Amanda Salmon - May 2017 - Artist of the Month

Amanda Salmon is an emerging artist living and working in Victoria, B.C. She received her Batchelor of Fine Arts from Alberta College of Art + Design in 2015. Her work examines the ways dominant ideologies and visual culture shape understandings of Landscape as a genre in Contemporary Art. Her most recent body of work explores the lines between the landscape we view as idealistic, and the landscape that we interact with on a daily basis. Conceptually working through a library of symbols that act as stand-ins for elements of the traditional landscape ( and nature ), she accentuates where these lines meet.

I try to create representations of the landscape as simply as possible, to see how much we can derivefrom what we are given. I start with very simple associations that I reduce down into a symbol or stand in. In a way I am tasting how little it takes to represent a Landscape through a contemporary framework. After spending the last few years building my library, I have began playing with one or two symbols, and in the case of fresh air -the pool and fake grass to redefine the landscape genre for myself, and bring the traditional idea of landscape into a contemporary sphere. There is also always an element of simulacra and simulation in the work that challenge levels of reality, a concept that is often blurred.

Amanda Salmon

salmon_amanda (instagram)

www.amandasalmon.com

Facebook: amanda salmon

Arden Rose - April 2017 - Artist of the Month

I create art to express myself without words. I love using a palette knife to create big smooth swatches of richness or to scrape down to reveal layers of colour. Painting provides me with joy, with calm, and with a reflective state.
Arden Rose

website:  www.ardenroseart.com  

Sherry Tompalski - March 2017 - Artist of the Month

Artist Statement

I have been blessed with two parallel careers over the past 25 years: psychiatry and
art. While they are intrinsically different fields, the work of each has informed the
other.

I assessed and treated adolescents, adults, couples, and families, and also worked for
the military treating soldiers. Throughout, I maintained my art practice working on
projects often with my husband, and invariably exploring visually, psychological
concepts, questions and understanding.

I experienced my art and my art career as vitalizing my work with patients, while my
psychiatric career underlined the importance of people feeling understood and
understandable. Consequently, in my art I often wanted to “put myself in another s'
shoes”, maintaining that the individual's world or point of view is worth looking at and
paying attention to.

The Boxers were inspired by the Female Afghan Boxing Club in Kabul who train in
the basement of the Kabul stadium where the Taliban used to publicly execute women
accused of adultery. Sadaf Rahimi, a female boxer from Afghanistan who made history
by being the first Afghan female boxer to be invited to the Olympics recounts, “In
Afghanistan, there is so much violence and prejudice towards women. Because of
that, when I come here and box, I feel freedom. Here we are all girls, and we talk with
each other and practice. Here is freedom for me and for every girl.”

This work began as large graphite drawings that were torn up and reassembled with
fragments of musical score, portraying the process of coming undone, reforming and
coming together. The Boxers incorporate a fragmented, difficult history which
hopefully with healing and strength becomes music.

The Talking Portrait Series (50 in total) were developed from live sittings of refugees
who were also artists themselves. Their comments made while sitting, as well as
time-lapse photography of the developing portraits are presented in video form with
the final portraits and have been exhibited nationally and internationally.

I do not believe we give people a voice, anymore than we can empower people.
However, when we listen in an authentic way people develop a voice and experience
themselves as more effective.

Ultimately, I hope my work helps to contribute to an environment that embodies trust
wherein people can feel their needs are legitimate and experience themselves and the
world as a safer place to live in.

I thank the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, the City of Ottawa for their
financial support of these projects.
Sherry Tompalski

http://gagegallery.weebly.com/sherry-tompalski-profile.html

Janis Blyth - January 2017 - Artist of the month

paradise found

A little spiritual help need it 

Janis Blyth's art captures the energy, humour and soul of the themes she paints. Strong colour and statement reflecting life's journey bounce off her canvas'. There is a vitality and spirit of the people as they interact with one another or with the elements of nature in the art.

     Janis worked in fashion retail after graduating from Uvic with a Fine Arts Degree. This influenced some of her creativity using pattern and layering of paint which was similar to the build up of fabrics and textures of the clothing. While raising her family in Vancouver, Janis participated in numerous group and solo shows. Moving to the Okanagan in 2010, she embraced the wine industry and it's people into her artwork. Showing in different wineries and meeting tourists, Janis' art flourished. The pull towards family however brought Janis and her husband back to the island.

     Acrylic and gouache are her favoured mediums. Janis is a member of the Gage Gallery- Arts Collective in Oak Bay.


www.janisblyth.com

well balanced

Diane Adolph - December 2016 - Artist of the Month

http://dianeadolph.com/

Liz Dailey - November 2016 - Artist of the Month

Throughout the process of art making, I always try to combine sensuality and spirituality as interchangeable elements. A spiritual energy lies in our landscapes and cityscapes and how people interact with that energy serves as my inspiration, I love observing the nuances of human expressions and how people move through their world. My work often appears fantasy-like and surreal and when people look at my paintings I want them to say I once had a dream like that. 

Liz Dailey taught high school visual art for 26 years in Ontario and now happily creates art in her studio and frequently exhibits her work in solo and group shows.

Liz earned her honours BFA degree from the University of Calgary, B.Ed.  from the University of Western Ontario and her Masters in Art Education from the University of Western Ontario (2011).  Liz enjoys working in a large range of media that includes oil paints, encaustic oil, acrylics, conte, charcoal, chalk & oil pastels and glass fused painting.

lizdaileyartist.tumblr.com

Heather Midori Yamada - October 2016 - Artist of the month

Utsuru/ Shift

Heather Midori Yamada is a visual artist and teacher who works with Japanese `washi’ papers in banners, collage and installations and mixed media canvas works.

A recent Victoria arrival, Heather shares her love of colour and texture with Japanese washis in workshops which explore calligraphic brushwork with ink and watercolour, hand tinting, pouring and patterning on a variety of Japanese and other Asian papers using acrylics and textural mediums.

Heather’s inspirations include meditation and yoga practices as well as Japanese floral arranging- ikebana from the Sogetsu school.  Heather returns to Montreal to study with her 92 year old master, Watanabe Sensei. Heather teaches annually at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts,  with Au Papier Japonais, and at an annual creativity retreat at Auberge La Mara in Quebec’s Eastern Townships.

Following three studio moves from Montreal, Heather looks forward to ‘staying put’ from fall onwards to deepen her connection to the beauty of Victoria, in order to enhance her personal and creative life. Stay tuned for information regarding International Creativity Retreats which are on the horizon and all are welcome…

  

Heather joined the Gage Gallery Collective in December of 2015 with pleasure, excitement and respect for her fellow ‘Gagers”. 

www.artyamada.com

Hahagokoro series II

Shifting Plain series #I