The Arts Matter
“With attitudes ranging from the microscopic to the cartographic, the seven artists of The Flower may not Look like the Roots1 cultivate contemporary relationships to landscape, ecology2, and regional identity that respond to local communities past, present and future. “
A special partnership with the Saskatchewan German Council. Toured through OSAC’s Arts on the Move program.
Scherenschnitte (scissor cuts) is an art form where silhouettes are cut from one piece of special black paper with scissors or knives with no ‘hangers’- unattached pieces. Scissor cutting has a long history in German folk art; immigrants brought Scherenschnitte to North America in the 17th Century. Reflecting the Canadian artists in Scissor Cuts/ Scherenschnitte, this collection of works ranges from traditional German Scherenschnitte represented by Waltraude Stehwien, a German immigrant, to papercut evolved into sculpture by Jess Richter- second generation born in Canada.
Friday, October 1, 2021 to Saturday, October 23, 2021
Shurniak Art Gallery
Employing creativity to express a landscape, scene and image with cut paper requires precision in drawing as well as dexterity of cutting. Stehwien prefers scissors as they ‘bite’ the paper; designing her pieces by drawing out her complete design, reworking it on the back of the traditional black paper before making any cuts. While Stehwien enjoys the challenging restrictions of traditional Scherenschnitte, Richter explores all that paper can do. Richter, preferring the Exacto knife, works more organically, creating pieces for her sculptures as she goes. Neither artist likes using computers in their art. In Stehwien’s opinion “Computers are remote. Art is sensual.” Richter reluctantly learned computer drafting for her MFA degree from the UofR but prefers the ‘tactileness’ of pencil (or knife) to paper.
Presently residing in Regina Saskatchewan, Shannon Bigknife is an emerging presence in the Canadian art world. Being self-taught and using intuition as her guide, her pieces have a raw
openness about them. She displays a distinct point of view which expresses the beauty of the
human spirit in its most vulnerable and magical forms.
Shurniak Gallery’s stunning photography collection
View works by Larry Adamache, Wanda Knoss, Wayne Boland and Ken Dalgarno, some “out of the vault” for the first time.
Enjoy florals, landscapes, and Badlands images printed on stretched canvas, paper, and aluminum.
English watercolourist David Paskett lived in Hong Kong from 1986 to 1990. Shurniak Art Gallery is pleased to present this assortment of paintings collected by Bill Shurniak during his time in Hong Kong. Images of traditional Chinese life make compelling subjects, complete with astonishingly vivid details.
Family Ties explores familial bonds through the medium of embroidery. …
Halifax based artist Elizabeth Munro creates embroidered and surface manipulated non-objective ‘portraits’ of her parents that include audio elements to convey impressions of her parents from childhood; providing a nuanced concept of a portrait filtered through the subjective experience of one person’s memory.
Regina artist Belinda Harrow reproduces photographs of her maternal grandmother at different ages into embroideries. Floating within the outlines of the human figure are colourful depictions of animals. The outlines of the humans are black thread on a cream felt background while the animals are vibrantly hued.
Moose Jaw based artist Jennifer McRorie reimagines her daughters’ drawings in ‘whitework’; a type of embroidery where the colour of embroidery threads are the same colour as the fabric on which they are embroidered. McRorie states that “I was compelled to make this series of work as I wanted to honour my daughter, who was born with a genetic disorder, to recognize her voice, abilities and creativity. I love her drawings, her wonderful expression of line and so by embroidering her drawings, I’m acknowledging that even though she is marked by her genetics or biology, she will make her own mark, hence the title of the series.”
Wendy Winter is a Regina artist that uses embroidery on vintage and upcycled fabrics to interpret her daily life and personal philosophy.
The land is made up of the bones of my ancestors…
Known to biologists, artists, photographers, tourism operators, ranchers and other locals as ‘grasslands’, and to the Lakota as ‘maka tatanka’ or nehiyawewin/Cree as ’buffalo-land’, or ‘paskwaw mostos askiy’, the southwest and its natural inhabitants are celebrated for their beauty and resiliency to survive under extremely harsh weather conditions.
Compromised by accelerated human intervention, the lives of these inhabitants, (many of them considered species at risk), are compromised to the point that even the soil has become a ‘species at risk’. As an artist and yoga practitioner, Diana’s visual fascination with life in southwest Saskatchewan leads her to explore forms of energy, archetypal cycles of life and death, and authentic lives and relationships as a means to understand her interdependence with the land.
The Sanskrit yoga term, samskāra refers to the decisions, patterns and habits of thought, action and speech we all develop throughout our lives, with karmic results. Each painting examines her own samskāras, and/or those she encounters in the Southwest on coffee row or elsewhere. Inspired by contemporary visual artists Marsha Kennedy, photographers Edward Burtynsky and James Page, and Métis and nehiyaw/Cree interdisciplinary artists Madonna Hamel, Moe Clark and Joseph Naytowhow, the act of painting for Diana yields a visual health record or ‘temperature gauge’ of the land and its inhabitants. Painting is how she stays in touch with her subject matter while she is away from ‘the field’. It is both her act of agency and her medicine.
Diana Chabros
Raised in Regina, Diana moved to Val Marie, near Grasslands National Park, almost a decade ago to focus on her art practice. Following her enjoyable public library and arts related career path she is exceedingly happy to explore, paint and converse with the land and its resident beings. Having studied with visual artists Leesa Streifler, Ted Godwin, Art MacKay, Lynn Hughes and more recently, George Glenn and Marsha Kennedy, her work is further informed by the industrial photography of Edward Burtynsky, studies of nehiyaw/Cree worldview with knowledge keeper/life partner, Joseph Naytowhow, and Tibetan Buddhist philosophy/psychology. In addition to her art practice, Diana manages a small bed & breakfast, holds intuitive painting retreats and is known as the local cat whisperer.