Art
'It is magical': repurposed art growing in B.C. along with eco-consciousness – Chilliwack Progress
Victoria artist Beverly Hancock used to paint a painting and be done. But now, she cuts it up. And then, she weaves it into something new.
Karen Guilbault gathers pine needles – sometimes she’ll even politely ask city removal not to rake over a spot. She then patiently bundles and weaves them into intricate baskets.
Award-winning fibre artist Martina Edmondson now makes whimsical creations out of nature foragings.
These women are all established artists riding the waves of a rising tide: the growing trend of repurposed art. Essentially, it’s using found or existing objects to create something entirely new.
“It’s a huge trend in the world, but the biggest trend is to use garbage and reuse things that we don’t think are beautiful,” Hancock said. “And to try to make something that no one’s ever seen before out of something you would usually throw out.”
In February, another ‘repurposed’ artist from Victoria, driftwood sculptor Tanya Bub, was at an international exposition of repurposed art in Qatar called the Tadweer Art Exhibition. The exhibit merged the worlds of art and environmental consciousness, stated to be a testament to Qatar’s commitment to sustainability.
For artists who approach art through this lens, the draw lies in reconnecting with the natural world while relinquishing control and embracing spontaneity.
“I start with something that I find really interesting,” Edmondson said of her diverse pieces, which include collage, sculpture and eco printing (using natural materials to dye paper with earthy tones and create imprints). “I might think, oh, maybe this looks a little bit like a face or this could be an eagle. And then my imagination takes a flight.”
She also does embroidery, but, “It’s not pretty embroidery. I guess I don’t do pretty very well. Or, I don’t find it pretty.”
Pretty isn’t the point when approaching art in this manner. “You’re making it for yourself. And I think that comes with age,” Edmondson said.
Hancock, an expressionist and figurative artist who finds it “exhilarating” to rip up and re-imagine her paintings into new works, agreed this is a new era of art-making for her. “It is really interesting to see how artists’ work changes as their situation in life changes.”
A growing eco-consciousness in the arts community
While repurposed art has always been around, all three artists said they’ve seen it growing in popularity, all part of a growing eco-consciousness.
“I think with the way climate change is going, there will be more and more emphasis on, what are we using? What are we doing to the environment?” Edmondson said.
“I’m not saying everybody’s there, but, you know, I have a big following online. It’s a very big topic,” Hancock said.
“Many, many artists would say, ‘There’s no paper towel in my studio. I’m using rags.’ So if you can’t do everything, you’re trying to do something, right? And I think every artist is sharing that information with each other.”
Guilbault primarily uses pine needles to create her baskets. But she also paints stones to feature in the centre of these baskets, and once she’s done painting, she wipes her palette so the paint doesn’t go down the drain.
“You see how we are all thinking about it,” Hancock said. “When I went to art school, what a squiggle of time ago, in the 1970s, nobody talked about that. There wasn’t a single person in the art world that had ever even discussed, what do we do with this paint? Is it bad for the world?”
Experience repurposed art
While the artists just wrapped up a group exhibit at Gage Gallery in March, Beverly Hancock will be exhibiting at Gage again April 2-14 with RAW: Unveiled Layers, which delves into the raw experiences that shape the human condition.
If you are interested in this type of artwork you can also check out art by Gerhard Bär, Martha Haversham, Michelle Reader, Wim Delvoye and Yuken Teruya.
But Hancock, Guilbault and Edmondson would probably also encourage you to try it out for yourself.
“It is magical. After you get going, you go, ‘I could have never thought of that’,” Hancock said.
READ MORE: Spring into art galleries in Victoria
Art
Couple transforms Interlake community into art hub, live music 'meeting place' – CBC.ca
A trio plays a cover of The Eagles hit Take it Easy as a dozen people settle in for an intimate open mic night inside Derrick McCandless and Dawn Mills’s cozy spot off highways 6 and 68 in Manitoba’s Interlake.
Strings of antique-style light bulbs cast a soft glow over the mandolin, banjo and dobro guitar that hang on a wall behind the band. An array of pottery shaped in-house by Mills dots the shelves behind the audience.
The Eriksdale Music & Custom Frame Shop is full of tchotchkes — like an Elvis Presley Boulevard street sign and vintage Orange Crush ad — that create the rustic country-living vibe the couple dreamt up before buying and transforming the vacant space over the past three years.
