April showers have been known to bring in May flowers and May, my friends, is indeed in bloom with the vibrant blossoms of visual art all over the historic Perron District.
May 3 marks the launch of the summer ArtWalk season, where downtown comes alive during the evenings of the first Thursdays of every month for five months. There are eight locations within a two-block radius for local patrons of the arts and other cultural aficionados to stomp, peruse, appreciate and even support local artists. It runs from 6 to 8:30 p.m. rain or shine.
Future ArtWalks will take place on the following Thursdays: June 7, July 5, August 2 and September 6. Visit www.artwalkstalbert.com for more information.
St. Albert Public Library (in St. Albert Place)
Helen Rogers is one of only a very few local artists who specializes in mosaic tile work. Her work is not only unique and beautiful in its own right, but it sure looks extra-spectacular on display at the library. She praised the institution for being open to such cultural expansions, especially with its longstanding participation in ArtWalk.“I’m a big fan of the library. I’m there very often. I really like having visual art all over the place. Obviously, I’m a little biased,” she said.
“I just think any time you can get the public exposed to a variety of art, by that not necessarily always visual art, I think that makes us just so much richer. I give kudos to the library for highlighting people in various ways. They really do reach out to the community in a lot of different ways. When people think that a library is just books … no. It’s a community centre. As a community centre, it makes sure it has enough there to appeal to a wide variety of people and that’s really important.”
People can expect to see her work on both floors of the library. You can’t miss her fun and vibrant mixed media works.
WARES – Works of Art Representative of Every Studio of the St. Albert Place Visual Arts Council (in St. Albert Place)
Local potters Willie Renema and Gina Joys of the St. Albert Potters’ Guild will demonstrate wheel throwing and hand building (respectively) for the ArtWalk crowd. It’s also the weekend of the guild’s annual spring show and sale so expect lots of clay pots and sculptures to admire in the lobby of St. Albert Place. The opening night of the sale runs from 5 to 9 p.m. tomorrow, then 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.Rachelle LeBlanc might be better known for her three-dimensional rug hooking creations but, in her down time, she also has a booming drive to make pottery.
“I had to get out of the house every once in a while. Hooking is so slow and isolating so I started taking classes at night. After a few years, I applied for a membership. I like the pottery … especially in the summertime when it’s hot outside. You don’t want to be under layers of wool.”
Her work is for sale in the Art Gallery of St. Albert’s gift shop (if you’re lucky enough to catch them before somebody else does) and you can find it at the pottery guild’s sale too. Just look for the skulls.
“I saw something similar online and I thought they were a lot of fun so I had to try and figure out how to keep the glazes separate. I don’t want to do the same glazes as everybody else. I don’t want my pots to look like theirs. I just want to have my own look. It’s a lot of fun,” she said.
She’s organizing the sale and said that people should expect the works of close to 60 artists to be on display.
