Korey Asher, Judi Braid, Anita Schewe Drabyk, and Lian Zhou Jing Drabyk team up for a fun show to start off the fall season
The Gwen Fox Gallery always has amazing displays from local artists, but this month is one that no one is going to want to miss as Korey Asher, Judi Braid, Anita Schewe Drabyk and Lian Zhou Jing Drabyk each are exhibiting at the gallery for the first time.
They’ve named their exhibit Expressions of Creativity, and with sculpture, photography, painting, ink and more at the gallery this month there is plenty to see.
If you are planning to check out the show, the Gwen Fox Gallery is open Tuesdays through Saturdays from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m. and late on Thursdays until 8 p.m. Admission is free.
Korey Asher
Asher has recently moved to Selkirk and is also a recent addition to the Gwen Fox Gallery. His art is very bold and inspired by his graphic design background, as he has a Master’s in Education and is currently teaching graphic design and animation.
“I would like to say (my art is) imaginative. I like to say something about society or an idea or myself. If I was to describe this style, it’s a variety of line widths in ink. I achieve those by using brush or different millimetre pens. I like doing the washes with different kinds of ink,” he said.
Though he is teaching now, Asher also spent years working as a graphic designer, and you can see that practice in his colourful pieces, which you find more depth in the more you look at.
He explained that his inspiration comes from really wanting to create a particular piece.
“If I feel strongly about something, if I have an emotional response to an idea or a picture, I have to put it down. I have to explore it,” he said.
Asher’s artistic journey began when he was very young.
“My older brother had a picture put up at the school, and I wasn’t school age yet, so I remember going there at the age of four and seeing it up in the office wall. I said, ‘I want to be like my older brother.’ I think that’s what I always strive for, to try to be as good as him at drawing. But then after that, I got into his comic book collection, and I started seeing other artists,” he said.
After moving to Selkirk about a year ago, he decided to become a member of the Gwen Fox Gallery because he wanted to be part of a community.
He explained that he’s benefitted from meeting new friends, seeing new artwork, and that he hopes to get better at his own skills.
“So far, I’ve talked to a couple of people, and they’ve given me tips on watercolours. I’m like, I’ve got to try that next time,” said Asher.
As a teacher, his advice to people starting their artistic journey is not to be too hard on themselves.
“I view it as a skill. I hate when people say, ‘Oh, you’re so talented,’ because it’s a skill like anything else, and as long as you practice it, it will get better. You have to commit. You have to want to commit. It’s like if you look at your signature when you’re in grade two and how you printed it, to how you sign it just wonderfully and flowing for the bank draft nowadays. That’s from years of practice as something that you just do because you have to. So, if you really love art, you just have to. You have to do it every day,” said Asher.
He also encourages residents to check out the show this month.
Asher also wanted to thank his school art teacher, Gail Nep, who helped him on his way.
“She always saw me in the hallways of the school, just sitting by the locker. She’s the one that opened up the room at lunch to help me, to ask me to come in and said, ‘If you want to.’ I always liked her for that. She also suggests that I go to take Red River’s graphic design (program), and it’s through her belief in my skills that I went to Red River,” he said.
Judi Braid
Braid is a sculptor who makes flowing creations with Paverpol which is a medium that allows her to use upcycled materials in her art.
“It’s 3D garden art made out of recycled materials. Anybody can do it. I do teach classes in it. So, if they’re interested at all, I would encourage them to take a class. And it’s a very healing art,” said Braid.
She explained that she started doing Paverpol art after seeing a piece in a friend’s garden.
“I did think about it for a few years after (I) came across it. When I retired, I thought I would give it a try. I fell in love with the medium, and it got me through a difficult period of time in my life. So that’s why I call it the healing art,” she said.
The inspiration for her art comes from what comes to her.
“My inspiration is just random photos or things I see outside or just ideas that come to my head,” said Braid.
She explained that her art journey didn’t really have a start, as she’s always been an artist.
“I guess life took over, and I didn’t have the time to really do a lot of the art. And then when COVID hitting is when I really needed something to do, as a lot of us probably did. So, I turned to my creative side, and as I said, it got me through a difficult time as well as through COVID. And I just love it. So, I wanted to share it with other people, so I decided to become certified to teach out of my home studio that I have in Stony Mountain,” she said.
Her classes include a beginner class that anyone interested must take before taking her other classes, so that they have the background needed to try more advanced techniques. From there, she offers classes in specific topics like how to make herons, some of which you can see in the gallery this month.
As a teacher, her best advice to people just starting out in art is to never be afraid to try.
“You don’t know until you try what you can actually do. A lot of my students come in and say, ‘I can’t do this,’ or ‘I’m not artistic.’ We all are. We’ve all been given crayons when we were kids. We all could colour within or outside the lines, but we’re all creative. Sometimes we just need the inspiration to bring that out,” said Braid.
She’s also a recent addition to the Gwen Fox Gallery.
“(I like) being with like-minded people, and it’s an opportunity to show my work, and just get to know people with the same type of interests,” said Braid.
She hopes that residents take the time to stop by the Gwen Fox Gallery this month.
“I would invite them to come and check it out every month and see what the artists are doing. They’re all incredible shows,” said Braid.
Anita Schewe Drabyk
Schewe Drabyk says that her art is primarily nature and landscapes. She paints and also has some of her photography on display this month at the Gwen Fox Gallery.
She explained that her art is inspired by her background.
“I grew up on a farm. I took many courses on and I’ve got some degrees in biology, and particularly plants, and mammals and birds. Those are my areas that I know more about, and I really want to showcase them. The landscapes are farming things. I’m just finishing up one right now, a Hereford cow and a calf. But also, I spent two years in China, and so I sort of got to know bits and pieces of there,” she said.
Though she has lived a very interesting life, her art journey started like many people’s, in school.
“I did art all the time in school, but my sister was the artist. She was a year younger than me, but I always did art, and we were always required to do cards for my grandparents,” said Schewe Drabyk.
From there, she has continued to create, especially after she picked up her first camera.
She and her daughter, fellow exhibiting artist Lian Zhou Jing Drabyk, joined the gallery at the same time, less than a year ago.
Schewe Drabyk explained that she wanted to join the Gwen Fox Gallery because a few artists at the gallery in Pinawa, which they were already a part of, encouraged them to try our gallery.
Her advice for other artists is to start out with something you know.
“Work with that first, because that way you will get your interest showing,” she said.
Schewe Drabyk hopes that residents will come to the gallery this month.
“You get to see four different types of work,” she said.
Lian Zhou Jing Drabyk (Art on the title)
Drabyk is a photographer with a unique eye for pastoral scenes.
“You’re not going to expect a lot of people in those photos,” she said.
She said that she does most of her photography of animals and landscapes.
Drabyk explained that her inspiration comes from the places that her mother encourages her to explore.
“If there’s a special bird, she says, grab your camera. There’s something special,” said Drabyk.
She explained that her art journey began after taking a year off from school. From there, she decided to take art classes at college.
“It was all photography, all the way to even film cameras and the dark room,” said Drabyk.
Her advice for people who are just learning is that YouTube tutorials are your friend.
“Also, experiment. If you fail, then you know what you did, and you never know, it could look nice if you put it through a nice Photoshop filter,” said Drabyk.
She welcomes residents to check out the gallery this month.
“We’ve got all different mediums, some you might like, some you might not like, but we’ve got a nice variety. It’s like a little buffet,” she said.
