More than twenty design ideas were received for the 2013 Ravenswood AIRdirondack Art Project, making the adjudication process difficult for the judges, but in the end nine local artists will be displaying their work on the custom built chairs for the September auction September 21 as part of the 4th annual AIRdirondack Gala.
The nine artists who will be busy working on their masterpieces over the next few months are: Anita Singh, Becky Kundert, Char Vanderhorst, Cheryl Todd Shergold, Kathryn Zondag, Michelle Wiebe, Paul Nye, Robyn Cooper and Zach Abbott. Each artist brings a unique style to the table (or should we say chair), ranging from gorgeous nature scenes to aerosol abstract design. Several of the artists participated in previous years and their work proved popular with bidders.
In a unique twist, artists were also asked to submit their names if they would be willing to work with a winning bidder on a blank chair, in effect giving the winning bidder the chance to work with the artist and create a very personalized chair. Artist Shawnee Hoffman has been selected for this honour. Hoffman is perhaps best known in the community for her extensive face and body painting talents.
Iona Sentes, Community Relations Coordinator for Qualico and one of the judges, (Qualico is the title sponsor of the project) was pleased with the quality of submission and excited to be a part of the new process.
“We are thrilled to be a part of the adjudication of the artist submissions. Receiving proposals in this way has given us a glimpse into the artists’ minds, and an insight into the artistic process. We were overwhelmed with the diversity and quality of the proposals; an impressive variety that speaks of a colorful, vibrant community fabric in Airdrie. Clearly -local talent runs deep in Airdrie! We are excited about continuing on in this process and we look forward to the ultimate transformation of these chairs into truly imaginative artistic pieces!”
Sheri Reed project coordinator will be out this week delivering the chairs and paint supplies to each artist. “The concepts submitted were absolutely fantastic. To narrow the field to 10 concepts was very challenging; it may have been easier to build more chairs!” The chairs themselves were built by the Bert Church High School wood shop, another new component of the project.
“The teacher/student volunteers have built beautiful, HEAVY chairs for the artists to work on. I’m excited to see the artists concepts come to life with all the different mediums they have presented. This year I am privileged to deliver the chairs to all these creative people, I can’t wait to meet everyone!
Project founder and previous chair artist, Veronica Funk coordinated the addition of three jurors from the business side of the art world. Arlene Westen Evens of Evanescence Gallery in High River, Michel Arseneau of Inglewood Fine Arts in Calgary and Cheryl Webster of 4 Cats Art Studio in Airdrie. Funk says the final decisions were difficult for the jurors as everyone wanted to make sure to select a variety of subject matter and methods of application. “I really hope that next year the submissions that weren’t selected will be resubmitted.”
Because BCHS produced an extra chair, the chair committee decided to extend an invitation to a Calgary based artist in order to expand the reach and attention for the project.
“We were extremely fortunate to receive a submission from Amy Dryer, a Calgary artist whose work is exhibited nationally and who has been featured on the cover of Avenue Magazine as one of Calgary’s Best Artists,” says Funk. “Because our focus is on the talent of our local artists, we decided not to include her as one of our nine selections but didn’t want to pass up on this opportunity to receive her support for our growing arts community.”
Updates on the Ravenswood AIRdirondack Art Project will be available at creativeaidrie.ca and on Facebook under Creative Airdrie and AIRdirondack Art Project
For more information please contact
Sheri Reed, AIRdirondack Project Coordinator reed.claimed@gmail.com
