The show And Some … Not So Much in the upstairs gallery at the Station House Gallery this month was born out of necessity when the artist scheduled to be featured was unable to attend.
Filling the void the society directors and staff worked together to show some of their own work and in the process introduce themselves to the community.
Executive director Diane Toop had a bit of fun creating the biographies and price tags for the exhibits. If you see something with a $60,000 or $200,000 price tag, be sure to check with the formal list on the little visitors table for the real price.
Given the show’s name Toop painted a picture of a tree and house which she calls “And … not so much.” Not being a painter she admits that it is an example of “naive art.”
“I did it as a joke,” Toop says. “It took me longer to get it into the frame than to put the paint on paper.”
As might be expected with such a personal exhibit many of the items in this show are not for sale and some demonstrate the artist’s struggles.
Director Jane Wellburn’s Raggedy Earth dolls seem to mirror the Hinterlands exhibition downstairs featuring the sculptural and mixed media creations by artist Karl Mattson who struggles with safety concerns in the natural gas industry as they affect his fifth generation family farm.
Wellburn found the perfect fabric to make her two little cloth dolls Creo Sote and Dee Forestation, “the latest rag dolls for the 21st century children … huggable, loveable and a constant reminder that our environment is under fire and the future’s looking bleak.
Bonus these dolls are fully biodegradable, just toss outdoors when your child outgrows them and an animal will likely line their nest with the stuffing. Price: $40,000.
Kathryn Steen is the Station House Gallery’s president and is much appreciated for what she brings to the position, Toops says. She is also a member of the gallery hanging committee, which is responsible for setting up shows in a pleasing way for public viewing.
During the opening Steen regaled fellow artists and visitors with a story about a new technique for painting that she is experimenting with that combines collage with paint on canvas.
The gallery society’s vice-president Lori Macala started out as a gallery shop customer. “Let’s just say she has jewellery to match every outfit,” Toop says in Macala’s little introduction to the beautiful quilt she made and exhibits in the show.
Pat Teti, is the gallery society’s treasurer and has examples of his photography in the show.
Cary Burnett is both the gallery society’s secretary and a multi-talented sculptor, potter, and a portrait artist. Her portrait of fellow potter Bev Pemberton hangs in the show.
Director Marilyn Dickson presented an interesting installation featuring a collection of rusted old gardening forks and shovels, one without its handle.
During the show’s opening earlier this month she said her entry was inspired by exhaustion, hence the title for the hanging shovel head: “I’m just worn out and can’t handle it anymore.”
“Marilyn’s ‘art mind’ always comes up with interesting and new ideas, she is a painter, photographer, textile artist and she wears the grooviest clothes,” Toop writes in her biography.
Society directors Stan Navratil (photography), Anne Oliver (carving/painting), Gladys Wheatley (painting), a member of the hanging committee, Karen Frey (photography), and the gallery’s children’s art teacher Ivanna Crosina (painting) also have samples of their work in the show.