It's a lucky number for St. Albert's ArtWalk, as the annual series of monthly cultural extravaganzas celebrates its 13th season with nearly as many venues. Naturally, the Art Gallery of St. Albert – and its Art Rental and Sales Gallery – and the Visual Arts Studio Association (well known as VASA) are set to be some of the prime locations for new exhibits, with more than 40 visual artists in those two buildings alone.
But there are only so many galleries in our beautiful historic downtown. Boutique stores and eating destinations, however, are chockablock. You could be sitting down to a coffee or a glass of wine, maybe shopping for a ring or even popping by the library to check out a book. The world is a gallery and tomorrow it'll be on the streets in full force for your viewing pleasure.
"ArtWalk showcases St Albert as a true destination for the arts," Mayor Nolan Crouse said in a prepared statement. "It shines a spotlight on exciting collaborations by local artists, restaurants and venues, and celebrates our vibrant cultural community."
In addition to the new art on the walls, there are numerous special events planned in conjunction with opening night. The hour-long ArtWalk Launch Party starts at 6 p.m. with musicians, buskers, artists and the Cookie Love Machine food truck.
Elsewhere on Perron Street, Daniel Anderson, a.k.a. Copper Cowboy Living Statue, will be entertaining audiences with his brand of performance art while Sylvie Fergusson, sculptor and mixed media artist and art instructor, will have a display of some of her garden statues and mixed media artwork using Paverpol. Painter Lorraine Shulba, greeting card artist Ilda Labrecque, and artist/face painter Svetlana Kanyo will also have their stations nearby.
Patrons can get bused around to venues courtesy of the St. Albert 50+ Club.
Edmonton sculptor Ken Macklin will unveil St. Albert's newest piece of public art, Juiced Lime, on the corner of Perron and St. Anne streets. He recently installed two new works in front of VASA and right next to the St. Albert Business Centre just a hop, skip and short jump away on the northeast corner of Sir Winston Churchill Ave. and St. Anne.
Inside VASA, former city councillor and Arts and Heritage St. Albert head, Carol Watamaniuk, will once again stretch her legs as a jewelry designer. She will have models walking through the crowd during the opening of Women Portraying Women to promote her new Studio 17 at the artists collective.
The same event will also feature a wine tasting with wines selected and presented by a professional sommelier, live music by Taryn Boston and Carolyn Waye, a fun art-themed photobooth, and artist talks by some of the presenting artists.
Everything takes place tomorrow between 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. and it's all free. Visit www.artwalkstalbert.com for more information. Other ArtWalk events take place on the first Thursday of each month until September, while the exhibits run all month long.
Here's a look at what each venue has in store. Information for Vinyl Rock Café and Gemport was unavailable by press time.
WARES (hosting SAPVAC) – inside St. Albert Place
There are an awful lot of acronyms happening here and just as much art for sale. The Works of Art Representative of Every Studio store offers functional and decorative items created by members from each of the five guilds that along with with the Art Gallery of St. Albert and the city's Cultural Services department, comprise the St. Albert Place Visual Arts Council: the Floral Arts Society of St. Albert, St. Albert Painters Guild, St. Albert Paper Arts Guild, St. Albert Potters Guild and the St. Albert Quilters' Guild.
The Painters' Guild will be hosting a painting demonstration in the hallway right in front of the store, while members Judy Schafers and Vincent Duffek will be set up on Perron Street during the Launch Party.
Musée Héritage Museum – inside St. Albert Place
Frances Alty-Arscott is all set to share wall space with Leah Dorion at the museum during June. Dorion is a Métis artist from Prince Albert, Sask., who focuses her work on expressions of spirituality and cultural storytelling and lessons. The interdisciplinary artist uses intense colours and textures as a way of illustrating her Métis culture and heritage in a contemporary yet accessible and friendly way.
"They are beautiful little works from one of my recent children's books," she wrote in an email, noting how important it is for her to have her works on display since St. Albert is a historic Métis settlement.
Alty-Arscott is a well-known Edmonton landscape artist with a distinctive style and brilliant colours. She paints in acrylic and watercolour to depict familiar scenes that explode off of the canvas with visual intensity.
Both artists are also represented at the art rental and sales gallery at the Art Gallery of St. Albert.
St. Albert Public Library – inside St. Albert Place
Métis artist Jeannette Sommers is bringing the worlds of art and indigenous culture together as she helps the library kick off ArtWalk and Aboriginal History Month.
Inspired by nature and her Cree heritage, she uses her paintings to pass on the importance of conserving cultural traditions and maintaining respect for all creatures. She will be working on a new painting.
Aboriginal artist and flautist Amanda Woodward-Lamothe will be performing in the lobby of St. Albert Place as a musical tie-in to the event.
Elevate Activewear – 28 St. Anne St.
This is Elevate's third season as an ArtWalk spot. Who would have thought a lifestyle fashion shop would have so much going on in the way of art promotion and appreciation? Not that their styles on the rack aren't beautiful (and functional) enough already, but there are two artists who will be the guests of honour this month.
Landscape photographer and amateur storm chaser Jeff Wallace will have a modest selection of some immodestly sized images. Seven-foot prints look incredible, and the pictures aren't bad either, he noted tongue in cheek. He has always harboured a long love for the prairies and the night skies, and these pieces will demonstrate that in spades.
