Gallery: May 2018

Cindy James & Dilys Kulchitsky

Gallery Reception on Friday, May 18th. Details here. 

Cindy James

Cindy James lives in Edmonton, Alberta, and has worked as a court reporter and television closed captioner since 1992. 

In 2010 Cindy participated in an encaustic painting workshop and fell in love with the vibrant colour and versatility of the medium.  She has learned her craft through various encaustic workshops both online and through travel to the United States.  As her encaustic studio has expanded in size and scope, so has her understanding and appreciation of encaustic painting and the numerous opportunities for discovery that the medium affords inquisitive artists. 

Cindy continues to focus on the exploration of the ancient medium of encaustic wax and all that it offers.

Artist Statement

Encaustic medium is a perfect fit for my inquisitive nature and my passion for learning.  I am as enamoured with the glassy smooth surfaces as I am with the textural capabilities of wax, and the ability to transform a painting into something sculptural is a constant source of wonder and delight.

Encaustic painting lends itself well to abstract depictions, and although my paintings often start with that intention, I am most drawn to emotive, sparse, surreal landscapes.  I search out the joy of small things to be found in a melancholy subject, and I seek inspiration through simplicity in a complex and chaotic world. 

I often use my original photography in my work, and I continue to explore the versatility of encaustic painting and the near limitless potential that the medium offers through mixed media.

Check out more of Cindy's work here! 

Dilys Kulchitsky

Born and raised in Edmonton Alberta, Dilys Kulchitsky, a wife, mother, Registered Nurse and Opera Singer didn't start painting until late 2014.

Photography classes in 2014 was Dilys' first foray into visual arts.  She soon took up painting with acrylics and mixed media until the summer of 2015 when she was introduced to Encaustic Medium her current medium of choice.  

With no formal training Dilys paints intuitively and reactively.  Encaustic medium (bees wax and damar resin)  allows Dilys the opportunity to explore, expand and experiment. Because of the versatility of encaustic medium she paints different styles using various techniques from landscapes and mixed media to photo-encaustic and mono-printing!

Artist Statement

Why I paint with bees wax: Bee's wax and tree resin ( aka encaustic medium) are not what initially came to mind when I thought  of painting pictures but I can't think of anything else I'd rather paint with!

An encaustic painting's final outcome is quite unpredictable as the process of transferring the molten wax onto a cool surface hardens the wax immediately.  It isn't a medium that you can manipulate much once it's on the panel.  Fusing each layer of encaustic medium with a blowtorch provides some ability to manipulate but the medium itself decides  it's final outcome and how it will interact with the previous layers and how it will move when reheated. I love this unpredictability and it is the surprise endings that keep me engaged and enthralled with the art of painting with encaustic medium.

I don't have any formal visual arts training so I paint intuitively.  My experiences and inspirations come from many different aspects of my life- an opera I'm singing in, photographs I've taken on my travels, current events, music, my geographic location, the seasons and nature.

My techniques are as varied - sometimes smooth, sometimes textured, sometimes nature inspired and embedded with dried plants, sometimes abstract and geometrical.

My goal is to continue to discover the many opportunities that using encaustic medium provides and to use and manipulate this medium to express and share my many versions of my world!

My goal is to continue to discover the many opportunities that encaustic medium offers and to use and manipulate this medium to express and share my version of my world!

Check out more of Dilys' work here!

Gallery: April 2018

Amy Sallenbach & Dominika Koziak

Be sure to check out the Gallery Reception on Wednesday, April 4th. Details Here.

Amy Sallenbach

Amy Sallenbach is a multidisciplinary artist and pilot who has frequently left the constraints of gravity behind, one way or another. Reflecting on our world and the nature of time through assemblage mobiles, scientific theory utilizing profuse colour, and observational works balanced by gravitational pull, she seeks a panoptic theory clear of language. Her inspiration is found in outer space, movement of air and water currents, antique technology, trees, flying, and the inner voice. Amy is an Alberta based artist, raised in Lethbridge, and received her BFA in Fibre from ACAD in 2001. She is best known for my playful exploration of astronomy and outer space through kinetic sculpture and installation, as well as acrylic paintings that contemplate the inner environment, and its connection to the conscious via colour and form. 

Artist Statement

Interspace seeks to create an engaging visual environment, one that allows the viewer to experience the harmonies between the natural world and those of the theoretical and intangible. To bring forth a visual language that explores scientific theory and the history of those discoveries. To connect with the origins of the Fibonacci sequence, how it intersects with the Spiral Dynamics model. To explore theories surrounding the structure of the multiverse, patterns of thought, and the formation of neural pathways.

