Winkler Arts and Culture’s July exhibition features the work of 11 local artists, all sharing “The Way We See It.”
The show, which opened last week and runs until July 31, features 26 paintings and photographs around the theme.
“We submitted the word ‘perspective’ to our community of artists to see how it would inspire them,” explains WAC executive director Jered Hildebrand. “For some, they interpreted it as an interesting angle that a subject might be viewed from. For others, it was more about how they perceived the subject.”
The exhibition features an eclectic mix of pieces from Angela Elias, Shannon Mann, Scott Bell, Grace Bell, Naomi Heide, Terrance Klassen, Mary Klassen, Marge Fehr, Cherlyn Peters, Kevin Driedger, and Susan Crawford-Young.
Both Driedger and Crawford-Young have several photographs on display, showcasing their perspective of the world as seen from behind a camera lens.
“Using the camera has caused me to see things differently than before I really took on photography,” Driedger observes. He has eight photos in the show, a mix of colour and black and white shots. “At times, the camera shows me things that I didn’t even notice with just my eyes.”
Playing around with composition and focal distance can create a different look to everyday scenes.
“One of the pictures is really just some dirty melting snow,” Driedger says. It’s something we might see in any given winter day, without really looking at it. “It’s a very close-up picture, so if you look at it, on first glance, you’re not really sure what you’re looking at. But there’s something about the pattern of the glistening ice and then the dark, the dirty snow when it starts to melt.
“Just the fact that I would notice that and think to take a picture of it … it’s about spending time with the camera and having inclinations that that might work as a picture,” he says. “That’s something that I really try and do with my photography is see things in in sort of unexpected ways, different perspectives, and sometimes even just a bit out of context.”
Crawford-Young takes a similar tact with her photographs of farm machinery.
“Usually people are driving down the road and they see a combine working or the seeder seeding, that sort of thing. When I’m around the equipment, it’s in the yard or else I’ve actually used the equipment, I’ve actually built some of it,” she shares.
“So I take up-close photos of the equipment … because it was a unique perspective and because I know how much work it takes to make it. I feel like it was somebody’s life work really to design this, to make it, and then to repair it. There’s a lot of work that goes into that; it’s kind of amazing.”
Some of the photos take a more abstract approach to capturing the beauty behind these functional machines. Even still, Crawford-Young says experienced farmers are often able to peg the exact piece of equipment depicted.
“If you’ve worked on that equipment, some people can actually tell me the make and model … they don’t even need the whole picture, just a tiny piece.”
A reception for The Way We See It is planned for Thursday, July 18 at 7 p.m. It will feature a Terra Sinfonica performance from George Harold Epp.
Supplied Photos
