Two local artists provide very different interpretations of the prairie sky and landscape in the lates OPEN SPACES: Window to a View.
Alice Helwig uses techniques such as collage, texturing, glazing and underpainting to explore the prairie landscape. “The landscape imagery has become spiritual and dreamlike. Themes of alienation, awe, personal epiphanies, and prayerfulness emerge. Originally from Lethbridge, Alice teaches part time at a private school and for the Wildflower Art Centre.
Billie Rae Busby
Hailing from Yorkton, Saskatchewan, Billie Rae Busby interprets ordinary places in a fresh, new context through her abstract landscapes. “I am stirred by the sharp, significant lines that construct both rural and urban scapes,” she says. Billie Rae uses intersecting and overlapping diagonal lines to create perspective and break open the flatness of the land into geometric planes of strong colour interactions. Her compositions are often layered and distorted to create contrast and the notion of seasons and time.
OPEN SPACES: Window to a View is an initiative by the Public Art Program to provide local artists with the opportunity to exhibit their work in a highly visible downtown location. Ten artists have been chosen to provide an installation for the windows facing the Telus Convention Centre LRT Station (between 1st St and Centre St S.E.), enlivening and adding interest to this busy transportation hub.