Check out more of Amy's work here.

Dominka Koziak

Dominika Koziak is a Canadian artist with a Ukrainian-Polish cultural background. Born in
1991 at Edmonton, Alberta, Dominika completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at the University of Alberta in 2013. Dominika then moved to New York City where she attained her Master of Fine Arts degree at the School of Visual Arts. Dominika also received intensive training at the Rome Art Program in Italy where she focused on painting and drawing from classical architecture and art. In New York City she attended
at the Prosopon School of Iconology, where she studied classical techniques and the
style of Icon writing.

Artist Statement

The icons written in the image of BIGBANG go beyond mere “fan paintings.” While inspired by found imagery, through the icons these images are transcended into a new purpose — to enlightened, sacred, and metaphysical objects of pure devotion and spirituality. It is BIGBANG themselves in a state of pure refinement and awareness, existing in a perfect form. As an icon, they exist as windows between the imagined and reality, giving a spiritual link. As a relic, they are a tangible object with a physical link giving the viewer an audience with BIGBANG. Together they grant the viewer with a metaphysical manifestation of the quintessential version of BIGBANG, existing in the realm of enlightenment and eternity one can personally engage with.

Check out more of Dominka's work here!

Special Gallery & Discussion: Ancestors & Elders

Ancestors and Elders: The Creative Journey

Presented by Shumka

Gallery Reception: March 29th, 7:00 - 9:00 pm | FREE
Gallery on Display: March 25th - 30th

Get your tickets here!

Join the creative team and cast members as they provide a glimpse into the
collaboration and creative process of Shumka’s world premiere production, Ancestors and Elders. Ancestors and Elders features a cast of Shumka Dancers and multidisciplinary Indigenous artists. Together they share the story of the first Ukrainian
newcomers to Canada, exploring the shared values and respected differences between these hopeful settlers and the First Nations people they encounter in a new land. The evening will feature visual art by Lana Whiskeyjack and Svitlana Kravchuk and discussion from members of the creative team.

Details on the event here!

 

 

 

Gallery: March 2018

Jill Thomson

Be sure to check out the Gallery Reception on Wednesday, March 7. Details Here.

Artist Bio

Jill Thomson's artwork evokes her personal history of a small town/prairie childhood, an urban Montreal young adulthood and a settled life as artist and mother of three in Edmonton. Her rich colourful palette and complex compositions celebrate a creative life in cities with generous front porches, cafes, bookstores, bicycle paths, gardens and ravines.

She received her BFA from Concordia University in Montreal. She is represented by Gibson Fine Art in Calgary and AGA Art Rental and Sales in Edmonton. She has work in the Alberta Foundation for the Arts and in international public and private collections.

Thomson’s neighbourhood painting for Premier Rachel Notley depicts the Legislature from a Strathcona neighbourhood perspective, and hangs in the Premier’s Office in the Alberta Legislature. “Edmonton Neighbourhood” was purchased by the Edmonton Arts Council as a gift for their capital campaign and hangs in Edmonton City Hall. Nine of her paintings are featured in a permanent alleyway mural for the Alberta Ave Alley Project, as part of the revitalization of Alberta Avenue. Her painting, “Heritage Quarter” was brought to life as the setting for three operas in a collaborative video projection project with Mercury Opera and Guru Digital and was recently screened in opera festivals in the UK and Ukraine.

Check out more by Jill Thomson here.

Sara Norquay

Artist Bio

Born in Edmonton, raised in Toronto, Sara trained as an artist at the Alberta College of Art and
developed her art career in Santa Barbara, California where she lived for 20 years.
She has been making artist books since 2001. Her books have been made in different mediums including printmaking techniques, drawing and painting, stitching and painting on fabric, mixed media and digital printing. Some books are one-of- a-kind while others have been made in small editions. She also makes fine art prints and works with felt. Moving back to Canada in 2009, she writes short stories and exhibits her work in Edmonton, Calgary, Toronto, and California.

The Coats Project: A coat is a necessity of life in the north. Most of us have several coats to keep us warm and dry from the variety of temperatures we live in throughout the year. The coat can also symbolize or be a metaphor for comfort, protection, public identity, memory, and aspiration. In this series, the coat connects with an earlier series of prints representing the four elements: earth, water, air and fire. These prints are collaged relief prints: woodcuts and linocuts.

