The show Awakening and Repose on this month at the Station House Gallery is all about the adventures of two women exploring the world of abstract expressionism.
Mo Hamilton of Prince George and Simone Benjamin of Williams Lake met and became friends while attending an Arts Wells summer festival of the arts workshop.
From there they decided to have a show together featuring their explorations into the world of creating abstract art.
“It is an adventure,” Hamilton explained to the audience attending the show’s opening last week.
“You are going to a place you have never been before.
“It’s a little scary, but there is the excitement of exploring the unknown.”
She describes creating abstract art as an intuitive process, a bit like mining what goes on in your own mind.
“It is almost like a call and response rather than trying to create a tree or a house.”
At times she says it is a matter of facing what is going on in your heart, mind and soul, facing your fears and demons and celebrating things that come along the way.
While Benjamin’s work is very organic and flowing, born out of a love for gardening, Hamilton’s work is more hard edge.
Her experience with puppetry and theatre influence the style and format of her paintings which are created in mixed media/acrylics with layers of paint and collages applied and partially removed during the process.
Hamilton has lived in several communities around B.C.
Her creations can be found in galleries and private collections throughout the province.