Then there's Courtney Standing, the singer-slash-painter whose works are inspired by nature, spirituality and the human figure.
"With some of my abstract paintings, I'm inspired by energy and healing," she said, noting that she has been studying Reiki and is interested in getting a master's degree in art therapy, once she finishes up her BFA of course. She has been apprenticing at the Nina Haggerty Centre for the Arts as one of several artists who were selected for the RBC Emerging Artists Apprenticeship program and has a show planned for the centre's Stollery Gallery later in the summer.
With so much on the go, it seems obvious that she has a lot of energy to pursue her many interests. The 28-year-old has been painting for more than a decade in both acrylic and oil paints and mixed media including found objects.
"It's always changing. It keeps evolving. I'm more interested in intermedia and also textiles, bringing in other materials into my painting. That's what I'm exploring right now."
She has also shown her work at the Daffodil Gallery at its Holdover Show from the Whyte Avenue Art Walk, but perhaps it makes good deal of sense in the subtext of textiles that this exhibit is at a clothing store. She has her own online gallery – the Red Art Gallery – that she is working toward turning into a real location where she will be able to show her work and represent other artists at the same time.
Standing will be in attendance tomorrow as she does a bit of live painting in conjunction with a wine tasting to complement the cultural outing.
Privada Wine and Tapas – 21 Perron St.
Tyler Dianocky is with Tupelo Honey but who knew the guy could rock the paintbrush and canvas just as much as he rocks the guitar? Surely, I'm not the first person who has been taken aback by his other creative talent.
"Sometimes it does. It's interesting. People think you're only really good at one thing usually," he laughs.
Check out Tyler Dianocky Arts on Facebook and you'll see Katy Perry with a monkey on her shoulder: fun, but not really her most flattering moment.
"I was going to do a series of Katy Perry funny faces because usually people paint drawings of celebrities at their best, right? Always. That's the beauty industry," he began.
"I thought it would be funny to put a spin on that kind of idea."
He likes to paint celebrities who aren't necessarily at their worst but definitely not at their best and most airbrush-perfected selves. A still from Dumb and Dumber shows stars Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels with goofy faces.
He has a lot of other work that depicts things that are quite pleasing to his eye, and to the viewers' eyes.
"I just find things that I really enjoy. There's a plethora of different topics throughout my paintings, like realism and animals. That's me. I love animals. I've always been one of those people. A lot of pop art too, the culture too … music and movies and cartoons, stuff that we grew up with."
Dianocky has a special event planned for next Tuesday. After Dark Wine and Art is described as an evening of creative painting and wine tasting from 7 to 10 p.m. He will be giving attendees an art lesson over the evening. Tickets are $50. "No experience required but an experience gained," the event's Facebook page says.
He's looking forward to this ArtWalk as it affords him a chance to exhibit, which he said is a totally new experience to him. His work will be on display at the wine and tapas bar all summer long, through to the last ArtWalk month of September.
Art Gallery of St. Albert (AGSA) – 19 Perron St.
What Is Left Behind sounds like a question but it's more of an inquisitive statement to describe the new exhibit at the public art gallery. Ceramicist Sarah Pike and painter Erin Ross both take prairie life as inspiration for their work, each uniquely different from the other.
Pike's pots have been made with much care and attention, even with the imperfections that she intentionally leaves unchecked. She strives to reflect flaws as signs of beauty in their own right, as they add character and rarity that cannot be repeated.
Expanding on the prairie theme, she also prefers to display her work as if it was being shown in a barn or root cellar, hanging from hooks or sitting on crates.
Ross, on the other hand, has a series of small paintings that depict the architecture of the great west: farmhouses and barns, grain silos, and other structures of the agricultural landscape. And they're on fire.
The Back to the Land series juxtaposes the quaint and nostalgic beauty of the buildings against the rushing destruction of nature's fiery fury. They're a bit unsettling especially considering how their six-inch by six-inch dimension draws the viewer closer, making them more intimate, forcing the minute details into your consciousness.
She also has some drawings of explosions that are even smaller.
"All of my work has, for the last number of years, mixed ideas of beauty through chaos or destruction, looking at post-human, post-apocalyptic landscapes. I often use the phrase 'dark pastoral,' which is more of a literary term. I just feel that it captures the mood I'm going for. They're meant to be very moody."
These works are violent perhaps but still engaging and interesting to enough to capture and keep the viewer's eyes.
What is Left Behind runs until Aug. 1.
AGSA Rental and Sales Gallery – 19 Perron St.
Edmonton painter Marianne Watchel will have a series of abstract acrylic paintings on display and for sale or rent. She last showed her ethereal and otherworldly works at the former Profiles Gallery in 1992.
Bookstore on Perron – 7 Perron St.
Gallery 7 at the Bookstore might be one of the smallest galleries you've ever seen but that won't stop Berni Buyse, Andrew Raczynski, Tom Steele, and Louise Piquette from filling it with three-and-a-half walls of the best art that the St. Albert Painters Guild has to offer. Every month, different guild members will collaborate to occupy the space with lovely landscapes, endearing portraits and other works from their catalogues.
San Remo Italian Bistro – 10A Perron St.
The gorgeous fine dining restaurant is the last of three eating spots that are part of ArtWalk 2015. This location is considered more of a promoter of the event but won't be featuring art or artists. One look at the food on your plate and you might consider the head chef to be the next Michelangelo.
