War brides’ story comes to life
By KIRSTEN GORUK
Herald-Tribune staff, December 16, 2011

Eleven years ago, Bev Tosh was given the opportunity to tell the story of war brides from all over the globe. Today it remains a project the painter has fallen deeply in love with and continues to pursue.

“I just loved the stories. I am a visual artist, so I really struggled with how to tell those stories. I really didn’t know where it would take me,” she says.

War brides are the women who married military men from countries overseas during the Second World War. When the conflict ended, they left their homeland to live with their new husbands.

“These women, tens of thousands of them, travelled alone after the war to an absolutely uncertain future, to a country they knew virtually nothing about,” Tosh says.

“Telephone wasn’t an option and there was no money – it was post-Depression and post-war. So they truly were one-way passages.”

What originally began as a personal quest to research her own mother’s story soon became a living, breathing passion for her. Not long after, other war brides started to seek her out to share their stories.

“For me it’s a rite of passage and a belief in the strength of women’s stories. Not just history, but the strength of women and these women in particular who went through aspects of war and then had to make a completely different life in peacetime,” she says.

Tosh’s War Brides exhibit opens at the Prairie Art Gallery on Saturday and features 88 portraits of war brides from various countries as well as other multi-media installations and artifacts.

“It was the first time I’d ever worked on rough wood. It’s very utilitarian. I loved it as a painting service, it had these deep cracks and the graining patterns that I found wonderful and could follow a neckline for instance.

“The knots could be buttons or I could use the small ones as the centre for an eye. In one instance when I did that it was about a relationship and marriage that started with a wink.”

A contemporary artist who resides in Calgary, Tosh has among her degrees a masters of fine art in painting from the University of Calgary and is a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. She’s lectured and taught art across the country and occasionally abroad.

Included in this exhibit is a new portrait of a war bride who found herself in the Hines Creek area, about two hours north of Grande Prairie.

“I know hundreds more than these. They just keep speaking to me and I just keep painting. There’s a brand new one that’s never been seen before,” Tosh says.

“It was especially for this exhibition. She’s a Dutch war bride and she goes by Corrie. The stories stay with me and I want to keep working on them, so they are growing.”

As the daughter of a Canadian war bride who fell in love with a New Zealand pilot training during WW2 in Canada, Tosh has a special connection to the women in her portraits.

When her parents’ marriage didn’t work out, nine-year-old Tosh left New Zealand with her mother and sister for a three-week journey to a new home.

“I know what it’s like to see your homeland disappear from the deck of a ship. You’re up so high and it feels like the country is moving away and the ship is stationary,” she says.

“It’s described by war brides in this way too. It’s a loss that you can never quite replace.”

That sense of loss and the question of what is home or what makes a place home is a universal idea that anyone can relate to. Tosh hopes that people who visit the gallery will become aware of the plight of women and children and their experiences in wartime.

“It gives this population a voice, but I think it also encourages others to learn about their own family roots.”

Just as she became enthralled with the stories these women had to share, often times Tosh has heard that the exhibit inspires others.

“They’re starting to research and become interested in these generations that are now elderly and the stories they have to tell. It puts a face to history, but it also encourages a look at living history while we can still do it and pass those family stories on.”

kirsten@dailyheraldtribune.com

The Prairie Art Gallery welcomes the public to view the War Brides exhibit during the holidays and to bring their friends, families and out-of-town guests.

Visit the Gallery during the holidays!

December 24                      10 am – 1 pm
December 25                      closed
December 26                      closed
December 31                      10 am – 1 pm
January 1, 2012                 closed

The gallery will be open regular hours on days not listed above.

Gallery Hours

Monday – Thursday        10 am – 9 pm
Friday                               10 am – 6 pm
Saturday                          10 am – 5 pm
Sunday                                1 pm – 5 pm

The Prairie Art Gallery re-opens its main exhibit space this weekend with new exhibit featuring the work of Canadian artist John Kissick.

The main gallery space has been closed since September 2010 for construction. This past September, the gallery was completely closed while the exhibition and reception areas were completed including new flooring throughout.

The gallery will celebrate the re-opening with a reception this evening for Kissick’s exhibit A Nervous Decade.

Co-organized by the Kitchener-Waterloo, Ont., Art Gallery in partnership with the Kelowna, B.C., Gallery, the exhibit has been touring since the summer of 2010, said curator Crystal Mowry who is in Grande Prairie for the installation and opening.

The show itself is not a retrospective, but rather a glimpse at the work of Kissick, an abstract artist, from 2000-2010.

“That kind of ambivalence around naming that decade seems like a nice fit for the show because he has been working through ideas about originality and what it means to be something new for the course of his practice,” Mowry said.

“And also what does that mean when you’re a painter when you have that weight on you and you’re striving to make something that speaks to people in the here and now?”

The show itself consists of some 20 large abstract paintings.

“I won’t say abstract expressionist but I would say, oftentimes, when people see his work they would put it in that trajectory or focus. I think that’s fair, but I think what he does is also part of a much larger conversation about making art in general,” Mowry explained.

Kissick is currently the director of the School of Fine Art and Music at the University of Guelph in Guelph, Ont. Trained as a painter and writer, he attended Queen’s University at Kingston, Ont., Cornell University and the Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Institute for Higher Education. He has held teaching and administrative appointments at Penn State University’s school of visual arts and the Ontario College of Art and Design.

Kissick’s exhibition record includes numerous solo exhibitions in Canada and the U.S. And his work is in a number of important national public collections.

“What you will see is just over 20 paintings that are large and dynamic and vibrant, and for lack of a better word, kind of jittery,” Mowry said.