Check out more by Sara Norquay here. 

Gallery: February 2018

Keita Kankam

Kicking off The Carrot's annual Black History Month, we welcome Keita Kankam to our gallery. Originally from Ghana, Kankam's art is inspired by the shapes and colours of his hometown.

Be sure to check out the Artist Meet & greet on Wednesday February 7. Details Here.

Artist Bio

I studied at the Ghanatta college of Art and Design in Accra, where in 2006 I obtained a diploma in Art and Design. Often I create what I feel, think and see around me. My favorite genres are abstract compositions, landscapes and village scenes. I prefer using acrylic colors, inks, pastels, and charcoal because they are easy to use once one knows how to manipulate them. Starting to paint on my own as an independent artist has not been easy. There have been times of success and downfalls, but with the passage of time I have seen the beauty, humour, and value in all my work.

Artist Statement

As an artist I strive to develop paintings which express the beauty that exists in the world to myself and to others. Often I create what I feel, think, and see around me. An important part of my process is sketching what i have seen during my daily activities or what I have felt, and then recreating this on canvas. When painting, I want to create something beautiful and expressive, so I put so much of energy and passion into the work to create something unique. At times I have to work on a sketch in order to develop different styles and color schemes. By playing with colors and styles, i hope to create something that is attractive and enjoyable by art lovers, collectors, and newcomer alike. I prefer using acrylic paint, water colours, pastel, ink, and charcoal because once one is familiar with them, they prove to be comfortable and reliable tools. Currently, I am developing a painting style that incorporates a toothbrush and sponge to create an impasto effect in my work. Typically, my preference is for bright colors because color is light and makes the world a better place to live in. Art constitutes an important part of my life as an artist. I hope to bring viewers into a place where they see a reflection of everyday life.

Follow Keita on instagram

Gallery: November 2017

Catherine McMillan

Artist Bio

Catherine has always been an artist, a traveller and a night owl. After Art & Design studies at MacEwan University, her desire for travel and her passion for drawing people took her wandering around the world as a street artist. Alongside her travels, Catherine studied fine art and painting for many years under the mentorship of American painter Eileen Raucher Sutton (whose past students also include Brian Selznick—author and illustrator of The Invention of Hugo Cabret). 

When Catherine and her husband Mark finally moved back to Edmonton, her hometown, she started her company called The Quirky Art Cafe and spent many years drawing live at events, teaching art classes, hosting art & wine nights and gallery shows, doing illustration work and serving coffee in her cute little shop conveniently located right across the street from the elementary school that her three children attended. While she thoroughly enjoyed all of the aspects of her creative business, Catherine always knew that her true passion was painting and so in January 2014, she closed her café and began to paint full time.

She approaches her paintings intuitively, beginning the conversation with thick textured gesso followed by layers of fluid acrylic paint repeatedly applied and wiped off until a luminous colour relationship is created. Sometimes she starts with a clear destination in mind, but often her ideas come out of the work itself; an authentic, emotional response to some unplanned creative interaction. 

Catherine is just as inspired by the real people in her life, her daily physical surroundings and the places she travels to as much as she is by the figures, the words and the magical settings in her imagination, thus forming the constitutive elements of her work. With incredible texture, rich colour, and her own unique sense of perspective, she manages to seamlessly consolidate these separate worlds in a way that entices us to accompany her in a new version of reality.

Annual Garage Sale Fundraiser

Carrot-GarageSale-SocialPost2-Apr15.jpg

The Carrot Community Arts Coffeehouse is happy to announce its annual fundraiser:

The Ultimate Garage Sale

Donate: When cleaning out your closets this spring, set aside your items and drop them off between May 9 to May 12 at the Carrot Community Arts Coffeehouse (9351 – 118 Ave). Items must be in working/good used condition. 

The Sale: On Saturday, May 13 (from 8am - 4pm) come bargain hunt through treasures, wheel & deal, and make us an offer! Everything must go!

All proceeds from sales support Arts on the Ave. (Arts on the Ave is a registered Canadian Charity).

If you have questions about items to donate or about the sale, please call us at (780) 471-1580. 

Chalk it up in the Community - Call for Artists

Community Celebration!

Join Arts on the Ave for a community celebration as we take over side streets and back alleys with chalk images and word art.

July 22, 2017
9:00 am - 4:00 pm

We need chalk artists! This event is for both emerging and professional chalk artists. The deadline to apply is Friday, June 16th at Midnight. Apply online below:

Fill out my online form.