HUMBOLDT ARTIST TAKES COMIC ART SERIOUSLY

When Elaine Will decided she wanted to be a comic artist, it was no laughing matter.

Although her art form is labelled comic book illustration, there is a lot more depth to the stories behind the pictures on exhibit from now until the December 31 at the Humboldt Museum (HDMG).

Will is the artist featured in the current Artist’s Showcase exhibit, and it was a stroke of luck that it fell at the same time as the Comic Art and Minimates exhibits which opened November 9 at the city’s gallery.

“It doesn’t usually happen that we can tie in the main exhibit with our artist’s showcase feature,” said HDMG curator Jennifer Hoesgen. “This time, we had the opportunity with Chris Bernhard’s comic art and Elaine Will’s cover illustrations.”

Although both artists use the same form, Bernhard’s and Will’s artwork is significantly different in context and appearance, and will give the visitor two perspectives on comic art.

Will grew up in Humboldt and remembers the day her future was sealed. At the age of seven, she recalls buying a comic book and sitting down to read it while her mother was grocery shopping.

“When I finished reading that comic, I thought to myself, ‘this is awesome, I want to do this for the rest of my life!’” she said.

The young artist was able to realize that dream, and the route she followed took her to Bournemouth, England, to study. There she completed a three-year honours arts degree at the Arts University College, obtaining a BA in Illustration.

Five of the pictures in her exhibit date from when she was studying in England, and Will explained that she based these drawings on a song by British post-punk band The Fall.

These framed pictures with purple matting comprise one of the projects she did to complete her degree. Unlike her other pictures on display, they are a set unto themselves, without the sequential art frames normally found in comic book art.

The other framed illustrations are cover art for the comic book series she has been working on in the last two years, Look Straight Ahead.

“There’s a whole sub-genre of comics that are like what I do,” said Will. “They are sort of serious ‘slice of life’ stories.”

Will describes her current series as an “existential story about a teenager who goes crazy and suffers from mental illness.”

“It’s sort of his journey,” she explains. “He’s searching for answers to questions about life, death, love and art.”

Will writes, illustrates and self-publishes her work. Today she says there are no more issues of the first and second volume of Look Straight Ahead available.

The real feather in her cap, though, was when those two volumes were nominated for the Gene Day Award for self-publishing artists, in the 2011 Joe Schuster Awards (Canadian Comic Book Creator awards).

The Joe Shuster Awards are the Canadian equivalent to the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards in the United States, itself the comic book equivalent to the Oscars.

MUSICIANS PROVIDE ELIXIR FOR THE SOUL

Elixir Ensemble at Marysburg Assumption Church, Nov. 2011

Those who ventured out to Marysburg Assumption Church on November 13 were treated to a concert of exceptional quality from one of the finest music ensembles in the province.

The Elixir Ensemble performed a program of mixed works including two pieces by Romantic composers Schubert and Brahms, and two contemporary pieces by Spanish composer Xavier Montsalvatge and American composer Kenji Bunch.

 The ensemble brought along a guest artist, mezzo-soprano Cassandra Warner, who dazzled the audience with her interpretation of Montsalvatge’s songs, accompanied by Kathleen Solose on the piano.

The rest of the pieces were for piano quartet and piano trio, and although the four musicians blended impeccably, each one had an opportunity to shine in the program.

Mezzo-soprano Cassandra Warner

Their opening piece, the Adagio and Rondo D. 487, by Franz Schubert (1797-1828) with its scintillating piano line played more like a piano concerto, according Solose more of a solo role, while the strings (violin, viola and cello) together took on the orchestral accompaniment.

The first half of the program concluded with Warner and Solose interpreting three of Montsalvatge’s Cinco Canciones. Montsalvatge (1912-2002) wrote this set of Spanish songs that revolve around Cuban culture and require some degree of dramatic presence to carry them off. The audience may have hoped to hear Warner, a trained opera singer, perform some familiar arias, however, the  mezzo-soprano had no trouble convincing them of her versatility and talent as a dramatic singer in this work.

In the second half of the program, the ensemble began with a more melancoly and personal work, Johannes Brahm’s (1833-1897) Piano Quartet in C minor, Op. 60.

Brahms’ composition illustrates the personal and romantic suffering the composer experienced in his life.

