Students at Selkirk College’s Kootenay Studio Arts held their annual show and sale last weekend. The Star was there and talked to some of the artists. All photos by Bill Metcalfe.
Léïa-Fahé Villeneuve: "What I love the most about clay is the tactility. I am from an industrial design background, creating objects from computer based programs, and I switched to clay because you can shape everything with your hands."
Darwin Greyeyes: "I am finally getting my aboriginal voice and I want to present it in a way that is not beating people over the head with it, but just so people get the feeling. One of my pieces today made a lady cry, which is what I want to evoke."
Miriam Popovici: "I want to do what I love. If everyone did that, it would inspire the next person to do what they love, and it creates a ripple effect."
Maria Diaz: "I want to bring back ancestral techniques: natural dyes, natural colours, and all the handmade things. It brings extra value to your work and it is something that your mothers or your grandmothers have been passing on to you, so you make it with love."
Rebekah Krahn: "What I like about this program is learning to embrace the slow process, and it feels like we are almost taking step backwards, because everything now is so mass produced but we are slowing right down and everything takes a long, long time to make and that is what we have to embrace, and I love that about it, I love it."
Catherine Bean (left): "I took bronze casting and sculptural metal. I love the process, from clay to wax to the bronze pour. I love that it is very hands on and that nothing can ever happen to the bronze unless you melt it down, so it can last forever."
Yukiko Conne: "What I love about making ceramics is that when you are doing something handmade it is almost like you are putting your own energy and your own love into the piece and I think that translates to the buyer, so it is a really nice process."
Mathew Neal, Katie Ford, and Matt Holman