EDMONTON — With his first year nearly behind him, and a dramatic performance of a Greek tragedy in the works, Jim Guedo reflects on his time as Grant MacEwan’s newest theatre chair.

Jim Guedo, Grant MacEwan's newest theatre department chair, reflects on his first year on the job and the final performance of the season, Thebans, set to take the stage from March 28 to April 1, 2012, at Grant MacEwan's Centre for the Arts and Communications Lab Theatre. Photograph by Vickie Laliotis.

“In a way it’s been a rollercoaster because I’m experiencing everything for the first time,” Guedo said. “I think it’s challenging being thrown into the middle of a machine that’s always in motion no matter how much you prepare for it.”

According to staff, the new program chair has been a successful replacement to Tim Ryan, the theatre department’s founder who passed away in 2009.

“We’re very happy to have him on board,” MacEwan theatre instructor Jennifer Spencer said of Guedo. “We’re happy for the direction he’s offering us and the program, and we all feel really lucky to have him here.”

Spencer is currently directing the class of 2012’s final production of Thebans, a Liz Lochhead play that will take the stage on March 27 for a free preview performance.

An adaptation of Sophocles’ Oedipus the King to Antigone, the play is ripe with conflict and tension that has become synonymous with Greek dramas, Spencer said. And with elements of Euripides’ Phoenician Women and Aeschylus’ Seven Against Thebes, the play seeks to fill in the blanks by telling a more holistic tale to its audience.

“There’s quite an interesting arch of story that you usually don’t get when you go and see plays about the house of Thebes,” Spencer said. “You’ll usually only see Oedipus, and you might see Antigone, but to see all of them woven together gives you the whole, big, awful family drama.”

Guedo — who served as artistic director to three different theatre companies before coming to MacEwan — handpicked the graduates’ theatrical season, which kicked off in October 2011 with Xanadu and included performances of Vernon God Little and Merrily We Roll Along.

“I chose the plays with a specific reason in mind,” Guedo said. “I wanted to give the actors a stretch to inhabit four different universes.”

And in terms of content and level of difficulty, Guedo saved the best for last in Spencer’s opinion.

“Greek tragedy is primal; it’s basic human experience, and it’s where everything started in terms of theatre,” Guedo said. “Yes it deals in extremity, but we’ve all had a journey that deals with some of these major life changing experiences. That’s what makes it so accessible and relatable, because it’s based on human universals.”

Yet for Guedo — who has directed three out of the four plays this season — the greatest reward is simply seeing his students succeed.

“I think it’s the moments where you see the fruits of people’s labours pay off; we’re all here for the students, so seeing their growth and development is really incredible. At the end of the day, that’s why we’re here,” he said.

A MacEwan graduate herself, Spencer agrees with Guedo, adding that graduates of the program tend to have a high success rate in the field.

“Most of the theatres in this country are populated by actors who have been trained at our institution, including most of the stages in Edmonton,” she said.

“Our graduates are everywhere and they succeed because they’re tenacious. They don’t sit around and wait for people to give them work; they go out and make their own work.”

Much like Guedo, who dove head-first into his new position.

“One of the challenges of this year is that I parachuted into a university during a time of incredible flux because we’re gearing up for that potential of being one sustainable campus downtown in three years, so there’s been a lot of extra points of interest along the way,” he said.

“I’m in an interesting place right now where I’m in the present, dealing with the past and looking to the future simultaneously.”

Thebans will run from March 28 to April 1 at Grant MacEwan’s Centre for the Arts and Communications Lab theatre, located on 10045 156 St.

For ticket information, call the box office at 780-497-4470.

LaliotisV@mymail.macewan.ca

EDMONTON — It’s one thing to live the musicians’ life when you’re on your own; it’s a whole other challenge when you’re raising a family at the same time.

Yet some of Edmonton’s own performers, like many others, are continuing a successful year as they do shows across the city and surrounding areas while juggling busy schedules.

For Derina Harvey, Celtic music has been a part of her life since early childhood.  Originally from Newfoundland, Harvey is one of many accomplished musicians in her family — along with her sister, parents and husband, Steve Pinsent.

With a solo career and as the front of the Celtic-rock group, The Derina Harvey Band, Harvey started off with learning country and Irish-Celtic music.  While growing up, her taste in genres grew as she became more interested in rock while directing a choir.

As a professional musician, Harvey has been entertaining for over 15 years, but has been involved in performances since the age of five with her family.