“I have met so many people in this community through them that I probably wouldn’t have … because of this hub,” says Mills’s cousin Dana-Jo Burdett.
Mills and McCandless are bringing people together in their rural community in more ways than one — though a return to Mills’s hometown wasn’t always in the cards.
The couple met in Winnipeg in 2011 while McCandless was playing a party at Mills’s cousin’s place. They had plans to settle in the Okanagan in McCandless’s home province of B.C. until he suffered a health scare. After that, they decided to head back to the Prairies.
WATCH | McCandless and Mills channel creative spirit into Eriksdale community:
It was the height of the pandemic in fall 2020 when the pair relocated to Eriksdale, about 130 km northwest of Winnipeg. They bought the old Big Al’s shop, once a local sharpening business that was sitting vacant.
“He was an icon in the community. He was a school teacher. He did a drama program here,” said Mills. “He brought a lot to the town.”
The building has become their own personal playground and live-in studio.
“It keeps evolving and we keep changing it and every room has to serve multi-function,” says Mills. “It’s a meeting place.”
While they love the quiet life of their community, they’re also a busy couple.
McCandless is a multi-instrumentalist with a former career in the Armed Forces that took him all over. Now, he’s a shop teacher in Ashern who sells and fixes instruments out of the music shop.
WATCH | McCandless plays an original song:
Mills helped found Stoneware Gallery in 1978 — the longest running pottery collective in Canada. She offers professional framing services and sells pottery creations that she throws in-studio.
They put on open mic nights and host a summer concert series on a stage next door they built together themselves. They’re trying to start up a musicians memorial park in Eriksdale too.
One of their bigger labours of love is in honour of McCandless’s good friends Roger Leonard Young, David Kim Russell and Tony “Leon” — or Lee — Oreniuk. All died within months of each other in 2020-2021.
“That was a heart-wrenching year,” McCandless says.
They channeled their grief into something good for the community and started the RogerKimLee Music Festival.
Friends from Winnipeg and the Interlake helped them put on a weekend of “lovely music, lovely food, lovely companionship” as a sort of heart-felt send off, said Mills.
That weekend it poured rain. Festival-goers ended up in soggy dog piles on the floor of the music shop to dry out while Mills and McCandless cooked them sausages and eggs to warm up.
“It was just a great weekend,” says McCandless. “At the end of that, that Sunday, we just said that’s it, we got to do this.”
Mills says the homey community spirit on display during that inaugural year is what the couple has been trying to “encourage in people getting together” ever since.
The festival has grown to include a makers’ market, car show, kids activities, workshops, camping, beer gardens, good food and live music.
This summer, Manitoba acts The Solutions, Sweet Alibi and The JD Edwards Band are on the lineup Aug. 16-18.
Burdett has been a part of the growth, helping with branding, social media and marketing. McCandless and Mills’s habit of bringing people together has also rubbed off on Burdett.
“There’s more of my people out here than I thought, and I am very grateful for that,” says Burdett.
Their efforts to breathe new artistic life into Eriksdale caught the attention of their local MLA.
“The response from family and friend and community has been outstanding,” Derek Johnston (Interlake-Gimli) said during question period at the Manitoba Legislature in March.
“The RogerKimLee Music Festival believes music to be a powerful force for positive social change.”
Dolly Lindell, who has lived in Eriksdale for about three decades, said the couple is adding something valuable that wasn’t quite there before.
“There’s a lot of people that we didn’t even know had musical talent and aspirations and this has definitely helped bring it out,” Lindell says from the audience as McCandless, Dave Greene and Mark Chuchie wrap their rendition of Take it Easy.
McCandless, 61, said there was a time in his youth where he dreamed of a becoming a folk music star. Now his musical ambitions have changed. He’s focused on using that part of himself to bring people together.
“I think it’s that gift that I was given that that needs to be shared,” he says. “I don’t think I could live without sharing it.”
WATCH | Trio plays song at Eriksdale music shop:
Art
Meet artist J-Positive and the family behind his art store – CBC.ca
- 1 day ago
- News
- Duration 4:42
Joel Jamensky’s sunny disposition explains why the artist with Down syndrome uses the name ‘J-positive’ for his online art business, started with the help of his parents two years ago. “There’s a lot more going on in [Joel’s] art than may be at first glance – just like him,” said his dad, Mark.
Art
Made Right Here: Woodworking art – CTV News Kitchener
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Made Right Here: Woodworking art CTV News Kitchener
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