Artists are opening their studio doors one last time for this year's Squamish Art Crawl.
Next Saturday and Sunday (Sept. 21 and 22), residents can peek into the creative spaces of 15 artists. The event marks the wrap-up of a seven-week extravaganza exhibiting local work. Starting in August, 35 artist had pieces strung and placed in 38 locations around town.
The event kicked off last month with a party in downtown O'Siyam Pavilion Park and an open studio tour at the front end of the crawl. The tour was well attended, but Kate Rurka, president of VISUALS (Squamish Valley Artists' Society), said at the time she expected a larger turnout for the second tour.
On opening weekend, the art crawl was up against Squamish Days Loggers Sports, Kite Clash and the North Shore's Harmony Arts Festival.
Artists to watch for:
Toby Jaxon
Many of Jaxon's series of woodland paintings depict the local geography, spellbound and mystical, illuminated by radiant flashes or beams, as light travels deep onto the forest floor. Her impressionistic acrylic "scapes" verify how colour creates impact and effect that stimulates the visual senses.
She affirms, "Nature is alive with vibrating colour and animating spirit; this observation is confirmed in the views I enjoy from my own backyard and informs my latest series of canvasses."
Her compositions are derived from vastness and mystery of nature. The under-painting lurks, popping sporadically, enough to persuade unification through the entire piece.
Meghan McCrone
McCrone creates pottery with the excitement and anticipation of it going out into the community with beauty, personality and practicality.
Using handmade pottery heightens intimate daily rituals of nourishment and celebration and McCrone views handmade pots as objects of love and consideration. It is especially important to her to be able to share her pottery with the larger community as our culture seems obsessed with perfection, mass production, and disposable domestic products. Life and art are synonymous and McCrone has chosen the medium of clay for her expression.
Sophie Brunet
Brunetis a painter, art therapist and facilitator of Creative Workshops including "Soul Expression Painting." She has a private practice in art therapy, has a contract with the Squamish Nation for the past five years and has done art therapy sessions in the school system. She also facilitates art therapy workshops at the Chopra Addiction and Wellness Center.Brunet is trained in a diverse range of artistic mediums and spiritual practices. She is passionate about dancing, travelling and helping people to find healing through creative self-expression.
For more information on the Squamish Art Crawl visit www.squamishart.com.