“Celtic and Irish Newfoundland music is a part of our family music and a part of our daily lifestyle,” said Harvey.  “It does speak to us, though, because it’s the storytelling that’s the most fun — the storytelling and the easy ‘dance-ability’ to it all.”

Now the mother of three, Harvey is busy with a tight schedule that requires her to work five nights a week.  She is starting to record with the Derina Harvey Band for a cover album aiming to be released this summer in Edmonton.

However, juggling a career and family is no easy task, Harvey admitted, but with the support of her family and Pinsent, her manager, husband and drummer for the band, it’s been easier to manage.

“There are days where you can shove your way into my house and you’ll have to push your way out,” she said.  “We just balance it by being very honest with our children about what we do for a living.  Mommy goes to work at night and I’ll be home to give you a kiss while you’re asleep and when you wake up in the morning, I’ll be there.”

Now in their third week of recording, the band has been working on preparing for the cover album by determining what will be on the CD, the necessary funds, the public relations and which roles need to be filled.

While full-time musicians like Harvey have a hard time juggling their music with their daily schedules, it just as difficult for part-time groups like Celtara.

Celtara, a five person group of musicians with a repertoire of over 10 musical instruments, is one of Edmonton's many local talents. Supplied by Celtara.

An Edmonton-based Celtic band, Celtara is made up of five musicians with a repertoire of over 10 instruments and have performed for seven years.

Some of its members have been classically trained and a diverse background between the five of them, but they also created Celtara to have fun and share their love for music.

Along with performing, each of the members balances extremely busy schedules that requires the group to plan well in advance for performances and festivals — especially around a range of careers like being a music teacher in the Suzuki program, professors at Grant MacEwan University and a full-time job helping disabled people.

“[Finding a balance] is a challenge because there’s five of us in the band,” said member Steven Bell, a design studies professor at Grant MacEwan University.  “If we get an amazing gig like at a festival or something, we all do our best to work around the other things in our lives.”

However, the obstacles don’t end there.  While Celtara hasn’t had any major difficulties since their inception, one of the biggest challenges was coordinating the two CDs they have distributed.  While their first CD, Morning Light (2007), was challenging as the first release for the group, More Than One True Love (2011) forced Celtara to realize they didn’t just want to distribute a CD.  They wanted to share their love for music to their audience while deciding what songs would best fit the CD.

Much like the title of their More Than One True Love album, the group worked as a team to produce and play music while taking into account all other things in their lives.

“There’s a balance between the love of our music, of our family and other things,” said Bell.  “I think that’s one of the things we have in common — understand that life isn’t just one thing but all sorts of different things.

Derina Harvey will be performing at Sherlock Holmes Pub’s downtown location from March 27 to March 31.

Celtara has performances lined up at the Calgary Celtic Folk Festival Club Concert at Haysboro Community Centre on 1204 89 Ave. S.W. on April 28.  Ticket information can be found online.

ZoernigC2@mymail.macewan.ca

EDMONTON — Heavy metal band Three Inches of Blood will be crashing through the Edmonton Event Centre on March 30 just in time to celebrate the release of their latest album with the Metal Alliance Tour.

The show happens just three days after the official release of Three Inches’ latest studio album, titled Long Live Heavy Metal.

“The best way to describe it is as the next record of our careers,” Cam Pipes, vocalist of Three Inches of Blood, said. “It’s a simple, honest heavy metal record — that’s really the best way to put it.”

Vancouver's Three Inches of Blood play a show at Red's on April 18, 2005. The band will be revisiting the venue with the Metal Alliance Tour on March 30, 2012. Photograph supplied by Mark Marek Photography.

Pipes said that essentially their music isn’t a huge departure from one album to the next.

“We don’t set out to do things differently or repeat ourselves, we just kind of do what we do and if it sounds good we’ll stick with it,” he said.

Metal fan Jared Froese said that he has seen Three Inches a few times and he’s never been disappointed.

“They’ve got this sort of unique sound that intertwines all of these different sub-genres of metal. You can tell that these guys have a diverse background in what they do.”

Froese said that he plans to attend the show at the end of the month.

The Vancouver-born band is just one of several that is partaking in the heavy metal maelstrom. The line up also includes:

• Devil Driver
• The Faceless
• Dying Fetus
• Job for a Cowboy
• Impending Doom
• Wretched

Pipes said that although they’ve toured with a few of the bands on the bill, there are a few that they aren’t very familiar with and haven’t played with before.

