Some of the crowd had to be shepherded in through Gallery 2’s back stairwell in order to find a carpeted seat on one of the stairs rising from the old courthouse’s lobby on Saturday, when a collection of young artists took over the space for a celebration of youth art.
Is Art, a newly formed program run through the Boundary Music Educators Association and with support from Tim van Wijk of Gallery 2 and Lizanne Eastwood of the Grand Forks and District Library, has been created to offer students an opportunity to present their work at the gallery, before their peers and the community. Several dozen friends, family and encouraging members of the public turned out for the inaugural event on Oct. 26 to see what creativity resides in Grand Forks youth.
Grade 10 student Daelen Clark showed off his swirled pieces for the public. Like a faux-marble countertop (but with much more colour), Clark said that the style of his works drew him to art “for probably the simplest reason: it’s simple,” he said.
“Take a couple paints, dump ’em on a canvas and just shake it around for a while,” he explained.
Beyond thinking of the colours and how they’ll work together, “I just pretty much make it up as I go along after that.”
For other artists, their performances represented the results of hours upon hours of practice.
Host and poet Emily Davison performed a piece that she’d written and crafted, “mostly” self-taught pianist Matthias Hanlon brought the electric piano to life, as did fellow musicians Joelle Bowman (who played, “My heart will go on”) and Emma Lewis. Anna Ham opted instead for her voice and a ukulele to perform her own song, “Heartbreak gets me high.”
Vlad Tanasescu, one of the first artists to present on Saturday, introduced a drawing he’d done with crayons. The piece, a shadow-filled representation of a character from the Fallout video game series, was inspired from promotional materials he’d seen from the game, before it had even been released to play. (Apparently the game itself wound up to be a bit of a disappointment).
On the top edge of the character’s shiny helmet (think Star Wars stormtrooper if you’re unfamiliar with Fallout), there is evidence of Tanasescu’s work and progress.
“I tried dappling,” he said, “but it was really not working. Then I decided that this was getting really annoying, so then I decided to start smudging.” The end result is a thick and layered image worthy of a video game cover – it’s appropriate, given that he said he wants to be character designer for a video game company when he’s older.
Beyond professional goals, Tanasescu also told the crowd that drawing serves another purpose as he deals with the stresses of high school.
“My pencils just say to me, ‘Get ready for today’s therapy session,'” Tanasescu said.
“I draw when I feel,” he said, “but sometimes I just draw.”
Is Art is set to run again soon, with a tentative date scheduled for Dec. 7, again at Gallery 2. Prospective artists interested in participating can contact organizer Tracey Garvin at traceygfstudio@gmail.com.
@jensenedwJensen.edwards@grandforksgazette.caLike us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
