Michele Campbell, Isaac Imasuem, Peggy Kasuba, Mark Kosatsky, and Autumn Robbie-Draward fill the exhibit this month
The Gwen Fox Gallery is known for its wonderful atmosphere and stunning exhibits. This month is no exception. Michele Campbell, Isaac Imasuem, Peggy Kasuba, Mark Kosatsky, and Autumn Robbie-Draward have answered the call to fill the gallery with a variety of stunning colourful pieces of art this month.
Michele Campbell
Campbell is an acrylic artist who has over a dozen pieces in this month’s exhibit. She is very influenced by nature and her work is recognizable by its barn board canvases and animals that seem to emerge from their background.
“[A friend of mine] gave me some samples [of barn board] to play with and see what I thought and if it would work. I started with a polar bear. The board had a really cool knot in it, and I ended up thinking ‘Oh, that would make a really good nose’ and that led to a polar bear,” said Campbell.
She likes the element of recycling that this brings as well as the creativity of turning knots and holes into elements of the art.
She started as an artist as a child. Campbells says that living with her grandparents for the first six years of her life led her to a Sunday school teacher who was supportive of her art. After that teacher brought some supplies to the house and told her grandparents she thought Campbell had talent, they continued to buy her what she needed and encouraged her on her journey.
Her pieces this month are nature-inspired but she says that colours and environment can also be inspirations for her. For example, a drive through Lockport led to pelican studies
and spun her towards the idea of endangered species and the Pelican Lake painting she created.
Campbell’s best advice for new artists is to “never give up and practice makes a world of difference.”
She hopes that residents stop by the gallery this month.
“It’s a nice variety of artwork to see and a lot of original artwork that you can buy that might not be in another gallery. It’s fairly well priced and who knows if one of these artists are going to be famous one day,” said Campbell.
Isaac Imasuem
Imasuem’s artwork is varied and bold. His drawings are expressive and energetic and his paintings are colourful and joyful.
“My art is very simple and original,” said Imasuem.
He has charcoal, mixed media, oil painting, ink and engaging push-pin pieces in the gallery this month.
“I get my inspiration from nature,” he said.
He is originally from Nigeria and has a post-secondary degree in art from the country but came to Selkirk to be with family and has fallen in love with our area.
“I started my art a long time ago in 1999 in high school. I met a friend who was into sculpting and he introduced me to his boss and from there I started as an apprentice. It was then that I got admission into Polytechnic which is a college. It was a four-year course,” said Imasuem.
He did two years of general study before majoring in painting.
Painting wasn’t his only love, however, as residents who attend the show will see he is talented in a variety of areas and enjoys experimenting.
His advice for new artists is to understand that learning to make art will be a challenge.
“At the beginning it’s difficult to paint. It’s just like learning to write. If you see a child in school it’s difficult to write [in kindergarten]. Practice makes perfect. Just keep on practising and you’ll master a particular meeting like you mastered writing,” said Imasuem.
He encourages residents to come to the gallery not just to look at art but to enjoy art.
“Art is not just for aesthetic purposes. It also has a healing purpose. If you are troubled or not in a good mood just looking at a painting can revive your soul,” said Imasuem.
Peggy Kasuba
Kasuba is a talented local artist whose creativity is evident from one glance at her work. This month residents will be wowed with her sculptural pieces throughout the exhibit.
“[My art] t just happens. It’s how I feel at the time. pretty much say I don’t fit into any sort of genre, but it’s just whatever comes up,” she said.
Her pieces contain a little bit of everything as far as mediums go.
“I mix them together to — acrylic, oils, pastels hard and soft even crayons, glue, pencil crayons. I just use everything. I also mix it all together. So, rarely do I have something that’s just all [one medium]. Said Kasuba.
She says that the inspiration for her pieces comes from the 40-acre property that she purchased and lives on. She also says that the fields near her home especially after harvest time have the biggest impact.
She says she started creating art as a child.
“I was always drawing. My favourite thing to do was with my wagon, go around the yard and collect all kinds of stuff. Make something and then go, ‘Okay,’ and throw it away,” she said
After a period of little creation after she received some negative feedback she decided to pick up art again in 2000 and hasn’t looked back.
Her advice for artists who want to start creating is to not listen to feedback because it’s not really important.
“Your work is you. They don’t have to like it. Just like they don’t have to like me. But that can sometimes just turn you right off and then you try to produce work according to the criticism, but that’s not you. Nobody has to like anything you do but if it fulfils you, that’s what you do,” said Kasuba.
She welcomes anyone in the community to the show.
“There’s a good mix of work. You get landscape, you get portraits, you get abstract, everything. It’s fun. Go in, have fun, look at everything and you don’t have to buy anything. Just go look. That’s the fun part of it,” she said.
Mark Kosatksy
Kosatsky’s work is bold, and expressive and makes you stop to look deeper. It’s influenced by surrealism and expressionism and he describes it as lively colourful stuff.
His inspiration is varied. Kosatsky says that sometimes there are ideas behind particular pieces but some of his pieces are inspired by other art and others are just things that catch his attention.
He is a Winnipeg artist and wanted to be part of the gallery because he knew some of the people here and ‘it’s good to get out of Winnipeg anytime you can.”
His art is mostly made using tempera sticks.
He started his art many years ago when a friend of his was studying.
“I started making artwork in ’84 and I had stuff in galleries by ’85,” said Kosatsky.
His advice to other artists is to create.
“You’ve got to keep at it, maybe more than I do. It takes a lot of work drawing and painting regularly to get anywhere at it,” said Kosatsky.
He says residents should stop by the gallery.
“There’s good stuff here some skilled work,” said Kosatsky.
You can keep up with Kosatsky’s artistic work on his blog at http://markkosatsky.blogspot.com/
Autumn Robbie-Draward
Robbie-Draward has a delicate beauty that is subtle until you look closer. She uses colour and line to keep you wanting more.
“What’s here in the gallery is nature at its best — landscapes and flowers. That’s really what’s my focus of this particular show,” said Robbie-Draward.
This month she mostly has watercolour pieces in the exhibit with a few mixed-media pieces and one acrylic painting. She has some pieces under glass but Robbie-Draward explained that she’s been transitioning to mounting them on wood panels so that they can easily fit into people’s décor styles.
She says that her work is inspired by her values.
“Joy, family connection, and community, I want to represent those values in my work. I have done, for example, a series of dinosaurs, because my great nephews are into dinosaurs. So, I did a number of dinosaurs, because of my love for them,” she said.
She also creates landscapes based on the property she lives on and her flower pieces often remind her of people in her life.
Robbie-Draward says that he didn’t really start being creative but always had a creative streak in her life. From sewing clothes to photography and eventually a watercolour class that sent her in her current direction, she’s always had something creative on the go.
Her advice to people wanting to create is to create.
“Everybody wants it to be perfect. And I’m no different. But the pieces that I couldn’t have cared less, what happened are my favourites,” said Robbie-Draward.
She encourages residents to come to the gallery and check out the show.
“[The gallery] is quite a gem. The quality of the art here is quite good and it will inspire people who are thinking maybe they want to paint or do some sort of artwork. I know when I go to a gallery, I’m always inspired. I want to get home and start painting again. So, I think if you want to have a fresh outlook on art, come to this gallery or go to a gallery, and also the gift shop. There’s some wonderful pieces of artwork in there,” said Robbie-Draward.
The Gwen Fox Gallery is open Tuesday to Saturday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and admission is free.
Record Photos by Katelyn Boulanger
