ARTS.

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One man's junk is an artist's treasure

Eco-friendly artist coming
to Douglas College

=) Cheryl
. Minns
Arts Editor

arts@ theotherpress.ca

 

ixed media artist Cynthia

Minden has always had
an affinity for old keys and
bent nails. Her work, which
features rusty locks, driftwood,
leaves, and more, will be in the
Amelia Douglas Gallery from
November 7 to December 20.

I spoke to Minden last week

about her upcoming show, her

Because most of her
assemblages include a variety of
items placed together based on
relationships, she describes her
art as “studies” and gives them
study numbers for titles instead
of names.

Her mixed media
assemblages came as a response
to her curiosity and worry over
what the Earth would do with
the junk that people threw on
the ground.

“I got out my collection of
rusty stuff and got out another
collection of found, gathered
natural materials: seed pods and
curled leaves and bits of wood
that were interesting,” she said.

piece Minden made out of junk
she found on her farm that the
previous owner had buried.

Collecting the refuse and
putting it in a painted shadow
box, she created One Man’s Junk,
which began her fascination
with framing items she found
discarded on the ground.

“It's interesting to me to
take something discarded and
reframe it. I mean, literally
put a frame around it but also
reframe it visually so that thing
becomes precious and you see it
differently,” she said, explaining
how the junk became art.

“If you pick it up and
dust it off and then find some

Her mixed media assemblages came as a response to her curiosity and worry over
what the Earth would do with the junk that people threw on the ground.

art, and how she began her
journey into the world of mixed
media assemblage.

“] saw really interesting
relationships between form and
between surfaces and between
texture and shapes and negative
space, and that started to
fascinate me,” she said.

“As I would place
something down on my
workspace, then I would notice
that the torn edge of that thing
might have a relationship to the
torn edge of something else. I
really started to place things in
a way that hopefully makes that
more apparent.”

“I wondered if I could create
new objects that would make
sense of how the Earth might
absorb this junk.”

The title of her Douglas
College exhibit, Reclamation,
reflects how she believes the
Earth will react and what her art
represents.

“T think the Earth will take
back these things hopefully and
vines will grow over and things
will fall on top and some things
will get buried and other things
will emerge,” she said.

This idea of the Earth
claiming objects and then
having them resurface comes
from the first mixed media

interesting relationship between
that and some other pieces, it’s
a whole new way of looking at
ordinary stuff.”

The only rule Minden has
imposed on her art creation
is that she will not work with
plastic in her work because
plastic is hard for the Earth to
reclaim. She admits that some of
her work includes bits of plastic,
but the unnatural material will
never be a focus of her art.

The Reclamation opening
reception will be held November
7 from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. in the
Amelia Douglas Gallery. Minden
will give a talk in the gallery on
November 8 at 10 a.m.

 

Three Stick Bundles by Cynthia Minden | Photo courtesy of Cynthia Minden

Advocating for arts in the sleepy suburbs

Helen Daniels
examines arts in the
sleepy suburbs

   
 

=“ Julia
- Siedlanowska
Staff Writer

hen comparing the
suburbs to Vancouver,

there’s a prevailing assumption

that there isn’t much going on
in the realm of the arts outside
of the big city.

But as far as engagement
goes, the suburbs “provide
more opportunities in some
ways than in Vancouver,”
according to Helen Daniels,
who was executive director for
Arts Connect (the arts council

 

Helen Daniels
Photo courtesy of www.artsconnect.ca

serving the Tri-Cities) for 11
years and was also on the
board of the Assembly for BC
Arts Council (now ArtsBC).

“Because the Tri-Cities are
smaller we can take a different
approach than maybe an arts
council in Vancouver might,”
she explained.

She found that while

art might be most drawn to
Vancouver, artists are more
drawn to the suburbs.

“Most of the people that
I know that are involved in
the arts here... a lot of them
live out here and do their art
in Vancouver,” Daniels said
of Port Moody, where she
currently resides.

This raises the obvious
question: why not create your
art for your local audience?

Part of the problem is
that there is less of a demand
for art in the suburbs than
in Vancouver. However, it is
not only up to patrons or the
artists to create a demand—it
is asynergy between the two.

“T think we need to grow
the audience and I think it
starts with developing that

appreciation in kids,” Daniels
said. “] think if they appreciate
the arts and creativity, they
develop a bit of a different
mindset, more openness, more
openminded to different ideas,
to different cultures. It creates
a rounder, fuller person as a
citizen.”

She also explored the idea
that people might not know
where they can find art in the
suburbs.

“T think that a lot of people
move here from Vancouver
and so I think that in some
ways the audience is here. It’s
partly about marketing it to
them and creating awareness
of what’s here,” she said.

“T think art needs to be
more visible here. We need
to see more public art and

more things that are relatively
inexpensive to do.”

One example Daniels
gave was about a project in
East Vancouver that involved
painting poetry on buildings
along a certain route.

“It’s just little things like
that. They don’t have to be
huge sculptures, but just things
that catch your attention,” she
said.

This sort of spontaneity
is probably the thing that is
missing, most in the suburbs.
Perhaps it’s a symptom of
family life that stifles the
impulse to see some theatre or
dance.

Though if art were more
around us and more familiar, it
wouldn't even take an effort to
bea patron.