LUNA fest artist preview: Taryn Walker creates ancient forest mural at Revelstoke United Church

For the second year in a row LUNA: Nocturnal Art and Wonder Revelstoke Arts Festival will transform the city’s downtown core into an amazingly creative art exhibition with many pieces incorporating interactive components to be enjoyed by the public.

This year’s LUNA festival includes 41 artists, many from right here in Revelstoke. The Mountaineer caught up with three of this year’s local artists to chat about their Luna projects, what inspired them and how they’re planning to make their creative vision a reality.

The kickoff is Friday at Revelstoke Visual Arts Centre, the main show from 6 p.m. to midnight on Saturday, and the daytime show is Sunday from 9-4. Here’s a link to the event map.

Taryn Walker — Ancient Forest

Location: Revelstoke United Church 

Artist Taryn Walker says she began working on exhibiting her work in larger spaces as a way to push her drawing practice in a more contemporary direction, and as a way to create art that is more accessible to the public. Walker sees larger pieces as an easier way for people to connect with her art by allowing the public to feel they are part of the experience and to interact in a more personal way.

 

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LUNA festival works are popping up all over town ahead of the art festival this Saturday in Revelstoke. Here, Taryn Walker works on her piece at the Revelstoke United Church. See you downtown on Saturday! #lunaverse

A post shared by Revelstoke Mountaineer (@revelstoke_mountaineer) on Sep 28, 2018 at 4:14pm PDT

Although she currently resides in Victoria, Walker is a born and raised Revelstokian and says she knew she wanted to participate in LUNA. Her exhibit will feature a large-scale abstract, symbolic line drawing of an ancient forest portraying the cycle of birth, growth, destruction, death, and regeneration.

“I find when you think of nature it’s this really interesting almost contrast in itself. On one hand there are elements of the forest that are so soft and beautiful but there’s also this underlying power and almost … something more sinister that I really enjoy … I like looking at those contrasts,” said Walker.

Executing a piece as large as the one Walker is planning requires a lot of planning and preparation, not only in terms of the drawings themselves, but mentally as well. In an interview with the Mountaineer, Walker said she has budgeted a week of time to complete her large-scale piece and creating a plan to tackle the logistics involved. To help, Walker says she usually prepares all of her designs ahead of time to ensure she has enough content to fill the space once she’s able to begin working on it.

“It’s this crazy creative crunch because I’m not physically able to make anything happen up to that point. It’s exciting for me because it’s really a reaction to that space. There’s always improvisation, there’s still a lot of spontaneity.

Along with the large-scale forest Walker is also planning to create an interactive component to compliment her piece. While still in the planning stages at the time of our interview, Walker said she has previously done an interactive drawing project. Her artistic practice works a lot with language and narrative and Walker is considering having small sheets of drawing paper with snippets of language that the public would be able to interpret through their own drawings.

LUNA: Nocturnal Art and Wonder Revelstoke Arts Festival takes place Saturday, Sept. 29 from 6 p.m. to midnight and Sunday, Sept. 30 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in Revelstoke’s downtown core. The Luna pre-event featuring Luna artist Zuzanna Riha takes place at the Revelstoke Visual Arts Centre on Friday, Sept. 28 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. For more information about the festival visit http://revelstokeartgallery.ca/luna/.