“It’s interesting — it’ll be nice to see some of the guys we have toured with before, but really we’re just more interested in seeing how the dynamic of the tour will be having all those bands, and then just the varying musical styles going on and just seeing how the crowd reacts,” Pipes said.

Tours such as the Metal Alliance Tour are a common way for fans of a specific type of music to check out new bands and get a feel for all of different sub-genres that are out there.

Heavy metal as a genre came to fruition in the early to mid 1970s with bands like Black Sabbath, Motorhead and Iron Maiden. The decades that followed saw the genre flourish and spawn a plethora of sub-genres. Hair metal, power metal and thrash metal all found places in the underground music scene in the ’80s, drawing in huge sub-cultures of people that desired to fit in somewhere outside of the mainstream. The new millennium saw the genre take on more progressive and technical elements, straying far from the conventional heavy metal sound.

“There are a lot of bands that are really talented but just need a chance to be recognized,” metal fan Jared Froese said.

“They just need exposure, and big tours are the best way to get it.”

Three Inches’ main goal, according to Pipes, is to put on the best show.

“Our goal will remain the same, just to be the most memorable band in a good way,” Pipes said. “We want people to leave thinking we were the best band and then, in turn, they’ll come out next time we’re in the area.”

As for the band’s long-term goals, they hope to keep touring and visiting new places, Pipes said.

“The plan is just touring solidly and hopefully going to as many new places and covering new ground that we’ve never covered before… And then revisiting the places we’ve been,” Pipes said. “Just getting ourselves out there and exposing ourselves as much as possible.”

The Heavy Metal Alliance Tour will be hitting cities across North America, beginning with the acclaimed South by Southwest Festival in Austin, Tex. The bands will be making their way from the prairies, with shows in Winnipeg, Regina and Edmonton, to the west coast with a show in Vancouver before heading back to the states for the latter half of the tour. The tour wraps on April 21 in Houston, Tex.

Doors at Edmonton Event Centre open at 6:30 p.m. for the show. Tickets are available through Ticketmaster.

Morrisl26@mymail.macewan.ca

St. Vincent school at 10530 138 St. will host the Spring Zinger on March 17, 2012. Photograph by Aaron Taylor.

EDMONTON — The St. Vincent school gym will be transformed into a comedy club on St. Patrick’s Day to celebrate the Glenora Child Care Society’s fifth annual Spring Zinger.

The event, which will be hosted by CTV’s Graham Neil, is held to raise money for the Glenora Child Care Society, a child care group that focuses on allowing kids to develop and “grow cognitively, socially, emotionally and physically through play.”

The evening will feature talented local acts that range from stand up comics to a ukulele cover band.

“You go to this school gym, you don’t really expect to see this level of talent,” Neil said. “It brings the community together for some great laughs… in a school gym.

Headlining the event will be Edmonton’s Sean Lecomber, who has been featured on CBC, CTV, The Comedy Network and the Jay Leno Show. He was also the winner of Just for Laughs’ “Home Grown” contest.

Other notable performers include standup comic Tyler Hawkins and The Be Arthurs, the No. 1 ukulele cover band in Edmonton, Neil said.

Supporters of this event include Minister of Culture and Community Heather Klimchuk and Mayor Stephen Mandel. Both are expected to be in attendance.

“I think it is important to support community events that are bringing people together for a good cause, to enjoy themselves, laugh, and share stories,” Mandel said via email. ”These are some of the activities that enrich our lives and make Edmonton a great place to call home.”

It is this spirit of community that makes this night so special, Neil said, who also teaches writing for television at Grant MacEwan University.

“It’s one of those things that is a good event that you can walk to, you don’t have to bring a car or find parking, you can just go… You see people, maybe your kids go to daycare or your kids go to school together… but to get together and have some laughs together, it creates community spirit.”

Tickets for the show are $30 and can be purchased by calling 780-452-1991.

Doors for the show open at 6:30 p.m. March 17, at the St. Vincent school gym at 10530 138 St.

Taylora32@mymail.macewan.ca

EDMONTON — Preparing a show for the Edmonton Fringe Festival take months of writing, collaborating, practicing and fundraising — just ask the girls of Poiema Productions.

