Castlegar Art Walk 2014 runs until September 14, featuring more than 30 local and regional artists and artisans, displaying work at 26 venues around Castlegar. Maps for this self-guided art tour are available at the Castlegar Visitor Centre and the Castlegar News office. For more information, please visit www.castlegarculture.com/culture-guide/castlegar-art-walk.
Each week, The Castlegar News is featuring biographies from different artists in the show.
Artist Name: The Doukhobor
Cultural Interpretive Society (#1)
Venue:
Station Museum & Gift Shop
Medium:
Heritage textile art
(lace enhancements)
Current City: Brilliant, BC
Company/Contact: castlegarculture.com/culture-guide/uscc-cultural-interpretive-society; doukhoborcis.org
Bio & Artist Statement:
Doukhobor handcrafted artifacts represent a significant tradition of skills brought to Canada by our ancestors from Russia. Some of the earliest crocheting was used as edgings and borders on woolen “zanaveski” (aprons) and bed linens, as well as inserts for miscellaneous linens and camisoles.
After the 1940s, crocheted doilies, tablecloths and runners became very popular, and other household linens, such as tea towels, aprons and pillowcases also had beautiful crocheted edgings. Although more recent handicrafts are sometimes inspired by published patterns, the heritage pieces showcase the unique talent of the Doukhobors.
Today, many vintage Doukhobor crocheted doilies are incorporated into creative projects as embellishments for clothing, quilts, shopping bags, quilted table runners, and art pieces. The Doukhobor Cultural Interpretive Society’s submission for the 2014 Castlegar Art Walk is an exhibit of vintage crocheted art, as well as ideas for upcycling these treasures.
Artist Name: Mary Kate Woodward
Venue: Hollis Wealth (#17)
Medium: Drawings
Current City: Castlegar, BC
Company/Contact: castlegarculture.com/culture-guide/mary-kate-woodward
Bio:
I have been a working artist, art instructor and published author for more than the twelve or so years I’ve lived in the Kootenays. As an art instructor, I teach drawing, “poster design for scientists,” and art appreciation for university, college, art gallery, night school, community centre and private students.
I exhibit and sell my work in one-person, group, club, and juried shows, as well as in art gallery rental and sale programs. My works are featured in collections in Scandinavia, Great Britain, China, the United States and Canada. Pictured: “Sisters”
This year, with assistance from a Columbia Kootenay Cultural Alliance grant, I created a new collection for the 2014 Castlegar Art Walk.
Artist Statement:
My drawings focus on simplification, abstraction and exaggeration, departing from the representational to facilitate design and flow of line. Subjects of my drawings are living things, both wild and domestic, as well as the human figure. The subject evokes the inspiration to put the line on paper.
I draw animal portraits, as well as animal, horticultural and human subjects, as inspirations for the creation of the lines with the focus of the latter drawings on reductive line, its variation and flow. These subjects are simplified to a few lines that describe their gesture or action.
My recent drawings have been focused on:
• Reduction of subjects to one line, or a few lines.
• Interplay of interesting lines, overlapping lines, and connecting lines that would not be expected to connect.
• Variation within individual lines
• Relationships between subjects in a drawing.
