, but was later released from custody. In May 2024, a fraud charge was formally laid against him.

Artwork Returned, but Some Remain Unclaimed

In a statement released on Monday, the Saanich Police Department confirmed that 1,050 of the seized artworks have been returned to their rightful owners. However, several pieces remain unclaimed, and police continue their efforts to track down the owners of these works.

Court Proceedings Ongoing

The criminal charge against Lucyshyn has not yet been tested in court, and he has publicly stated his intention to defend himself against any pending allegations. His next court appearance is scheduled for September 10, 2024.

Impact on the Local Art Community

The news of Lucyshyn’s alleged fraud has deeply affected Vancouver Island’s art community, particularly collectors, galleries, and artists who may have been impacted by the gallery’s operations. With high-value pieces from artists like Emily Carr involved, the case underscores the vulnerabilities that can exist in art transactions.

For many art collectors, the investigation has raised concerns about the potential for fraud in the art world, particularly when it comes to dealing with private galleries and dealers. The seizure of such a vast collection of artworks has also led to questions about the management and oversight of valuable art pieces, as well as the importance of transparency and trust in the industry.

As the case continues to unfold in court, it will likely serve as a cautionary tale for collectors and galleries alike, highlighting the need for due diligence in the sale and appraisal of high-value artworks.

While much of the seized artwork has been returned, the full scale of the alleged fraud is still being unraveled. Lucyshyn’s upcoming court appearances will be closely watched, not only by the legal community but also by the wider art world, as it navigates the fallout from one of Canada’s most significant art fraud cases in recent memory.

Art collectors and individuals who believe they may have been affected by this case are encouraged to contact the Saanich Police Department to inquire about any unclaimed pieces. Additionally, the case serves as a reminder for anyone involved in high-value art transactions to work with reputable dealers and to keep thorough documentation of all transactions.

As with any investment, whether in art or other ventures, it is crucial to be cautious and informed. Art fraud can devastate personal collections and finances, but by taking steps to verify authenticity, provenance, and the reputation of dealers, collectors can help safeguard their valuable pieces.

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Ukrainian sells art in Essex while stuck in a warzone – BBC.com

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Ukrainian sells art in Essex while stuck in a warzone  BBC.com

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