Christiana Myers in The East

Artist Christiana Myers

I was excited and really happy to find another article written about my friend and fellow class mate, but this time it was in the online The East Magazine.

My friend Christiana Myers is an artist and a deep thinker. I vividly remember during our painting critiques in class, her work and subject matter being very thoughtful, provoking and introspective. We both shared an interest in psychology and we had a few engaging discussions about that, in our funky fine art lounge at the Gardiner Building on campus, before the brand new Purdy Crawford Centre for the Arts was built.
Oh those were the funky happenin' days!

Christiana has always impressed me. She's a very engaged, life affirming, talented young woman who follows her heart, something I've always admired about her, and this is certainly reflected in her artwork.

Art Work Christiana Myers ( Kelly Lawson)

Purdy Crawford Centre For The Arts

Here's a great photo of my heuristic Professor Thaddeus Holownia, in the brand spankin' new Purdy Crawford Centre For The Arts. I'm so happy he didn't retire this year, and will carry on as the Head of the Fine Art Department at Mount Allison University in Sackville New Brunswick.

Sackville made the pages of the Canadian Art Magazine, with this article about The Purdy Crawford Centre For The Arts. Here's the link. http://canadianart.ca/news/2014/10/06/mount-allison-new-building/

Alex Colvlille 110 Paintings - Globe & Mail Review

Thursday October 2nd 2014, I attended the Alumni Exhibition in the Purdy Crawford Centre For The Arts, at Mount Allison University. I was humbled, honoured, and very grateful to be a part of this wonderful Alumni group of artists dating back from 1950 through 2012. 

During the presentation those attending gathered in the Motyer-Fancy Theatre, to listen to the noted speakers. Prior to this, while sitting next to my painting professor Chris Down, whom I greatly admire for his painting prowess, his intellect, and his ability to connect with students, we got to talking, and I told him about the AGO having the Alex Colville Exhibition of 110 paintings. My professor told me his friend Andrew Hunter,  curated this show, and he stated how capable he was, in understanding the existing art norms within the art world. I was excited to learn that the Alex Colville exhibit was happening, and so wished I'd had the opportunity to see it.

After the presentations, I sought out a former student of Alex Colville's and participant in the Almuni Exhibit, Tom Forrestall. I was anxious to tell him, he was the reason, and inspiration I took up painting with the medium of egg tempera, after seeing his retrospective at the Owens Gallery, that took my breath away. He told me how Alex Colville had taught him how to use egg tempera.

I relayed the fact that there was no one at Mount Allison University Fine Art Department, that taught this traditional painting medium while I was studying. He said, he was not surprised, and I said, I was however very fortunate, to have had a gifted painting professor who lent me a great book, The Craftsman's Handbook by Cennino D'Andrea Cennin, that provided me with some very practical instruction, which I found very helpful, though I mostly learned by painting.

Tom and I talked about the recent Alex Colville's AGO exhibition, and he mentioned the unfavourable review, by the Globe and Mail of this show, which I found online today. Truthfully it stupefies my mind why there are those, like the individual who wrote this review,  seem intent on Colville bashing. I don't get it. That said, and to focus on the positive, there were very insightful comments in response to this review, reflecting the high regard, love, appreciation, great admiration, and respect Canadians have for Alex Colville, and see him as much more than being an 'original' Canadian artist. I believe Alex Colville set the bar for a generation of aspiring artists, and I am one of them.

I know there is no need to explain or complain about James Adams review in the Globe & Mail, because Alex Colville, the great Canadian and artist that he was, will always be an artist of  " deep relevance and significance. "
 I hope this exhibit will travel, and most of all in the near future, will come to the Purdy Crawford Centre For The Arts.
 

“Colville’s work was deceptively simple,” he says. “There’s what you see on the surface, but you can so easily go deeper. He wasn’t controlling about that. He wanted you to come to the work and take it where you want to go.”  -Andrew Hunter
  

Purdy Crawford Centre For The Arts

I am looking very forward to a group exhibit featuring Maritime Artists in Parrsboro at the Art Lab Studios & Gallery. I have a painting in this exhibition. This celebratory event takes place October 3rd at 7:00 p.m.


I am also very honoured, and excited to have been asked to be a part of the Mount Allison University Alumni Exhibition at the Purdy Crawford Centre For The Arts, October 2nd 2014.


The Mount Allison Fine Arts Alumni Exhibition will feature more than 60 works by 64 years of MtA Fine Arts alumni.
Organized by the Mount Allison Fine Arts department, alumni from the classes of 1950 to 2013 have generously contributed their works for the first-ever multi-generational alumni fine arts exhibition.
The exhibition will run from Oct. 2-Oct. 9 in the atrium of the Purdy Crawford Centre for the Arts. List of alumni participants: Robert Barritt, Class of 1950 Christopher Pratt, Class of 1957 Mary Pratt, Class of 1957 Tom Forrestall, Class of 1958 Dale Dunning, Class of 1969 Herménégilde Chiasson, Class of 1972 Michael Coyne, Class of 1975 Jane Irwin, Class of 1977 Barbara Safran, Class of 1977 John Armstrong, Class of 1978 Dianne Bos, Class of 1978 Stephen Scott, Class of 1978 Lucy Hogg, Class of 1979 Alice Reed, Class of 1980 Robert Tombs, Class of 1980 Ann Manuel, Class of 1981 Dan Steeves, Class of 1981 Karen Buck-MacKintosh, Class of 1982 William Forrestall, Class of 1982 Janice Wright-Cheney, Class of 1983 Steven Dixon, Class of 1983 Stephen May, Class of 1983 Peter Bjerkelund, Class of 1985 Jennifer Walton, Class of 1986 Kathleen Sellars, Class of 1986 Timothy Johnston, Class of 1987 Christina Nick, Class of 1989 Michael deAdder, Class of 1991 Isabelle Devos, Class of 1991 Alexandrya Eaton, Class of 1991 Will Gill, Class of 1991 Nancy Schofield, Class of 1991 Paul Griffin, Class of 1992 Lesley Johnson, Class of 1994 Dennis Austin Reid, Class of 1996 Patrick Visentin, Class of 1998 Michael Walsh, Class of 1998 Jon Claytor, Class of 1999 Melanie Hamilton, Class of 1999 Karen Stentaford, Class of 1999 John Haney, Class of 2001 Maskull Lasserre, Class of 2001 Melissa Marr, Class of 2003 Courtney Chetwynd, Class of 2004 Meaghan Haughian, Class of 2004 Deanna Musgrave, Class of 2005 D’Arcy Wilson, Class of 2005 Melanie Colosimo, Class of 2006 Evan Rensch, Class of 2006 Jessie Dodington, Class of 2008 Anna Williams, Class of 2009 Corey Isenor, Class of 2010 Keeley Haftner, Class of 2011 Erika Sullivan, Class of 2011 Catherine Meyers, Class of 2012 Christiana Myers, Class of 2012.

It so wonderful  to see the Purdy Crawford Centre For The Arts building finally opened, and I must admit, I am just a little envious of the new Fine Art students. I hope they appreciate what they have. It's a far cry from the days of sharing a studio cubby hole space, with another Fine Art student in the Gardiner Building. But I have some great memories, and I was very fortunate to have had the best ' cubby buddies ' a person could ask for.