The Art Project is the simple title for a huge collaboration of individuals and organizations in a show now on at the Arts Centre in Sechelt called Seeing and Being Seen, a mental health group show. About 45 art submissions from individuals, many of them completed over the past year at a series of workshops, hang at the gallery until Oct. 16.
At the show’s reception on Sept. 14, musician Mick Bryant played for the crowd and Art Farm co-ordinators Chad Hershler and Sandy Buck organized a collaborative exercise that resulted in another art piece generated by the visitors that very night.
A mental health worker described the process of preparing for the show: “The work shows what mental health means to us – it’s very personal,” she said. But not all of the art reflected the mental health of the client who made it – in many cases the act of making art was the most important aspect.
Photographer Lisa Price, for example, showed a photo, Home, of a flaking, vibrant arbutus tree shot with her 1970s manual camera. In her artist’s statement she says: “When I go out into the natural world with my camera, I lose awareness of myself. The struggles of everyday life recede as I immerse myself in colour and form and texture … In participating in this exhibition I hope to share with viewers the sense of being spellbound by what grows close to the earth.”
Nature obviously had a profound effect on other artists: Elaine Hunter’s manipulated photos, Snow Window and Snow Fence, were spectacular. Alexa Conyers rendered a colourful toucan in acrylic. Laurie Faulkner’s photographic compilation, Eternal Tide of Life, depicted the tidal sea. Dylan Cappadocia’s loon was carved in red cedar. Brenda Locke captured houseboats and a lighthouse in her land and seascapes.
Heather Waddell painted a colourful abstract titled Revolting – more a reference to women of the world rising from oppression than a comment on the painting. Joan Schwann’s abstract, Out of the Black and Into the Blue, was striking.
Some naïve art used colourful scenes or portraits as in Rhys Morgan’s six acrylics.
Micheal Mann’s photographic essay detailed how his job of cleaning up around the hospital echoed the theme. “Who notices people who pick up garbage?” he asks. Mann began taking photos of each bag of garbage with its coffee cups, bits of plastic and assorted junk, and he has merged them in a collage.
The show is a collaborative community project involving clients and staff from Arrowhead Clubhouse, Sumac Place and Chapman House and the four teams at Mental Health Services.