Melissa Heagy, Brianne Jang, Candice Fiorentino and Sara Vickruck are a group of aspiring young actresses who graduated from the theatre arts program at Grant MacEwan in 2008 and created their own production company. The ladies have been chosen in the “Fringe lottery” draw for the third year in a row and are currently in the process of writing their upcoming musical, set to perform six shows between Aug. 9 to 19.

Brianne Jang, Candice Fiorentino and Melissa Heagy gather to discuss the creation of their musical, which they will be performing at this year's Edmonton Fringe Festival. photograph by Kimberly Melo.

The folk musical, yet to be named, is a mix of thriller drama and suspense and is set in a small town in Nova Scotia in the 1960s.

One of the biggest obstacles the women face each year is how to find funding for their production. The majority of the costs for each show Poiema Productions has put on is supplied out of pocket.

According to Jang, their last two productions have cost them between $13,000 and $15,000. They performed at four Fringes across Canada and at one independent performance. This year’s local production is expected to cost roughly $3,000 to $6,000.

“The most difficult thing when preparing and creating a new show for the Fringe would be finding other artists to work with who are willing to work for the love of theatre and not just be compensated financially,” Heagy said.

Fundraising efforts and revenue through ticket sales help to offset some of the costs. Last year, they put on a fundraiser inviting friends, family and supporters to indulge in food, entertainment and comedy that they organized by themselves.

“This year we plan to do the same,” said Heagy.

To further cut costs, the women trade advertising for funding and services as well as collaborate with new emerging artists, many of whom are recent graduates of music and arts and theatre programs. They find other artists who are looking for experience and have the drive to make it all happen, even without a big paycheque at the end of it.

“It’s all about the passion, not about the money,” said Jang.

The Edmonton Fringe is the oldest and largest fringe festival in North America, said Thomas Scott, program director for Edmonton Fringe.

The ladies of Poiema Productions (from far left): Melissa Heagy, Sara Vickruck, Candice Fiorentino and Brianne Jang in their production of "Happily Ever After?"

The application for the Fringe Lottery, are released on Oct. 1 of every year. It is an indoor lottery for subsidized venues, and artists can put in their application for a nominal fee, said Scott.

“(The Fringe) selects 100 participants to be part of the festival,” Scott said. “Of those 100, 30 are international, 30 national and 40 local. If they get selected they get six shows and 100 seats per venue,” Scott said.

Regardless of the costs, the ladies of Poiema Productions find the rewards of performing and entertaining far outweigh any financial struggles they may endure.

“The past two years we have written, produced and starred in our shows so we get to see first-hand how audiences react as we are performing onstage,” Jang said.

“The shows we have created are solid pieces of art that we will always have in our company’s repertoire.  They are something to be proud of.”

The Edmonton Fringe Festival will take place from Aug. 6 to 26.

melok2@mymail.macewan.ca

Students gather around Jade Carpenter's scultpure to offer feedback. From right to left: Jade Carpenter (artist), Brianne McDonald-O'Mallie, Colleen Fiddler, Cassandra Hickman and Keil Hunka. Photograph by Tejay Gardiner, March 7, 2012.

EDMONTON — In effort to brighten up Stony Plain Road and surrounding businesses, colourful wooden totem and plaster sculptures created by MacEwan University’s fine arts students will be on display beginning on March 12.

Community Week is a first-time collaboration between MacEwan fine arts and music programs and the Stony Plain Business Revitalization Zone. Music students will be performing at ATB Financial during the noon hour on March 13 and 14.

Despite the obvious challenges of preparing a public art exhibit, there is big payoff. Fine arts instructor Agnieszka Matejko reminded her class about the reward of making their work public, which has taken months of late nights in the studio to prepare.

“It’s not always fun,” she told her students, “but everything is worth it because when you guys see your work out there, it’s not just going to change the community… it’s going to change you.”

March 7 was critique day for students hoping to have their sculptures chosen to display. White powdered footprints led the way into Room 192 of the Centre for the Arts and Communications, where sculpting students were working with Matejko to review their work in preparation for Community Week.

Matejko’s students gathered around each white plaster sculpture and offered the artist informed critiques and last-minute suggestions before Monday’s exhibit. Critics looked specifically for movement and unity, which were the established criteria for the assignment.

Student Nick Brown said the critique portion is not an intimidating process.

“When we’re with a group of people we are all comfortable with, it’s not such an issue,” he said.

For many of the students, Community Week is their first opportunity to publicly display their art and is an important transition.

“It makes us more professional,” said Leanne Snellen, “and we take our works more seriously knowing that the businesses and community are taking our work seriously.