The minor key sets the tone for this piece, and the strings’ dramatic lines with long, strident chords evoke the composer’s languishing sentiment. Throughout the piece, the piano blended into the work like a piece of fine, delicate lace.

The Elixir Ensemble ended the concert with an unusual composition by contemporary Kenji Bunch. Bunch is known for his slightly jazzy compositions, and Intersections afforded the audience a chance to hear a contemporary piece that was tonal and delightfully rhythmic.

Elixir Ensemble’s four musicians reside in Saskatoon, where the three string players are members of the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra: Violinist Oxana Ossiptchouk is prinicipal second violin; violist James Legge is principal violist; and cellist Scott McKnight is acting principal cellist.

Solose has performed solo, chamber music and concerti in Europe, the United States and Canada, and is now a professor at the University of Saskatchewan and artistic director of the ensemble.

FOR THE LOVE OF LITTLE CRITTERS

The Humboldt and District SPCA is going to “Raise the Woof.”

That’s the name the association chose for its campaign to raise money for a new animal shelter.

At the HDSPCA, they do what they can with the space that they have. Right now the small building located on Hwy. 5 east houses 10 dogs and 28 cats. Ask any one of the workers, and they will tell you the shelter is already full

to capacity, yet they anticipate an intake of more animals when the really cold weather hits.

“At least they’re safe here with us,” said Susan McInnes, a board member of the SPCA and a regular volunteer. McInnes was busy cleaning out the cats’ cages in one corner of

the shelter, while another volunteer was just coming back from walking one of the dogs.

McInnes took the tiniest black kitten out of a small cage and held it up in her hands.

“We may have someone for this little one,” she said. “I’m hoping that they will come back for her.”

The SPCA is offering a special deal for kittens right now, as a means to try and lower the number of animals in their facility.

“Some of the older ones have been with us far too long,” McInnes said about the cats at the shelter, “but people generally tend to want the little ones.”

Meows, purring, and various displays of character and personality came from the furry felines, who all seemed to crave a little affection, or a sniff of the hand, or just a little caress. One young cat up in the second floor cages looked quite comical as she tried to make herself noticed by clinging with all four paws to the wire of the cage.

“It would be a wonderful thing if some of these animals could even be fostered out before Christmas,” McInnes said. “We’re usually short on staff at that time of the year, and it’s really difficult to get enough volunteers.”

The problem the shelter faces now won’t be solved with a new building – because there will always be animals abandoned or turned in – but the new space will have amenities that aren’t available in the current space. The plans include an off-leash area for the dogs, and a park-like area where people can donate a memorial tree or a memorial bench.

HDSPCA vice-president Bonnie Hepp says everyone on the board, as well as the many volunteers, are excited about the proposed new space for the animal shelter. Sketches of the proposed project will be on display at the trade show, November 6 and 7 at the Uniplex in Humboldt.

“We will have a display that will show our current facilities, plus the drawings for the new one, plus pictures of many of the animals that have come through our shelter over the years,” said Hepp.

So far, the SPCA has raised $106,000 toward the new facility, and they are just about to launch their “Raise the Woof” campaign for the additional $500- to $600,000 that will be needed for the land, building and equipment required to run the shelter.

The new facility will be approximately 4,000 square feet and will be located in the industrial area on the west side of Humboldt.

And they do it all for the love of little critters.

Woofing isn't only for dogs

Imagine a vacation where you work on a farm or in somebody else’s garden in a place you’ve always dreamt about going to?

That’s what Raisa Hoverun, an ESL teacher who lives in Italy has been doing in Canada for the past two summers.

Hoverun is doing what thousands of people the world over do, known as “woofing.”

Woofing is the familiar term for someone who goes to work on an organic farm through an international organization, World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms, or WWOOF.

In the Humboldt area, there are at least four rural farms that are host farms on the WWOOF’s Canadian website, www.wwoof.ca.

Volunteers (“woofers”) receive room and board in exchange for the work they do.

“A lot of farms are struggling to get themselves going and this is a solution that works for both parties,” said Hoverun, who started volunteering for the first time last summer in Ontario.

This year, she came all the way to Saskatchewan, just because she liked the name.

Also, because of her Ukrainian roots – she noticed that there were many Ukranian names in the area.

Hoverun said the people in Ontario she worked for last year couldn’t understand why she wanted to go to Saskatchewan, but she says she’s learning to follow her intuitions.

