In celebration of International Women’s Day, Van Dop Gallery in New Westminster spent some time with a Langley artist Elaine Brewer-White, asking her about her work, inspirations, and the future of women’s issues (#BeBoldForChange).
The multi-talented artist, mother, wife, and comedian will have her work featured in the gallery during an exclusive exhibition celebrating women for Mother’s Day this year.
That exhibition opens on Mother’s Day, May 7, and continues through until May 31.
Brewer-White has “two beautiful daughters, three cats, one dog, and one husband – Gordon White, a master clown with Cirque du Soleil.
She has been working as a clay figurative sculptor for more than 25 years. Her work has been collected worldwide. Her subjects range from Einstein to everyman as she seeks to capture the undeniable joy of living in each piece.
She reports finding an un-ending source of material in her day-to-day life‚ art as therapy.
She said her morning mantra is carpe diem, seize the day.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Women’s Day questions
Ahead of the show, they asked the Saskatoon-born, Emily Carr College-trained ceramic sculptor to share a few of her thoughts.
Q. Who was your first female role model and why?
A. In art, I’d have to say Canadian multimedia artist Gathie Falk. I first met her in the ’80s, when my art college class got a tour of her old home and studio in Kitsilano.
I was inspired first by her ceramics, the colour, and simplicity of her hanging cabbages and fruit pyramids.
During our visit we got to see her most recent project, which at the time was huge canvases for her Night Sky series. Gathie was painting them one at a time in a tiny second bedroom where there was no room for anything else but her and the canvas.
Her tiny house was bursting at the seams with art by her and other artists.
That experience taught me that making art was akin to eating and breathing, it was an essential part of a life well lived.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Q. With the Women’s issues being at the forefront of current affairs since the march earlier this year, what would you like to emphasize about the public discourse around women’s rights?
A. Women’s rights – from wage parity, to reproductive rights are all equally important.
My work as often revolved around self-image, and celebrating bodies of all types, all dimensions, all ages.
As I age and gravity takes effect, I find myself drawn to this visual deterioration as a kind of awesome beauty – body wisdom hard won through life experience. A woman’s body is like a beautiful landscape to me, and each gesture an affirmation of the right to exist.
Q. What are some of the biggest issues facing women your age right now in the world?
A. The biggest issues for women are the same for all of humankind.
Now that multi-corporations own most of the world’s wealth, even First World countries like Canada have growing populations of working poor where poverty is becoming the norm, especially for women and children.
Populist leaders are taking power in countries all over the world, where the most useful tools to propagate more power is fear, hatred, and brute force.
To lift women out of poverty through wage parity and education would empower them to be a voice against the warmongers and environment destroyers.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Q. How do you feel about how women are represented in the media, film, and pop culture? In what ways, if any, do you identify with or relate to the prevailing public image of women?
A. I gravitate to women in TV and film that I can relate to, Carol Burnett for all her female characters who awkwardly embraced life, Meryl Streep, and Viola Davis for portraying strong women with glorious imperfections, and music idols – Joni Mitchell for her iconic struggles to be heard and be free, Jan Arden for her lyrical sorrows, but also her gut-busting sense of humour, Measha Brueggergosman for her soaring voice and her proud, flaunting curves.
All these women go forth and shape their art to who they are – they tell their stories and make the rest of us feel a little less alone.
Q. What kind of images of women do you wish to portray as an artist through your chosen medium?
A. My artwork is about mass, texture, colour and movement, of a moment in time persevered in a piece of clay.
I portray women as thoughtful, powerful, sentient beings who are constantly discovering new depths of their being. Each piece provides a narrative, but is also subjective, letting each viewer come to their own conclusions by what part of their own story they bring to a piece.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Q. Who are the women in your life that inspire you today?
A. My daughters, young women forging their own way as they invent their own life narratives.
Q. The 2017 International Women’s Day theme is “Be Bold for Change” – what does this mean to you?
A. Be Bold For Change – means to me, embrace and welcome new experiences.
Change is necessary for growth! It brings new people, new relationships, new opportunities, and new ideas.
Being bold, is being without fear – so I pledge to fearlessly embrace any change that comes my way in this coming year!
A life in the arts means to embrace the unknown by challenging the known so as to wring out every last drop of essence of a life well lived. This I pledge – as long as there is red wine and chocolate to smooth the way!
Q. What message do you want young girls to hear as they approach womanhood?
A. Your birthright is to be loved, to be respected, to be cherished and to be heard. Your responsibility is to give back the same.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Brewer-White’s work has been widely exhibited across North America and featured in a number of corporate collections and public art installations.
Her current independent work is based on the figure, where moments of solitude of simple interactions between people celebrate the wonder of the human condition.
She spent 10 years performing with the Calgary and Vancouver Theatre sports Leagues, where she developed her attitudes towards creative thinking and the narrative.
Some of her latest works, Women in Red, will be on exhibit at the Van Dop Gallery, 421 Richmond St. in New Westminster in May.
