Visual Arts Society Association has spent close to 20 years showcasing some of the best art from western Canada.
VASA’s October exhibition continues this legacy through The Essence of Alberta – An Abstract Journey. The theme of abstraction combines the works of glass artist Kimberly Smith and is also a retrospective of the late Leonard Simpson’s abstract photographic art.
Both artists create vistas and patterns that bind us and relate to our personal experiences in interesting ways. By sharing their experiences, they can subtly change our perception of things and create awareness.
In her 40 creations, Smith strives to “capture a moment of resiliency,” a reflection of her core strength. A St. Albert resident for 63 years, she raised five children singlehandedly since her youngest was one year old selling paintings, ceramics, dishware, jewelry and most recently glass art.
“It combines everything I’ve done in the past. I can paint with glass. I can sculpt the glass and shape it new ways, and I use powder glass to paint. It takes all the mediums I used before – painting, sculpting, drawing, and puts them in one medium. The end result is that light comes through the glass. There is depth and information in the glass painting that wouldn’t be there in any other medium,” said Smith.
Her artistic outdoor scenes are completely made from broken pieces of art glass. From the start, slab glass is manipulated and fired in the kiln. As the final elements of decorative glass strands are added and fired, the work gradually takes on an ethereal quality.
“The glass is heavy, but I’ve developed a unique hanging system that looks like it’s floating on the wall.”
Two of her favourite pieces currently on display at the gallery are titled The Three Sisters and Lake Louise Galaxy.
“I have done The Three Sisters eight or nine times. There’s something about their structure. They look like three separate structures, but they also look like they are standing arm-in-arm, and they give a warm feeling.”
As for the magical Lake Louise Galaxy, the artist was prowling the Internet in search of images about the universe when she stumbled on photos of Jasper’s Dark Sky.
“I saw the galaxy behind the mountains, and I didn’t realize it was that visible. I tried to capture it before but didn’t succeed. But this time it worked. It’s so majestic and so much larger than us, and opens the idea there is so much more than we can imagine in our universe.”
Not only does Smith capture the essence of mountains. She also reimagines Alberta waterfalls, lakes, forests and plains. Her nephew, Geoffrey Coulthard, a hiker and photographer, replenishes her stock of mountainscapes used as inspiration for new glass art.
“His photos are breathtaking. How do you describe what is enthralling about mountains – particularly Alberta mountains. The mountains are right there to be cherished by all of us.”
Although Smith has never travelled far from home, she continues to find beauty and enchantment in Alberta.
“Most of my work is broken pieces that are rebuilt. That reflects for me all what people go through. It reflects my own journey through trauma, which I rebuilt into something new.”
Smith will host a demonstration of glass art on Saturday, Oct. 19 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. at VASA, 25 Sir Winston Churchill Avenue. For more information call VASA 780-460-5990.
Leonard Simpson- Abstract Photographer
The late Leonard Simpson spent 35 years teaching chemistry and physics at Lethbridge Collegiate Institute, a high school for students in Grades 10 to 12. After retiring, he and his wife Donna, purchased an acreage at Pincher Creek and built a home with an art gallery attached. Since it bordered the Waterton Dam, it was called The Dam Gallery.
But by 2007, the couple closed the 10-year-old gallery and moved to Edmonton to be near family. Throughout his retirement, Simpson continued to excel in photography and gardening.
The 20 abstract landscapes displayed at VASA appear blurred as if the photographer is moving the camera to create a digitized blurred effect creating layers of colours. Even Blown Snow, one of his most realistic images of snow piled high against a rickety farm fence, projects an otherworldly quality.
“The abstract photography is an extension of realism, and I think he wanted to do something different. He wanted to see what you could do with a camera and enjoyed photographing landscapes, mountains, farms, flowers, trees, sunsets and sunrises,” said Donna Simpson.
Leonard Simpson succumbed to cancer at Pilgrims Hospice in January 2023. All money from photographs sold at this retrospective will be donated to the hospice.
The exhibition is open until Oct. 26, 25 Sir Winston Avenue.