ArtWalk ready for the Village Stroll

ArtWalk brings the art gallery to the Village Stroll this summer, showcasing sculptures, photography, paintings, jewelry and even live painting shows in some unconventional settings.

“Not everyone goes into an art gallery, but ArtWalk is great because it opens that up to the general public … where they don’t feel intimidated,” said participating artist Alison Hodson. “People can come have a browse and have a look at a great variety of artwork, but also a great price point.”

The annual Whistler Arts Council (WAC) initiative will see artwork placed into all kinds of Village locations,double sided tape including cafes, retail outlets, hotels and restaurants starting next week until the end of August.

“I think it’s a great thing for locals to have their local art up at local venues, you can’t
really ask for anything better than that,” said local photographer Ashley Nagy Ouellette.

This will be Hodson’s fourth time contributing to ArtWalk, while 2013 will be Ouellette’s second year partaking.

Artists involved weren’t asked to focus on a specific theme but Andrea Mueller, visual arts programmer and event coordinator for the WAC, wanted to focus on the final product.

“I thought it would be interesting this year to show the different processes involved in making the work,” said Mueller.

Live demonstrations will include glass blowing, pottery turning, wood and stone carving and 15 artists painting with a variety of media.

Though Hodson won’t be part of the live demos, her work should not be missed. Her mixed-media approach starts out with an image of a subject matter, which she prints onto canvas and cuts to remove a lot of the original image, then replaces it with textiles.

“It gives a nice softness to it and it gives a sort of three-dimensional quality without being three dimensional,” she said. “Parts of the image will pop out without relief being there.”

Hodson is not the only artist mixing in different aspects to her work.

“This year I chose to display little feet, more or less just because it’s something different than the beautiful scenery that everyone has and to show the other side of Whistler, the family side,” said Ouellette.

Ouellette chose to capture abstract photographs of her friend’s youngster’s toes and displayed them in her self-constructed frames.

“Whistler is so beautiful … but there is so much other subject matter around, just life in general that hardly gets shown,” said Ouellette.

The Ontario native said Whistler has a very strong art community filled with famous artists and up-and-coming ones that may only stay for a short period of time.

Hodson said that the small, vibrant art community gives visitors a chance to enjoy it for its beauty and to find something that reminds them of home to take with them.

“It’s very rare that you go to a small town and have a council that is so active in the arts,” she said.

Mueller’s team has been working on ArtWalk since January. Most of the are in place and she is excited to see everything come together.

“The art community is inspired, creative, warm and welcoming with a little bit of an edge, it makes for a very dynamic art scene,” said Mueller.

Hodson is facing the challenges of getting all her work done with a 10-month-old at home, as her work is quite time-consuming, while Ouellette is looking forward to the future and being able to network with some more toddler’s toes.

“There is such a population boom right now with the babes and they’re going to be the little shredders of the future, it’s important for me to capture these things” said Ouellette.

Hodson said opening night is a chance to explain the work and tell what really goes into it and what’s behind the work.

“It’s nice to meet people from the community that have seen your work around and hear what they have to say about it,” said Hodson.
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