Arts

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Off the straight and Arial Narrow

Where writing has gotten me, and where it can take you

By Angela Espinoza, Arts Editor

hen I graduated high school two and a half years ago, I was not

overtaken with emotion. I did not weep for the past, nor was I looking bright-eyed into the future; I was simply relieved. With all my friends heading to SFU and nothing to show for my interest in... well, in anything, Douglas College offered a fresh start.

During one of the college’s Late Summer Orientations, I happened upon a table for the student newspaper, The Other Press, manned by then editor in chief (now humour editor) Liam Britten. With no concept of what I was doing, I signed up and started attending meetings; do I find it weird that I’m the arts editor of a newspaper now? Unexpected sure—again, I was basically a blank slate, I didn’t even have legitimate work experience— but it’s not by any means weird. I’ve made an ass out of myself here and there, but I’ve also worked said ass off; writing for The Other Press (OP) is probably the only thing I’ve ever really cared about.

Besides actually doing something with my life though, one of the perks of getting involved with a post-secondary newspaper has been attending the past two Canadian University Press (CUP) National Conferences, otherwise

known as NASH. NASH is held annually in a different Canadian city (this year’s was in Victoria,

last year’s was in Montreal, etc.) during the second week of January. It is there that panels, roundtables, keynotes, critiques, and the Annual General Meeting (each featuring fellow student writers, professional writers, and journalists from across Canada) take place.

Last year I attended as arts reviewer, a now defunct position at the OP (replaced by staff writer) that Thad dubbed sidekick to arts editor, then Cody Klyne (now editor in chief). Reviewer was a comfortable spot where I had gotten into the motion of things without carrying the same weight as an editor. I got to see where other writers’ interests stood, how the more involved student journalists operated things, and even got tips on how to make a career for myself as a writer.

But this year’s conference, NASH 74, was different; I wasn’t watching from the sidelines anymore, I was attending as an editor, and there was a lot of pressure in knowing that. Delegates who attend regularly are somewhat expected to use what they learned from the previous year to improve their section, and for that matter, their respective newspaper as a whole. Nobody enjoys being the editor at, in this case, the Arts roundtable, with little or nothing

to say, but it happens; it’s how you learn.

So at this point, assuming you are interested in writing to some extent, you have to ask yourself what it is exactly you want to improve on. Sometimes you pick up little things; while attending a film reviewer’s panel at NASH 73, we learned about capsule reviews, which are brief reviews that can span anywhere from a sentence to 200 words. On its own the concept doesn’t seem like much, but in the long run it’s turned out to be extremely useful.

Of course, that was NASH 73; what did I pick up from NASH 74 (besides an ugly case of norovirus)? Well, at the risk of sounding like a Care Bear, I learned some things about myself. Writing in general, whether it’s been for the OP or for a class, I’ve found to be invigorating over time, but I won’t be working for the OP nor will Ibe a student forever. Everyone around me is right in saying that I’m young and don’t need to worry about all that just yet (I’m only 20), but right now, when I’ve gotten most comfortable and even re-inspired with my position (thanks to NASH), I need to keep searching for ways to better myself as an editor.

Not every student newspaper contributor, or editor for that matter, will turn to writing or even journalism as a career. In this

case, working for the OP will be a part-time gig for some, a stepping- stone to the future for others, and possibly that place with all the rambunctious “hipsters” —although I don’t particularly condone that last option—to the rest. In my time there I’ve had three editor in chiefs, several co-workers, and many volunteers; I don’t know where some of them went, I don’t know where some of them will go, and others I’ve become so close with I still find it odd, even emotionally stressful at times that we put together a full-fledged (not to mention damn fine) newspaper every single week. But I digress; taking that first step into the once drab and dusty, now vibrant and club house-like OP office opened an entirely new door of opportunities I'd have never known existed otherwise.

Whatever your interests lie in, be it music, sports, or politics, writing about these subjects in turn teaches you something more about them. You pick up patterns and styles that apply to these individual subjects, and you start to understand them. Really, what it comes down to is that you can’t fully grasp something you're interested in until you get involved with it, and if I’ve learned anything in my time at the OP, it’s that writing is the best way to accomplish just that.

A splash of colour

A one on one with artist Richard Alm

By Angela Espinoza, Arts Editor

very six weeks the Amelia HE Douglas Gallery, located on

the fourth floor of Douglas’ New West campus, hosts the works of a Canadian artist. These works often consist of paintings and multimedia pieces, but as one can expect, the styles of each differ greatly from artist to artist. On the afternoon of Thursday, January 12, the latest artist to be given the spotlight was Richard Alm.

I sat down with Alm last week, and I learned a lot in the hour and a half I spent with him. To put things simply, he’s been around the block a few times. Originally a Fine Arts student, Alm’s held careers ranging from Scott Paper salesman to designer to a legitimate inventor. He’s the kind of man that’s done it all, so with that in mind, what better chance than now to do what he enjoys most?

“T looked at it as an opportunity 8

to start giving back,” Alm says about the Artist’s Talk for Dappled, the name of his exhibition in the gallery. “When I was faced with the students on Friday morning [January 13], they reminded me of me many years ago... saying, ‘I don’t want to be a starving artist.’” It was this initial fear that led Alm down a different, albeit still fairly successful path. Many of us even now, as Alm saw, maintain these fears; we all have our respective interests, talents even—but where does security lie in that?

Much of where you'll go in life relies on faith in yourself; you can’t always be looking at the negative, there needs to be some light. Thus Alm’s art style; “I’m obviously a realist,” he says, “a realist with my own colour palette, because everything I do is bright and cheery. I’m certainly not one of those guys that wants to....”

After a pause, I interject with, “Show the world for what it is?”

“Yeah, ‘what it is’-—boring. If | wanted to feel bad about something, the last thing I’d want to do is go look at paintings that make me feel bad.” Alm’s paintings, regardless of their context, all consist of vibrant colours. Even when darker or deeper shades are necessary, Alm is able to use them in a way that makes each image pop. “I’m quite proud of that collection,” he says of Dappled. “We've been working at it for a while, about a year... I submitted what I thought [was] just a selection of works that I liked.” This selection includes paintings of settings and people in their most natural states, but many of these paintings also reflect the beauty of other places in the world. “I travel a lot; I like to look at the details of various places and present [them] for the enjoyment of others.

“They’re my interpretation of a scene that I’m looking at,” he

continues, “and [so] I use a lot of photography in my travels. [That and] if I take my camera and a pencil and pad, the Canadian government allows me, as an artist, to write off the trip.”

What: Dappled: Paintings by Richard Alm

Where: The Amelia Douglas Gallery

When: January 12-February 17 Cost: Free!

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