April 22 to 28 is BC Arts and Culture week. It is when hundreds of arts organizations and schools across the province will be participating in celebration of the arts.
Each year, more than 20,000 artists, young people, educators and community members host and participate in performances, art walks, exhibitions, workshops and public art projects.
Together with the Eagle Valley Arts Council, the Eagle Valley Brush and Palette Club launches their annual Art Walk during Arts and Culture Week. The Art Walk is a favourite of our community and there is lots of involvement by our local merchants who display art work by our local artists. You may have noticed that there is art hanging in most of our merchants’ establishments.
Art, in one form or another, be it music, film, books, visual and media arts or theatre, is part of our daily lives.
After some research on the Internet, I came up with the weirder media used for art. And most of it can be found around the house, so there are no more excuses not to express yourself.
The following have been used in art galleries:
• Dust sculptures –made out of household dust found on furniture, paintings, floors, etc. I am now using this new “art” form to explain the killer dust bunnies under my couch to my friends.
• Toast or M&Ms – You’ll need quite a number of pieces of toast in order to make a picture. Expensive hobby, what with the price of bread and electricity. Maybe miniature pictures can be made with the M&Ms.
• Unmade bed – together with cigarette butts, empty bottles, plush toy and a mess on the floor, is a whole new way of expressing oneself.
• Urinal – Really? Yup it was shown at an exhibit in 1917.
• Bacon pieces – now if your child does not want to eat his breakfast and just plays with his food, maybe it is time to frame it and send it to an art gallery.
• Carvings on eggs – this may be a little trickier for the young ones. The idea is that the eggs don’t break.
• Spools of thread – thousands (about 5,000 to 10,000) of spools of thread to form a picture. However, at the price of thread, it may be a tad costly.
• Dead ants – this would get rid of your ant problem at the same time. However, you must have quite the problem. A painting was made out of 200,000 dead ants.
• Vegetables – just arrange fresh and rotten (yes, rotten, for that nice brown colour) vegetables into a portrait or landscape. It has to be quickly exhibited before the whole thing turns brown.
• Embroidered slices of Wonder Bread – Has to be carefully done in order to avoid making big holes in the slice of bread. The good thing is, however, that you can hang it on the wall because it will stay fresh for years.
• Microwave electronic gadgets – Do you have an old cell phone, computer, Xbox etc.? You can just microwave it and exhibit it as a sculpture. It has been done.
• Meat garments – Flesh dress. If you have some extra meat lying around, why not make a dress, shirt or any piece of clothing out of it.
• Empty picture frame – People who have been to my house notice that I have an old, pretty, empty picture frame hanging in my living room. But little did I know that someone has paid $10,000 for the same thing at an art show. There was just a piece of paper in it that said, “No image available.” Of course I immediately printed that same slogan on a piece of paper and it is now inserted in my empty picture frame. For anyone interested in buying, please contact me. No reasonable offer refused.
There are some other “substances” used for art work that, quite honestly, I did not find fit to mention. You can use your imagination. If you can think of it, someone has used it for art.
But the main thing is to express yourself and have fun with whatever you want to use as your media. Use any of the above mentioned or paint, use your voice or play an instrument, etc.
All kidding aside, the question about what can be considered art has been one of the most enduring, and it still sparks debate today.
Happy Arts and Culture Week.
For art information and/or news, please contact Carla Krens at 250-836-4705 or carlakrens@telus.net.