Learning about acrylics with artist Karen Robbins

At their last meeting, members of the Tisdale Visual Arts Club explored the medium of acrylics under the tutelage of artist Karen Robbins.

Robbins, who was profiled in a Recorder article in May of last year, came to art late in life. But it would be fair to say she is making up for lost time, for since she and other club members exhibited at the Doghide Gallery last May, she has barely had time to let go of her paintbrush.

“I had several commissions that were a result of the exhibit,” she acknowledged. “And it’s kept me busy with painting since then.”

Although she dabbles in other mediums, painting with acrylics is what she prefers. Robbins instructed the club members on a specific style, mixing opposing primary colours to create a chiaroscuro effect, or a contrasting light and dark background. She used a couple of her own paintings as examples for the class to follow.

In order to achieve the desired effect that Robbins’ paintings possess, it takes more than just a dab with a brush. Some of the artists in the club who were already familiar with the technique were able to mirror the master copy. Others – such as this columnist who was using acrylics for the first time – labored at trying to reproduce something that came close.

But that is the beauty of art – it is an individual’s interpretation of what one person’s vision tells them they are seeing. There is no right and wrong, and no two paintings will ever be identical.

The Tisdale Visual Arts Club meets every two weeks, and their next session is on March 26, when everyone will get “back to the drawing board,” working on whatever takes their fancy. 

Cutting Horses: agrologist Lisa Britz tells of her passion

During the week, Lisa Britz is an agrologist at Viterra Industries in Humboldt.

But when the weekend rolls around, Britz, her husband Evan, and their two children spend their time on horseback — riding, practicing, and competing in the sport of cutting horses.

“That’s our life, that’s our hobby,”

said Britz. “We do cutting and horses for our hobby. Our whole family does.”

In 2011, Britz won the $15,000 Amateur Division Champion award for an accumulation of events she competed in over the season in Saskatchewan. Her prize was a big, shiny buckle that she was given at the Saskatchewan Cutting Horse Association’s year-end banquet in Regina, January 14, 2012.

Although she didn’t grow up in the saddle, Britz says she and her husband have been involved with horses for over 20 years. In the last 10 years, however, they have taken it more seriously, moving into competitions and being involved in performance-type events.

Cutting, she explained, evolved in the same way rodeos have to become a competitive and performance sport. So, although cutting is done on a farm or ranch when a cow needs to be separated from the herd, now the practice has developed into a national sport with competitions that run from March until September.

“There are about eight or nine shows in a year,” said Britz. “We travel all over Saskatchewan and parts of Alberta, to where the competitions are. It’s also very big in the States.”

In a competition, the rider has two and a half minutes to show how well a horse can cut cattle. During that time, the rider must select the cattle to be cut from the herd, then with the aid of four helpers, also on horseback, they proceed to cut each cow, one by one, before letting it return to the herd.

“When you’re cutting a cow, everything is very controlled,” explained Britz. “You walk into the herd really quietly, you want to keep the cattle very quiet and settled. To really cut well, you need them not to be wild. You really want your horse to be in control of that cow, that’s really the ultimate goal.”

To visualize a horse in the act of cutting, you might imagine a cat or a dog when it crouches down on its hind legs with its front legs splayed out. There can be a lot of movement back and forth as the horse tries to keep the cow from re-joining its herd.

Ideally, Britz says the rider tries to cut fresh cattle — cattle that have never been cut before.

“Timing is of the essence,” she said. “You don’t want to cut the cow too long, and you want to pick a fresh cow to cut because they get savvy really fast, so you want one that’s not going to know what’s going to happen next.”

And, like any sport that is practised at a competitive level, it requires hours of personal training for both the rider and the horse. The Britzes keep a few cattle on their property just for practice purposes.

But the most important element in cutting is the nature of the horse that the rider will be working with.

“I owe so much to my mare, Ruby (whose official name is Precious Smart Date),” Britz insisted. “I’ve owned a lot of good horses over the years, but never one like her. She is such an amazing athlete, and is always wanting to please.

“For cutting, they have to have the instinct or be what they call really cowy, which means they love to do this. Not all horses have it, and not all quarter horses have it,” she added.

Training a horse for cutting is very specialized, and Britz says they are fortunate to have some really top-notch trainers in the province.

“We’re very lucky in Saskatchewan – we don’t have many, but what we have are very talented people,” she added.

The National Cutting Horse Association has a website that provides good background information about the origin of cutting, and the Saskatchewan Horse Cutting Association’s website lists information on competitions and events.

For Britz, the first competition of the 2012 season will be March 10-11 in Melfort.

Photo courtesy of Barbara Glazer

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