I really believe that all human beings have an artist within them, if they choose to set that part of their spirit free and follow their creative instincts. I never fully embraced identity of ‘artist’ until the last few years when someone pointed out to me that everything I have done in my life involves a creative component that explores and expresses the world as I see it, whether it has been as a writer, photographer, dancer or teacher. What I do know is that I feel more alive when I create. If that makes me an artist, so be it.

Spirit of Kelly Lake

My photographic explorations typically have a photojournalistic or illustrative edge, which visually map our relationships with our environment and with each other. I have often thought of myself as an anthropologist with a camera or a visual storyteller, since I take my camera for a walk and document my observations of everyday life in a way that could be read like a poem or short story. I have always been interested in the theme, “what we do to the Earth, we do to ourselves,” however the idea for the photography imagery in Out of the Blue & Into the Red came to me in a dream last winter when select images from the documentary and industrial photography I had taken the previous summer were projected and juxtaposed upon human form. I rarely remember my dreams, but that night I awoke in the middle of the night to write my vision down.

I believe the power of artists in any community is to encourage individuals to think critically about the world they live in. Artists have a phenomenal responsibility to hold a mirror up to the society in which we live and create a dialogue in the minds of our audience. My intent with Out of the Blue & Into the Red is to give a voice to the voiceless: Mother Earth and the people silenced by Industry as well the conflicted voices of a frontier land motivated by the all-mighty dollar. As the various multimedia components united in the editing process, I became aware that all the pieces were a study of our disconnect as a society.

Rig Move

It is my wish that my installation motivates its audience to examine the bigger picture of their role on this Earth and begin to understand how powerful they are in creating a positive change. I strongly believe that we can be the change we wish to see in the world, as Gandhi alluded to, we simply have to have the moral courage to align our belief systems with our actions. I believe humans are amazing beings with a capacity for choice based on imagination, intelligence and innovation. We simply need to start telling a different story- one based on cooperation rather than competition, one based on love rather than fear, one based on sustainability rather than exploitation.

Out of the Blue & Into the Red represents the twilight zone between the question and the answer, the current situation and the solution, the audience’s current identity and their future identity. The world is in a time of transition, and Out of the Blue & Into the Red has evolved into a call for change that I know will inspire people from other communities far from its northern Alberta birthplace.

Olivia Kachman

2009

Olivia Kachman

Artist Biography

Olivia Kachman was born in Edmonton in 1978 and was raised on a rural acreage southwest of Edmonton where she developed a true appreciation for nature throughout her childhood. Upon completing her Bachelor of Education degree from the University of Alberta in 1999, she has traveled and taught English literature, ESL, science and biology in classrooms in Japan, England and Canada.

In a decisive moment, Olivia vowed to follow her lifelong dream of becoming a photographer and enrolled in the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology’s (N.A.I.T.) two-year Photographic Technology program, graduating with Distinction in 2006. Her passion for photojournalism awarded her Student Portfolio of the Year from the Western Canadian News Photographer’s Association and a summer internship with the Edmonton Journal, followed by a staff position as photographer at the Grande Prairie Daily Herald Tribune from 2006-2007. Subsequently, Olivia created her own photography business, Visual Cocktail, taught photography classes at the Centre for Creative Arts and was a substitute teacher for both the public and county school boards while residing in Grande Prairie.

Olivia’s passion for collecting the stories of the residents of the Peace country and exploring various frontier and environmental themes using multimedia motivated her to apply for grants and create Out of the Blue & Into the Red from 2007-2009. She currently resides in Edmonton, Alberta.

Nicole Bauberger’s 2007 exhibition, Listening to the Mountain, had paintings of the same mountain painted on 100 different days. In this exhibition, Nicole exhibited 3 small paintings of dresses. People liked them and it inspired her to continue making them and create the 100 Dresses series, which has now been created in 10 cities. That’s 1,000 dresses; Grande Prairie being the 9th city. Her first 100 Dresses was in Whitehorse in March 2007.

Nicole Bauberger thinks of the 100 Dresses project as a kind of landscape painting. She pays attention to the experience of being in a particular place at a particular time, and makes small dress paintings inspired by that experience. She looks to her surroundings and finds what is special, unique or just plain interesting about the city. “This can be a way of painting the landscape” she said. It’s a different level of painting the landscape. One that is less photographic, and more detailed, intimate and based on experience. All 100 dresses are painted in encaustic (en kô stik) which is a type of painting combining melted wax and pigment, and fused to a surface with heat. Objects which are imbedded into the wax are often not archival and may not stand the test of time.

Learn more about 100 Dresses for Grande Prairie.

Visit Nicole Bauberger’s website.