“So we go from a student mindset to an artist mindset, and that’s an important maturity that we all need to have.”

Community Week is a first for the program and is jointly co-ordinated by Matejko and Tom Van Seters, from MacEwan’s music program. They see Community Week as a chance to showcase student work, which otherwise might stay in the classroom.

“That’s one of the reasons I do it. When you leave your work in a class, to be marked by a teacher, it really devalues your work,” Matejko told her students.

Van Seters said “this is a way for us to bring our music out to the community.”

Instructors and students look forward to the event but there will be challenges, said Matejko.

As the students shuffled around the fragile sculptures, elbows tight to their sides, she made a crack about a time she nearly dropped a twelve-foot sculpture at the Citadel Theatre.

She joked with her students, but it is a serious consideration for the artists come Monday when they will be transporting their wares.

“Murphy’s Law does apply here, anything that can go wrong will,” said Brianne McDonald-O’mallei.

Gardinert3@mymail.macewan.ca

EDMONTON — Grant MacEwan University’s Centre for the Arts and Communications was treated to a spectacle Friday night from top Canadian publisher and now author Douglas Gibson.

Gibson spoke to patrons of all ages at the John L. Haar Theatre at MacEwan’s west-end campus on March 2 as the 2012 Corus Lecturer, about his new book, Stories About Storytellers. He enthralled the audience with his rendition of tales from some of Canada’s most celebrated writers, personalities and literary icons.

Douglas Gibson happily greeted the audience as he began his presentation at John L. Haar theatre in the Grant MacEwan Centre for the Arts and Communications on March 2nd, 2012. Photo by Craig Fraser.

Gibson started his speech by welcoming the audience warmly and sharing stories of his personal life. But quickly the focus shifted to his tales of Canadian figures in literature and media, and the audience was brought under a trance of intrigue.

As each slide passed, each showing a famous Canadian artist, writer or personality, murmurs of recollection and recognition swept through the audience as Gibson would stop and smile for each one before describing a personal story about some of Canada’s best storytellers ever.

From past prime ministers like Pierre Trudeau, Brian Mulroney and Paul Martin to famous Canadian authors like Alice Munro, Morley Callaghan and W.O. Mitchell, Gibson spoke of his adventures fluently with a captivated audience at his fingertips.

Throughout the evening, Gibson was vivid in his recollection of events, and his ability as a storyteller was masterful as he recollected profound and heart-wrenching stories. Gibson brought about a myriad of emotions as he discussed being a guest speaker at famous Canadian author Hugh MacLennan’s funeral.

“They had his service at McGill University,” Gibson said as he paced the stage. “I had the honour of being one of the four speakers… I tried to do Hugh justice… I did my best.”

Some of the people involved in organizing Gibson’s visit to the school and those able to get a sneak peek from the book itself were just as excited to see the presentation as those who were just curious.

“This isn’t exactly a cold start… I got to meet and have dinner with him yesterday,” said Richard Brommeland before the show. “I got a chance to get an idea about the show already and what it’s about.”

The vast cultural experiences explored by Gibson brought a warm rush of Canadian pride over the room, as he shared stories from the far north, to inspirations from the Maritimes and even Canadian writing coming out of places like Paris, France, from renowned author Mavis Gallant.

“I thought he was prolific,” said Edmonton resident Randy Bloom. “I try my best to support Canadian literature and the authors. Gibson is a natural storyteller on his own and I was interested when I heard he was speaking.”

Ultimately, Gibson’s impressions, memories and even humourous recollections came full circle as he explored emotional reaches of himself and the audience with grace and humility.

Currently, Gibson is touring his show across Canada with his next one in the Aurora Public Library in Aurora, Ont., on March 5.

fraserc41@mymail.macewan.ca

Douglas Gibson, former editor and publisher at McClelland & Stewart, writer of Stories About Storytellers. Photograph provided by Douglas Gibson.

By Aaron Taylor

EDMONTON — One of Canada’s most renowned editors will be bringing his one-man show to MacEwan’s John L. Haar Theatre on March 2 and transforming it into a landscape that spans multiple decades of Canadian literature.

Stories About Storytellers chronicles Gibson’s career as an editor and publisher. It also provides insight into the storytellers that he worked with, Gibson said.

The event has caused a stir, said Sherrell Steele, the manager of the school of communications at MacEwan.