She has been working at Ravenheart, an equine learning-assisted farm near Fulda run by Carol Marriott, and at Marie Saretsky’s new garden just outside Burr.

Saretsky’s garden is a fairly new addition to the WWOOF listings. She had heard about it from a friend who is a Woof host and also from one of her neighbours, Jerome Rath, who raises chickens and has been on the organization’s Canadian website for a few years.

If she hadn’t had the volunteers who came this spring to work on her garden, it wouldn’t have happened, Saretsky said. But she found that receiving woofers was more than just about the labour.

“You think it’s about the physical work,” mused Saretsky, “but it ends up being way more of a spiritual exchange. People who do this are usually on a personal journey.”

Trip overseas leads to mission work for Humboldt student

It will be a leap of faith for Rachel Lees this fall when she goes from Humboldt to Lausanne, Switzerland.

Lees will be the only Canadian attending a disciple training session with the international organization, Youth With a Mission (YWAM), for three months. Twenty-five young Christians from different countries around the world will spend five months together during the training and the two-month overseas mission.

“I’ve never travelled outside of North America,” said Lees. “I’ve never even been on a plane before. It would really be a big disappointment to me if I chickened out!”

With a father who is a pastor, Lees has been brought up as a Christian in the Alliance Church. Already at age 20 she has integrated faith into her life.

After her Grade 12 graduation from Humboldt Collegiate Institute, she went on to attend the Nipawin Bible College for two years. Part of those studies included going on a mission each year.

The first year, she went and stayed in the poorest area of Regina, working with street kids through the Healing Hearts Church.

The second year the college sent her to work with Union Gospel Mission in Vancouver, B.C., in the city’s Downtown Eastside, a drug-infested area with an equally high rate of prostitution. Both experiences have made a mark on Lees, who hopes to continue in this kind of work in the future.

“It was a real eye-opener as to how close we all are to that kind of life,” she said. “We met women who were highly educated, but who for some reason ended up on the street in prostitution.”

Lees said the trip gave her a heart she didn’t know she had, and she found out through God’s direction that she could actually do things for these people.

After bible school and the two missions, Lees turned her thoughts toward getting an education in an area where she would be able to find work and support herself. She was interested in studying graphic design, and had heard that YWAM offers university courses complementary to its Christian purpose. Her application was accepted, but she found out later that it wasn’t for the graphic design course.

Ironically, there was some confusion with the program choice, and instead of graphic art, she had been accepted for the disciple training and mission.

“I thought ‘that’s perfect’!” said Lees.

Lees is open to the idea of going to any country for the mission.

“I’m up for any place that needs us,” she said, and explained that the group will decide together, through prayer, where they will go for their mission from a list of possibilities made available by YWAM.

“It will be really cool to see what everybody is passionate about,” she added.

What happens at the end of five months?

“I’ll have to come back to Canada, because of my student visa,” Lees said. “I really don’t know what will happen after that.”

Lees knows that all kinds of opportunities for missionary work exist in Canada, in fact right here in Saskatchewan. One of the options she considers a possibility would be returning to Regina, where they have youth shelters and soup kitchens.

So much could change for a young Canadian in five months abroad.

www.ywamcanada.org

Marie Saretsky's Secret Garden welcomes visitors

When you follow Marie Saretsky around her garden, she effuses with enthusiasm as she talks about the 20-year dream that finally came to life this year.

Marie and husband Jerry Saretsky live on a 14-acre farm just outside of Burr. Until this year, she used the plot of land, now been transformed into a meditative garden with curving pathways and lush vegetation, to grow flowers for her dried flower business, Flowers of Dellwood Creek, www.dellwoodcreek.com.

Prior to that, it was a wheat field.

“We broke the soil 29 years ago,” said the pixie-like woman, “the year my son was born.” That was when her long journey began, the journey that led her to discover the direction her garden was meant to grow.

Saretsky has always been interested in gardening, and making use of what the land offers. From her dried flowers, she has created a myriad of small crafts, such as floral arrangements, homemade paper with pressed flowers, handmade cards, herbal sachets; the list goes on.

But over time, her vision changed, and she became interested in something she refers to as intuitive gardening.

“It can be many things, a garden,” explained Saretsky, “There’s the language of the flowers, and there’s the historical symbolism that goes with flowers. When I give garden tours, there is no end to the topics you can have in a garden.”