“There’s a lot of energy that seems contained in each one of them and that’s the result, I think of the sometime bewildering palette of colours that he is working with.

“There are lots of oranges and yellows and brown and purple and all of these curious colour combinations, but also lots of texture and lots of pattern within these paintings kind of fighting against one another with in a shared space basically.”

Kissick will be in Grande Prairie for the opening on Friday.

“John is one of the most generous and articulate artists that I’ve had the chance to work with in recent years,” said Mowry.

“I think what he brings to his work is the special combination of being a maker but also of someone who has taught as well.

“He has complete comfortability in talking about ideas but is never proposing that he has all the answers either, which makes for a generous conversation.”

The reception for John Kissick: A Nervous Decade will open Friday at 7 p.m. at the Prairie Art Gallery in the Montrose Cultural Centre, 9839-103 Ave.

The show will be on exhibit until Dec. 10.

Beginning September 7, 2010, the construction project required the gallery’s art exhibitions to be temporarily interrupted with the closure of the largest exhibition space. On September 2, 2011 the construction project required the gallery to close completely while the exhibition and reception areas were completed, including new flooring throughout. The gallery staff set up temporary offices at Centre 2000 as guests of the Grande Prairie Museum and Heritage Discovery Centre.

“Both the City of Grande Prairie and the Heritage Discovery Centre have been very kind to us and we thank them for their generosity,” says Robert Steven, Executive Director and Curator of the Prairie Art Gallery.

The construction to the restored Prairie Art Gallery, west of the Montrose Cultural Centre continues and the completed gallery is scheduled to open in spring 2012.

John Kissick: A Nervous Decade
November 18 – December 10, 2011

Opening reception: Friday, November 18, 2011 at 7:00 pm
The Prairie Art Gallery, 9839 – 103 Avenue

Curator, Crystal Mowry and artist, John Kissick will be in attendance.
Admission to the gallery is always free.

Saturday Night Cocktail Party! Cultural Costume Party

Family Workshop: Mask Making

High Art: Passport to the Peaks

Events for Alberta Arts Days are happening ALL over the province! Check the Alberta Culture Calendar to see a full listing of events to learn what’s happening in your area.

View ARTimage newsletter!

The exhibition “High Art: Passport to the Peaks” serves as a documentary of the Passport to the Peaks program which has become a part of Alberta’s history. It cements the relationship between fine art, sport and personal achievement. Artist Robert Guest and Dr. Keith Darcel are deeply connected to the natural history written all over the Canadian Rockies. Both of these men are avid outdoorsmen and have created a program that has been enticing potential climbers and hikers to experience something they have fallen passionately in love with: encountering nature.

Location: Teresa Sargent Hall, Montrose Cultural Centre

Viewing Hours During Alberta Arts Days:
Friday, Sept 30         10 am – 6 pm
Saturday, Oct 1        10 am – 5 pm
Sunday, Oct 2            1 pm – 5 pm

On view September 6 – November 15, 2011

Regular viewing hours:

Monday – Thursday           10 am – 9 pm
Friday                                  10 am – 6 pm
Saturday                           10 am – 5 pm
Sunday                                1 pm – 5 pm

The Prairie Art Gallery is hosting a free mask making workshop where families and children can drop-in to design and make their own mask to wear and take home. Drop-in anytime between 1:00 – 5:00 pm and get creative with us!

This event is happening during Alberta Arts Days (Sept 30 – Oct 2, 2011.)

Saturday, October 1, 2011
Location: Teresa Sargent Hall, Montrose Cultural Centre
Time: 7:30 pm – 1:00 am
Free admission

You are invited to join us! The Prairie Art Gallery is hosting a cocktail party to celebrate Alberta’s unique blend of peoples and passions. Guests are welcome to wear traditional cultural attire or even dress up as their favourite super hero or movie character. Share your love of sports, cooking, theatre, animals – whatever it may be! Costume-free guests are welcome to join the party, but we invite you to express yourself and what you love by using your fashion!

This event is happening during Alberta Arts Days (Sept 30 – Oct 2, 2011.)

As the restoration of the Prairie Art Gallery continues forward, our location within the Montrose Cultural Centre is entering a new phase of construction.

Starting September 19, our temporary office will be in the Kin Gallery, located in the lower level of Centre 2000 on 11330-106 Street.

We will be available for limited office hours, but we will continue to be available by phone and email. Thank you for your patience during this time of transition.

We’re very excited that several of our travelling exhibitions from our TREX program will be on display in Grande Prairie and area this fall! Learn more about TREX.

Tina Martel: evolve
Curated by Todd Schaber of the Prairie Art Gallery
September 2011: Grande Prairie Public Library

Tina Martel's travelling exhibition, evolve, makes it's debut at the Grande Prairie Public Library. It's on view now! Be sure to see it this September.

Liberation from Natural Forms: Ronald Kostyniuk and his Neo-Constructivist Style
Curated by Todd Schaber of the Prairie Art Gallery
September 2011: Alexander Forbes School, Grande Prairie
October 2011: Beaverlodge Elementary School

Offspring: The Lindoe Legacy
Curated by Les Pinter of the Alberta Society of Artists
October 2011: St. Joseph’s High School, Grande Prairie

Evy and Betty: Celebrating our Peace Region Matriarchs
Curated by Lynn LeCorre-Dallaire of the Prairie Art Gallery
November 2011: Beaverlodge Regional High School

Out on a Limb
Curated by Shane Golby of the Art Gallery of Alberta
November 2011: St. Patrick School, Grande Prairie