Artistic stirrings with felted wool

Adele Boucher setting up art works made of buffalo fibre

The boreal forest exhibit at the Museum has inspired some though-provoking and divergent discussions. As the back drop to our livelihood in the Peace region, it’s preservation requires that we employ good stewardship practices and develop a finer appreciation for the diverse resources that make up this complex ecosystem.

For something a little unconventional, artistic expression derived from the resources of this boreal forest are on exhibit this month on the Museum’s monthly art wall. Wool and hair fibres have always been integral to human survival. Northern forest fur and hair bearing animals have been utilized by people to create objects to stay warm with like the soft woven rabbit blankets and tanned buffalo hides of the northern Cree, to the felted wool Hudson Bay Company trade blankets woven in England, the felted beaver top hats, the buffalo hide coats of the NWMP and the many carded wool quilts of the early settlers.

Creative use of the natural fibres of buffalo and sheep wool comes naturally, so to speak, to two local  fibre artists Rhonda Warren and Adele Boucher. Each have experience and knowledge working with the characteristics which buffalo down (yes, down) and merino sheep wool present to the process of wet felting, carding, spinning, weaving and knitting.

Felting, a lesser known heritage skill, compresses and entangles the scales of the wool fibre by hot water baths and energetic beating. The result is a thick, almost waterproof, fibre to sew or shape into utilitarian wear or wearable art. Between Adele and Rhonda, they have created felt insoles, vests, hats and coats (think about the boiled wool Austrian sweaters) as well as purses, necklaces or hair accessories. Adele has also on exhibit items knitted, crocheted and woven with yarns made from buffalo down.

If you cannot attend the Felting With Wool presentation on March 5^th, 1pm at the Museum with Adele and Rhonda, you can still enjoy their wool fibre art on exhibit  the full month of March.

Artists of the Month-February-Beyond the Heart Clubhouse

This month’s artists are members of the Beyond the Heart Clubhouse. The Clubhouse offers a community-based, complimentary approach that  “offers people with mental health illnesses, hope and opportunities to achieve their full potential ” (Beyond the Heart Clubhouse Newsletter,Vol.1, Issue 1, 2015).

Challenging the stigma surrounding issues of mental health is considered by the Clubhouse members and staff to be an ongoing campaign. Identifying with mental illness can be as close as someone who is your brother, co-worker or friend who manages their lives with this diagnosis. Stigma can manifest itself in difficulty finding housing, entering higher education, obtaining insurance and receiving fair  treatment in the criminal justice or child welfare systems.

Documented research suggests that engaging in a creative process can provide a powerful outlet for things that are hard to talk about. Already, a growing number of medical practitioners endorse creative expression for its therapeutic impact on managing the physical and mental conditions associated with anxiety, social isolation and loneliness. Struggling with self-doubt and self-blame can lead to feelings of helplessness and hopelessness but for some, the creative arts gives voice to those feelings which can then begin a journey of healing and create a positive sense of self, health and well-being.

View the creative expressions from the Beyond the Heart Clubhouse this month and while you are visiting, take in a new exhibit in the Peace River Gallery co-developed with Project Peace, a school-based program aimed at improving student success by developing emotional intelligence which is based on creating self-awareness and empathy for others. The exhibit “Peace of Mind” takes a retrospective look at the history of mental health practices and attitudes in Alberta and offers visitors hands-on stations to playfully practice mindfulness and intention.

Artist of the Month - January - Mushroom Magic

A taste of some of the unique and interesting artwork by this artist on display
for the month of January at the Peace River Museum, Archives and Mackenzie Centre.

Valerie Jean Palmer is featured as the January Artist 2016.  With the new boreal forest exhibit showing in the Main Gallery, her collection of mushroom spore prints is particularly relevant. Val ventures out into the local boreal forest and surrounding fields to source mushrooms for her spore prints. This is time sensitive process as the spores drop their spores on to her paper anywhere from ten minutes to 36 hours later. Val arranges the various mushrooms she has collected that day or night, gills down, on to the paper to create her compositions. By gently laying a mushroom face down the spores eventually leave an impression of the mushroom itself.  Val works with the individualistic colours that each mushroom lends to the paper and sometimes incorporates other natural elements in the work, such as, grasses, leaves and flowers.