Photo Credits: Olivia Kachman of Visual Cocktail

Each “Angel” sculpture in this exhibit has an extraordinary significance. Not angels in a purely Biblical sense, they represent the kind and wonderful incidents that have transpired throughout my life, and the people who have touched it. As I sculpt each piece, I honour the graces that have enriched my world.

The wings of the angels enfold from the back to suggest not only the magical mode of flight but also a comforting, all-embracing cloak. There is a suggestion of movement in their bodies, a hint of fabric that is enhanced by the layers of ash and/or salt built up during the long hours of the wood firing. To me these layers and nuances are symbolic of my past and present experiences.

As the visitor journeys through the installation they will pass from the “Dark Angels” (signifying the bleak and challenging moments inevitable in life) to the centre where hope and joy are embodied by the colourful “Light Angels”.

My work is deeply informed by the ancient traditions of Japanese ceramicists especially the art and ritual of anagama wood firing. The wood fire process symbolizes rebirth and the continual cycle of life. These pieces come from the earth and become whole through the riches of natural world – wood, fire, ash, air.

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Not afraid to embellish his traditional roots with innovative inspirations, Yasuo Terada sets new boundaries in modern Japanese ceramics with his uninhibited forms, designs and glazes. His work, flowing from abstract to naturalistic, represents a fusion of age-old tradition and contemporary vision.

This balance comes from passion for all three aspects of pottery – clay, forming and firing. For Terada all three are essential and thus he digs his own clay, mixes his own glazes and builds his own kilns. He is compelled to research clay, and stone and the transformative process of wood firing.

Terada’s other passion – kiln building – is an elaborate task that requires scientific rationality and a profound understanding of the quixotic nature of fire. He is renowned for having built over 50 traditional wood fire kilns in Japan. Terada brought his kiln building expertise to the Peace Country in the late 1990′s and was pivotal in building the Bishogama kiln at the Northfork Artist Residency.

Terada’s interest in raw materials and profound love for Canada’s still unbridled natural environment brings him back annually. The Peace Country has become Terada’s refuge – a place for him to rejuvenate and experiment, to embody the character of a new landscape in his work. The East Wind Blows West collection exemplifies his relationship with the traditions of Japan and the wilds of Canada.

Terada is a lecturer at Aichi University of Education and an art advisor at Chukyo University. He has published extensively on clay, glazing and kiln building. He has also given numerous public lectures and held many workshops all over the world, including Canada.

Terada’s work has been exhibited in shows since the 1970′s in Japan, Taiwan, Korea, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom and is represented in both private and public collections worldwide.

His installations have been exhibited in Japan at the New Aomori Airport (Aomori), Fudoki no Oka Park (Hiroshima), Chukyo University (Nagoya), and at the Kenkokuji Temple (Nagoya).

Born in Holland in 1941 to peasant stock, Bibi Clement was never a conformist. She fought against the constraints of a traditional class system to study ballet and mime in Amsterdam throughout her teens. In 1957 she found a mentor in Brigitte Pos-Kray a respected sculptor-potter, and went on to study sculpture in Paris as well as Japanese watercolour. This inspired a lifelong fascination with the aesthetics of Japanese culture. Her travels took her to Algeria in 1961 where she was first exposed to pottery in its elemental origins – pit fired with sticks and dung.

 Bibi immigrated to Canada in 1970, teaching ballet for many years as well as art and French in schools. In 1979 she became a studio potter – working halfway up a mountain without a road or power for nearly a decade. Informed by nature, Bibi became an expert in woodfiring and challenged herself to create from the materials at hand. It has long been her mandate to create educational opportunities for other ceramists at her Northfork Artist Residency.

 Bibi’s unusual history is manifest in all she does. She creates simple, beautiful work that evokes the balance of the natural world and honours Japanese ceramic tradition.

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History of Artist Trading Cards

 
The concept of Artist Trading Cards began in Zürich by artist m. vänci stirnemann. In May 1997, stirnemann held a gallery showing of 1,200 cards at the INK.art & text bookstore in Zürich, Switzerland, where he collaborated with artists Cat Schick and Gido Dietrich. Visitors who attended the show were told that if they wished to have one of the cards they must bring one of their own creations to trade for it. Canadian Don Mabie (a.k.a. Chuck Stake) attended the first trading session in Zürich and brought the first North American Artist Trading Card Session to Calgary in 1997 (in collaboration with stirnemann) at The New Gallery in Calgary, Alberta. Monthly trading session are held at The New Gallery where as many as 75 people have attended. Regular trading sessions are held all over North America at various art galleries, schools and colleges.

Artist Trading Card: Open Studio Workshops

Artist Trading Card: Trading Session