Or, she added, you can just walk quietly through it and enjoy.

To see the garden today, it’s hard to believe that in the spring the pathways weren’t yet laid down.

At that point, according to Saretsky, she didn’t know whether the garden was really going to go ahead. Then she had some volunteer help through the WWOOF organization (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms); a couple of “Woofers” came from France and completely pruned the lilac hedge that borders one long wall of the garden. That is when Saretsky started to believe it was going to happen.

A short time later, another two girls who had seen her ‘blurb’ on the WWOOF website came from the United States to help. Together they got the paths put in. But it was a case of “three steps forward and two steps back”, for when the rains came in the spring, she was left with a garden full of weeds.

Today, bright blue delphiniums stand nearly six feet tall near the north “wall” of her garden, while the east wall is covered with yellow lilies.

“The garden has four walls,” she explained, “for the four directions. The east wall isn’t finished yet, but when it is done, there will be a mass of yellow in the middle of the lattice work. It symbolizes the rising sun, which is the new beginnings of a new day.”

Plants of all kinds line the curving paths, which, Saretsky insisted, are meant to slow people down as they wander through the garden.

“Walking through a garden should be relaxing.” she said.

Leggy garlic stems sway above Lady’s Mantle, while a row of tomato plants stand proudly next to a clump of sunflowers, three feet high. Further along the pathway, onions border the edge in front of a row of calendula.

“It’s a mixed garden, with both vegetables and flowers, the way we use to garden,” noted Saretsky. “Today there is a trend toward monocultures, but it didn’t used to be like that.”

At the centre of her garden, on a little stone patio, a wooden table and chairs invite the visitor to sit down and contemplate. The quirky effect of the brightly painted furniture, each item a different colour, adds to the garden’s charm.

Saretsky loves the idea of sharing her garden and can think of many ways people could come and enjoy the space. It could be a place of inspiration for artists, a place of quiet meditation for yogis, a place for people to commune with nature or a place for those who want to learn more about intuitive gardening.

Artist Karen Holden and her "Love of Critters"

 

 

It will be the first time local artist Karen Holden has exhibited at the Hand Wave Gallery in Meacham.

Located in the small village west of Humboldt, the gallery features solo and group exhibitions of Saskatchewan artists and artisans from May through December.

“For the Love of Critters,” the title of Holden’s current exhibit, is a collection of pastel drawings and sculptures that represent her unique affinity with animals.

It is rare to find someone who befriends a porcupine, plays hide and seek with muskoxen, or enjoys the company of a fox when working in the garden of the farm she shares with husband and artist, Mel Bolen.

That’s why all the “critters” in her show have names – because she has a story for all of them. The personality of each animal comes through in her renditions: their eyes and their facial expressions have almost a human quality to them.

“I cannot imagine living without animals in my life,” reads the beginning of the artist’s mission statement, “There is a great deal to be learned from nature’s creatures.”

Holden chose to work with pastels for the small, almost pocket-sized renditions. The advantage of using this medium is the delicate blending of colours that can be achieved, set off by the darker shades of paper the artist used to draw on.

Holden also does sculpture and has included some pieces in this exhibit.

At the entrance to their property is an example of one she completed recently, a muskox made entirely of lengths of rope tied onto a wire frame. Its horns, nose and hooves are made of clay. The inspiration came from the herd of ten muskoxen they brought to their farm, animals the University of Saskatchewan were looking to find a home for.

But there is room on their farm, a vast acreage west of Humboldt near Carmel. Thirty years ago, they bought an abandoned church and the land around it; now it is the fruit of their labour, love and vision in making it an artist’s paradise.

“It exemplifies how we live as artists, and what we do,” Holden said of her home, which they open to the public on Mother’s Day every year for a gathering of any and all who are interested in coming.

The main floor of the renovated church is Bolen’s atelier, and with a two-storey high ceiling that allows plenty of light in, it’s the perfect place for an artist to work.

The quiet and solitude of the winter months is when the couple get most of their work done, Holden said, because they tend to get a lot of company in the summer. And they travel as well, recently back from one of their regular pilgrimages to Europe where their main occupation is visiting as many exhibits as they can possibly squeeze into each day.