Her appreciation for natural world around her is obvious in these and other works of art. When you drop by to view her featured works this month, include a visit to the Main Gallery to view one of her drawings and a poem about the boreal forest, as a part of the When a Tree Falls in the Forest exhibit.

Born in England, Val emigrated to Canada in the late 1950s and has made her home with her husband Don in the hills overlooking the Peace River since 1977.

October Artist of the Month: Barry Warne

October Artist of the Month Barry Warne with some of his fantastic landscapes

 

Landscape artist– Barry Warne

The month of October features works from local artist Barry Warne who draws inspiration for his work from his awareness and appreciation of the natural world.  His landscapes are evocative of his memories of  life in England and of the Peace Country that has become home for he and his family  since 1957.

Acrylics and oils are his choice medium for the detailed farms, valleys and roadways he paints  but he also photographs a favorite bird or two.  An added feature to each piece is the handcrafted frame and matte that Barry makes himself, as one who enjoys working with wood.

Barry paints for the enjoyment and as a remainder to the viewer to look carefully at the natural world around us. With this large world view, he directs the proceeds of his sales to the Alzheimer’s Society research work.

Works are for sale and can be viewed, without a fee, until the end of October, 2015.

Diverse artistic expression takes artist out of comfort zone

Featured for the month of September at the Museum are the diverse works of local artist Jesse Anne Rovang. As one can see, the term diverse is not used lightly in describing Jesse’s creative talents.

There are artists, who seem to be content to work in only a few mediums. There are artists, who are not content unless they have explored a multitude of mediums and styles. There are artists, who are not content because there is more to explore, so little time in which to do it, and so many diverse ways to express their creative nature.

Well, Jesse Anne (née Green) Rovang is one, who, since 1971, has not run out of ways to express her creative talent. The local artist is also Don’s partner in farming, so the countryside and its inhabitants – whether it be flora, fauna or equipment – in all seasons, are stimuli.

Although Jesse’s artwork is diverse, her favourite medium is watercolours. “It is so gentle and expressive.” That may be true, but she has the audacity to venture out of her comfort zone into oils, acrylics (she can become one with it), working with fungi on pulp with blueing (because of the chance she takes each time), leaves, and found antlers and horns.

Her works have sold widely and been applauded, not only locally, but also worldwide and may be seen in many corporate offices throughout the province and beyond.

Jesse’s artwork also ventures into the realm of food – specifically, wild and tame berry jams and jellies – wild strawberry the ultimate favourite.

Jesse’s varied artwork is featured for the month of September at the Peace River Museum, Archives and Mackenzie Centre.

 

 

July Artist of the Month

Sue Cloake is featured as the Artist of the Month for July. Sue, a local artist with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Alberta, describes her work as being her "impressions of nature and an exploration of ideas and imagination".  This month's exhibit of acrylic paintings of shells from our ancient oceans are both impressionist and expressionist. The colours and repetitive patterns encourage one to imagine the life once housed in these 'houses' of shell and to think of the millions of years ago when the oceans covered this land from the Gulf of Mexico to our northern latitudes.  Along with Sue's expression and appreciation of nature's patterning, the Museum has created a small exhibit of actual fossils from that long ago time. These fossils are part of a much larger collection of Don Holt, a well-known rock hound from the Peace. Most of the fossils on exhibit are examples of what an aware hiker with sharp eyes might find along the tributaries of the Peace River.

 

Additional fossils, along with rocks, from the Don Holt Collection and from other local donors are also on exhibit in the Peace River Gallery this summer. Over the decades, the Museum has been a repository of historically significant items, such as the rocks and fossils, which help tell our story.