“As soon as the invites went out I heard responses from people saying that they are very excited,” Steele said.

And with a career that has spanned decades, it is easy to see why Gibson’s presence garners excitement.

Gibson’s career began in Scotland, where he won essay prizes in high school and a creative writing prize at St. Andrew’s University. This led to a scholarship that allowed him to come to North America.

After arriving, Gibson traveled across the United States on a $99 Greyhound bus pass until he came to Seattle, where he boarded a ferry and crossed the border into Victoria.

From there, there was only one destination that made sense. “Toronto was the centre of the publishing, and the media, world in Canada. So that’s where I took the bus to,” Gibson said.

That is where Gibson got his first job in the publishing industry, as trainee editor at Doubleday Canada. Immediately he realized that the job matched his personality.

“You have to be really interested in the details of the words,” Gibson said. “You have to be able to spend weeks going through the words. At the same time you also have to be able to say, ‘OK, here’s how we’re going to sell this.’”

And sell he did. After working his way up through the ranks at Doubleday, he joined Macmillan of Canada and was ultimately offered the position of his dreams at McClelland & Stewart as the first imprint publisher in Canada.

As an imprint publisher Gibson was granted creative freedom to select and edit manuscripts, while seeing them through to their completion.

“Any time a book is born, you see the first copy and you hold it in your hands, it is like Christmas,” Gibson said. “No matter how big the publishing house. That’s the real excitement of the publishing world.”

That excitement was only amplified by the amount of time Gibson spent on each book. As an imprint editor, he would edit between five and 10 books per year, and oversee every aspect of the process.

This dedication eventually led to Gibson accepting a position as the publisher of McClelland & Stewart, a position that he held until 2004, when he retired.

Since Gibson left McClelland & Stewart hard economic times, coupled with a general decline in the publishing industry, caused them to be sold to Random House.

For Gibson, this has called into question the future of the publishing industry.

“There is obviously huge uncertainty about the future of publishing,” Gibson said. “On the other hand, the sad business of McClelland & Stewart being absorbed so that it is now just another imprint of Random House is part of a sad, slow descent over the last few years into the current company situation.”

And while this is a concern of Gibson’s, his main focus now is his own writing, something that he was not able to dedicate his time to while he was polishing others’ words.

“It was only after I retired that I said, ‘OK, now’s the time,’ so I started to write,” Gibson said.

But the transition from editing to writing was not as seamless as the transition from editor to publisher.

“It’s entirely different,” Gibson said. “Editing, even when you are really heavily involved, it’s so much easier. The structure is already there, you just have to climb aboard a structure that is already moving rather than build a new one.”

Even the experience he had as an editor didn’t make the process easy, Gibson said. “The page doesn’t care, it’s still blank, it’s just you versus the page.”

Gibson won the battle against the page though, and what emerged was Stories About Storytellers, an account of the characters that Gibson worked closely with during his tenure as an editor and publisher. And while this may not have been the most traditional road to publishing a debut book, Gibson said, that is just life.

“What happens in life is: [something] opens up, you give it a try and you don’t know how far it’s going to take you, or in which direction. You just go with the flow… you do the best you can.”

So what exactly can people expect from a one-man performance featuring some of the most notable names in Canadian literature?

“What you get is me, on stage, knocking out Ernest Hemingway,” Gibson said, referring to a famous incident involving a boxing match between one of his writers, Morley Callaghan, and Hemingway.

But what people will really get is a story that couldn’t be told by anyone else.

“Other people dress up as Mark Twain or Charles Dickens,” Gibson said. “I dress up as Douglas Gibson, and I was born to play the part.”

Gibson will be performing at 6:00 p.m. Mar 2 2012 at the John L Haar theatre on 10045 155 St.

taylora32@mymail.mymacewan.ca

Two of Tom Wilson's paintings hang in the Daffodil Gallery. Photograph by Aaron Taylor.

By Aaron Taylor

EDMONTON — Fans of Juno award-winning musician Tom Wilson were treated to an intimate performance at the Daffodil Gallery on Feb. 1.

Wilson performed in front of a packed house to promote his debut exhibit, A Cast of Thousands.

The exhibit, which opened Jan. 31 and runs until Feb. 4, features paintings he makes with his fingers. He carefully etches lyrics into the paint.

“He’s not the traditional gallery artist,” Daffodil Gallery owner Karen Bishop said. “But part of our thing is to appeal to a less traditional gallery crowd. The energy he’s bringing in is fun, fresh and unpretentious.”