Holden has her own studio in a converted barn on their property. Built under the eaves of the building, the large, open floor plan painted white lets in the maximum amount of light. Here she is beginning the foundation work for her next project of landscape paintings. The large, six by ten foot canvases will be based on sketches and drawings she will be doing in Orange, France, a trip she is about to embark on with six other artist friends.

“Working on these large canvases is a little intimidating,” admitted Holden, “but it brings with it a sense of freedom as well.”

The same sense of freedom she wishes for all her critters.

GREAT ANNUAL SASKATCHEWAN PEDAL

Spandex shorts glistened under the morning sun, mosquito repellent was being tucked away into carry bags, and cups of steaming hot coffee were being filled for the 40 cyclists about to start the Great Annual Saskatchewan Pedal (GASP).

At 7:30 a.m. Sunday, July 17, when most people are still padding around home in their pyjamas; a group of avid cyclists were getting ready to set off from Humboldt on a six-day cycling trip around the east central part of the province.

But not before they were treated to a Saskatchewan-themed hearty breakfast prepared by chef Jenni Willems, and organized by Local Bounty, a group that aims to connect Saskatchewan chefs with local food producers.

Willems was busy dishing out her farmer’s sausage scramble, along with a hunk of whole wheat flax bannock, and a dish of haskap granola breakfast sundae to each of the hungry cyclists. All of the dishes, she explained, were made with ingredients grown by local food producers.

The young chef was chosen to attend a Slow Food symposium in Turin, Italy in 2008 as a champion for using local foods. This year, Willems was named a “Top Foodie Under 40” by Western Living magazine. She is proprietor of the New Ground Café in Birch Hills.

Men and women of all ages, shapes and sizes were gearing up for the long ride ahead of them. For some, the daily average of 100 km would be a challenge; for others it would be just a short jaunt, said Bob Cochran, the GASP tour representative. Cochran has been cycling in it himself since the year 2000.

In all, the six-day tour covers 600 km. Organizers have dubbed this year’s tour the ‘Golden Ocean’ for the vast fields of canola and mustard along the rural routes.

Some of the cyclists have travelled from as far away as Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia to take part in the tour.

This is the third time Harry Atkinson, of Sidney, B.C., has done the trip. Atkinson comes to Saskatchewan to do the GASP because he enjoys it, but also because this is where his roots are.

“I love having the opportunity to come back here, and I keep giving myself the challenge to do another year,” said the hearty 71-year old.

Dennis Findlay, originally from Semans and now living in Toronto, just finished another week-long cycling tour in Ontario, the Great Waterfront Trail Adventure.

The tour ended back in Humboldt on Saturday, July 23.

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2011 Vancouver Cherry Blossoms & Haiku

If you live in Vancouver, mark the weekend of April 2 & 3 in your calendars, and plan to come and join in the festivities at Van Dusen Botanical Gardens for the 2011 Cherry Blossom Festival.

Vancouver is celebrating its 125^th anniversary, and festival organizers are pulling out all the stops to make this year’s events unforgettable.

The events on April 2 & 3 will coincide with the Sakura Days Japan Fair, a contemporary Japanese festival that honours the cherry blossom tree. The family-friendly Sakura Matsuri (Cherry Blossom Festival) celebrates modern and traditional Japan with a feast of the many culinary items associated with Japanese culture (tea ceremony, festival food, sake tastings) as well as cultural performances of geisha dancers, tanko drumming, Japanese instruments, kimono demonstrations, martial arts performances and more.

While visitors are strolling in the gardens, they can admire the special installation of Haiku poems, written by the winners of the festival’s Haiku Invitational in 2010. These three-line poems, a theme central to the festival, will be reproduced in the calligraphic traditions of the English and Japanese languages, then reproduced on scrim in the form of noren and mounted on bamboo poles supported on stone bases.

And because it’s also a birthday celebration, Vancouverites can still purchase a Birthday Blossoms tree for only $40. Until March 29, the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival (www.vcbf.ca) and the Dorothy and David Lam Foundation are offering this very special opportunity to purchase affordable cherry trees and plant them on private property including gardens, school grounds, and company lawns.

It will be a colourful weekend, with culinary delights, Japanese extravaganza, and pink and white petals galore.

Here’s VCBF’s favourite Haiku for this year, written by the winner of the 2009 Haiku Invitational, Katrina Sheperd of Scotland:

cherry blossoms

no need to decorate

the birthday cake!

Come and help celebrate the city and its blossoms!