Art
St. Marys offers public art to picnic on – Woodstock Sentinel Review
Article content
St. Marys has made some colourful additions to the public picnic tables the town is using to encourage outdoor dining this summer, but in many cases there’s more to them than meets the eye.
Article content
Local artist Bonnie Richardson’s table at Milt Dunnell Field was designed as a surprise for a couple of her grandkids after their family faced multiple COVID-19 infections. It’s based on the Eye Spy books Richardson has been reading to them for years and includes about 16 hidden things to find within its multi-coloured pattern.
“It was a tough month,” Richardson said, adding everyone has recovered. “I just worked feverishly on it for a whole week. They helped me pick a design and as I worked through it I just thought, ‘this is for them.’”
Not far from that one, Laura McAsh’s table doubles as a simple board game featuring a number of St. Marys landmarks.
“Whoever gets to the end first wins, but honestly it’s the fun you have along the way,” she said with a smile. “I really (wanted) to do something that’s not only nice to look at but something that you can interact with.”
Over in the Quarry’s picnic area, Missy Little’s table features a monkey named Gunther. She’s encouraging anyone who has lunch “on Gunther” to tag her on social media for a chance to win a prize.
There are 10 tables in total, six at the south end of Milt Dunnell Field, two near town hall and the cenotaph, and two at the near the Quarry. St. Marys commissioned the public art with the help of a grant from the Annie and Isabelle Chesterfield Fund, held within the Stratford Perth Community Foundation.
“You just don’t know how much it lifted my heart to see people sitting on my table,” Richardson said, adding that she enjoyed the community-building aspect of the project.
“It got us out of our heads, it got us out of our houses and it gave us another burst of hope, I really believe. It was something to do, (something) productive and bright to look forward to.”
cmontanini@postmedia.com
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
[unable to retrieve full-text content]
Made Right Here: Woodworking art CTV News Kitchener
Source link
-
Business17 hours ago
Honda to build electric vehicles and battery plant in Ontario, sources say – Global News
-
Science18 hours ago
Will We Know if TRAPPIST-1e has Life? – Universe Today
-
Investment21 hours ago
Down 80%, Is Carnival Stock a Once-in-a-Generation Investment Opportunity?
-
Health14 hours ago
See how chicken farmers are trying to stop the spread of bird flu – Fox 46 Charlotte
-
Health17 hours ago
Simcoe-Muskoka health unit urges residents to get immunized
-
Investment16 hours ago
Own a cottage or investment property? Here's how to navigate the new capital gains tax changes – The Globe and Mail
-
News22 hours ago
Honda expected to announce multi-billion dollar deal to assemble EVs in Ontario
-
Tech22 hours ago
Indigenous Craft and Vendors Market a success in Halifax