An art opening where you learn a new word, enjoy new food, and get to see beautiful art, some of it wearable, is a wonderful way to spend a Thursday evening.
Alexander Clothing hosted an opening on Oct. 4 for an art show on display at the clothing store. The art is a collaboration of Pharis Romero and Don Gesinger and the show is called Architectural Beadwork and Paperwork.
What is architectural beadwork? Well, it appears to be integrating architectural design drawings into wearable beadwork.
Gesinger is an architect as well as an artist and Romero makes unique wearable beadwork.
Romero says the collaboration came about after she was becoming bored with designing her own beadwork, which she makes by hand-stitching each bead on, not using a beading loom, and reusing scrap pieces of copper left over from Romero Banjos, the banjo-building business she and her husband Jason operate in Horsefly, B.C.
Looking for fresh inspiration, she asked Gesinger to do architectural drawings she would then use to pattern her beadwork.
“She’s such a great creative craftsman,” said Gesinger of his collaborative partner.
He also has a number of other pieces on display, including paintings and elaborate mandalas, which are geometric drawings usually associated with Hindu and Buddhist symbolism.
The mandalas are something Gesinger returned to doing, having drawn them in the 70s.
Romero’s sister Ciel Patenaude had stopped by about four years ago and noticed mandala drawings he had, asking him who drew them.
When he told her it was him, she encouraged him to do more again, as they have become popular again and she thought there might be a market for them.
So he got back into creating the circular drawings again.
“I like it, it’s kind of meditative,” he explained of the process.
“It’s always surprising because I go into a drawing not knowing what it’s going to look like in the end,” he said, adding how as an architect, the geometry and math of the mandalas appeals to him.
The opening also highlighted the picturesque setting of the clothing shop, which is set in Gesinger and Alexander’s backyard at their home on Williams Lake.
Alexander Clothing has been in business in Williams Lake for 28 years but only moved out to the new location at 2512 Sutton Road during the pandemic.
Gesinger himself designed and built the shop and said: “It was an exhausting but fun project.”
He estimated he worked for nearly 64 days straight working long hours to get it done.
It was worth the effort, the shop is lovely and is open Tuesday to Saturday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. for shopping and art viewing. The show will be up until October 22, 2022.
Read more: Station House Gallery in Williams Lake features two new shows for Sept/Oct
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ruth.lloyd@wltribune.com
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