This is good, says Bishop. “We want to go for art without pretence in this gallery.”

A detailed shot of Tom Wilson's painting shows song lyrics etched into the oil painting. Photograph by Aaron Taylor.

Wilson is part Mohawk, and his work has an aboriginal influence that often features large faces and deep skies.

In addition to being a creative outlet, painting has allowed Wilson to explore another important part of his life: sobriety.

“I needed to find an outlet to begin a life of full productivity,” Wilson said. “Instead of being destructive i wanted to be productive and painting helped me on that road, and it continues today.”

Wilson hopes that his art will be able to help people other than himself. “I’m trying to put something positive out there,” Wilson said. “Hopefully to enrich our planet in some little way.”

This is something that, according to longtime fan Kevin Frey, Wilson was able to accomplish.

“It’s fantastic, you can feel an energy from his art and from him,” Frey said. “It really humanizes him. This guy’s got a voice that is truly Canadian and he’s married the two forms of art into something that is truly Canadian. You have to see it to believe it.”

Wilson’s paintings will remain at the Daffodil Gallery until Feb. 4.

taylora32@mymail.macewan.ca

EDMONTON — Pursuing a professional career as an artist is not an easy journey — just ask MacEwan graduate Melissa Soleski.

Soleski, who received a diploma in fine arts in 2008, found that getting out into the real world as a professional artist is quite difficult and scary, so she took a break from pursuing art seriously, until recently.

Her unique artwork, which consists of applying watercolour to a panel of wood in order to highlight its grains and colours, has been on display at the “Naess Gallery” at the Paint Spot, located at 10032 81 Ave., for the month of January.

Kelley Brent, general manager of the Naess Gallery, noticed Soleski’s work at Art Walk last year, which is an outdoor gallery featuring hundreds of working artists. Brent originally offered her the opportunity to be part of a group exhibit, but after seeing more of Soleski’s work, she decided that he work was strong and diverse enough to give her a solo show.

Brent’s gallery strives to help young artists put themselves out there.

(From left) Patricia Poohkay, Robert Marshall and Melissa Soleski at her first solo exhibit at the Naess Gallery. Photo supplied by Melissa Soleski.

“The Naess Gallery is to promote upcoming artists who want to get their feet wet,” Brent said. “It really is meant to start their career. “

This was Soleski’s first ever solo show and is a great start to her developing her professional career as an artist.

“I love how it is a public space so people who may not go to a gallery or show have the opportunity to see my work,” Soleski said.

It has also helped her make professional contacts within the artistic community.

“I’ve gotten a few interviews and I have had good reactions from people. I’ve sold a few pieces,” Soleski said. “This is great for my artist resume.”

Although her solo exhibit is an achievement for Soleski, combining her love for art and her need to pay bills was not easy to balance.

“Getting out into the real world is really quite difficult, it is very scary,” Soleski said. “Right now I am working a full-time job and doing art when I can.”

She is currently working as a recreational therapy aid at a choice program for seniors.

The two-year fine arts program at MacEwan teaches great technical skills, but it lacks the business side of things, leaving students to figure it out on their own, according to Soleski.

Rose Clancy, an instructional assistant with the MacEwan fine arts program, says it is really meant as a stepping stone for students to move on and pursue a degree.

“We don’t have room in our curriculum for a business course,” Clancy said, adding that the school does try to help along the way. “Our main goal is for them to reach a high level and move into a bachelor of fine arts, or possibly design or history.”

Melissa Soleski creating her unique artwork. Photo supplied by Melissa Soleski.

The fine arts student body is so diverse that graduates may move on to pursue a variety of degrees; however, they continue to practice and exhibit art outside of their degree program, according to Clancy.

Although there are many struggles that come with building a professional career as an artist, Soleski has a bright vision for her future.

“A dream career for me would to be an illustrator,” she said. “I love children’s books and doing cartoons. I love to make people happy with my art.”

Soleski’s ideal vision for the future would to be able support herself financially as a professional artist.

She is planning to finish her degree in fine arts. In the meantime, she is working on her website to promote herself as an artist.

“Quite honestly, if I went the rest of my life without selling my artwork it would be fine because I would still be creating it,” Soleski said.

The next exhibit that will be featured at the Naess Gallery is “Layers of Consciousness,” from Feb. 4 to 29.

melok2@mymail.macewan.ca