A Second Look at the Member's Show

Article by Kristen Scholfield-Sweet.

Welcome the opening of a new season at the Old Schoolhouse Gallery by taking another look at the Members show. Here are four ways of looking at art to take with you.

The ability to look deeply is the root of creativity.

We all look, but do we look deeply?  The creative upwelling of much art originates in a quiet gaze, rather than in analysis or calculation. As you move throughout the exhibition, notice those pieces that open your awareness of a shape or surface, that lead you into a different way of seeing a material or structure, that shift your feelings about what is art.

A rule is a way of structuring awareness.

Artists follow rules? We all do, especially ones that operate at a subliminal level. Often an artwork jumps into our awareness because the artist intentionally brings these rules from the background to the center of our attention. Notice those pieces in the show that demand we interrogate our assumptions. How does it feel when what should be horizontal becomes vertical? When something small makes a huge impression? When colour shades our mood?

We tend to think of the artist's work as the output.

 The real work of the artist is a way of being in the world.

Were you a nerdy kid who hid behind a sketchbook? Did your Mom tape your drawings to the fridge, or leave your lego sculptures set up on a TV tray? Notice work in the gallery that feels like the artist him or herself is the subject. How does this person show you their artful way of being?

We are dealing in a magic realm.

Nobody know why or how it works.

How can something so apparently useless be so precious? Art takes us to realms of feeling and knowing we cannot access with analytical reasoning. Find those art works that require you to take a leap into the unknown, the unexplainable, the never before seen.

You can also re-look at the Annual Members Show by participating in a writing workshop directly connected to the art this Friday the 20th beginning at 7 pm. This is a great opportunity to examine this amazing collection of local artworks with new eyes, and flex your own creative muscles through a fun and thought-provoking writing process. So bring a pen and paper, and join Soma Feldmar for some creative play! 

All welcome, no experience necessary, admission is by donation.

The Member’s show continues Saturday and Sunday the 21st and 22nd from 2 pm until 6 pm.  Thanks to Rick Rubin for the quotes from The Creative Act: A Way of Being. 

A special thanks to our island artists who have participated in this exhibition.

Brigid Weiler, Madhurima Braaten, Pamela Boles, Iris Steigemann, Jane Newman, Donna Naven, Melanie Boyle, Kathy Smail, Monika Beal, Ayami Stryck, You’Meit,

Leanne Hodges, Mary Clare Preston, Gabriel Dinim, Judith Williams, 

Darshan Stevens, Dale Thomas, Karen McDiarmid, Denise Drury, Filipe Figueira, 

Christann Kennedy, Leona Jensen, Meinsje Vlaming, Kristen Scholfield-Sweet,

Ann Motifee, Laurel Bohart.