The Revelstoke Visual Arts Centre has another exhibit for locals to enjoy. The exhibit will be running from March 14-April 14, 2024.
Ventilate
When you enter the gallery, you will likely be drawn to the canoe hanging from the ceiling. The artist who created the piece is Karen Tamminga-Paton. Her exhibit is called, “Ventilate” and in her artist statement, she says that it “expresses the hopes and thoughts of people of diverse location, history, and experience.”
Taminga-Paton’s pieces come from both her interactions with the world around her and moments of introspection as she sits in isolation at her easel. She says that it is within these moments of dialogue and reflection that “familiar ideas and assumptions takes place, [and] paradigms are questioned.”
This can be seen in her pieces such as Tree Hugger where she acknowledges the benefits the extraction of resources has had in the development of British Columbia, but also the need to pivot and accept a paradigm shift for the longevity of the province.
Tamminga-Paton hails from Smithers and describes her years teaching high school visual arts as informing her current work and driving her imagery.
The Grass is Greener
Artist Tracy Pshyk offers viewers the opportunity to explore the beauty of the cannabis plant.
Pshyk accomplishes this through what she describes as “hyper-realistic plants” in her body of work. Besides showcasing the beauty of these plants, Pshyk’s exhibit aims to de-stigmatize the plant.
In her artist statement, Pshyk noted that cannabis’ function in “alleviating chronic pain and inflammation to aiding in the treatment of anxiety and epilepsy, cannabis has proven to be a valuable resource in the medical field.”
Pshyk currently lives in Kelowna and is working on breaking into the Okanagan art scene.
Recompose
Hayley McIntyre’s work dives into the topic of Alzheimer’s disease. Recompose is a metaphor for what McIntyre calls a “physical interpretation” of the brain.
In her artist statement, McIntyre describes her work as “dark, surreal, and disorienting…that applies imagery of a tangled and decomposing yet hauntingly beautiful forest as a metaphor for the inside of a brain as it succumbs to age and time.”
One of the main questions her work poses is the dichotomies that are presumed when it comes to the topics of life and death, light and dark, beautiful and ugly.
McIntyre hails from Invermere and has a background in geology and currently works as a science illustrator.
Smoked
Sarah Lawless’s body of work explores the meaning behind smoke. Through her ceramic creations, Laeless’s exhibit, Smoked shows both the damage and beauty behind smoke.
While the word smoke may have a negative connotation to most British Columbians in the aftermath of fatal forest fires, Lawless also demonstrates the cozy side of smoke such as smoke coming from a chimney bringing warmth to a home and the calming scents that come from the smoke of burning incense.
Lawless describes Smoked as “a series of earthenware ceramic vessels, exploring humans’ complex relationships and cultural associations with smoke.
Lawless is an accomplished artist, having received many accolades and has worked with world-renowned ceramic artist, Wayne Ngan.
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