Vivid creations on display at Revelstoke Art Gallery’s October show

It was a busy opening night at the Revelstoke Art Gallery on Friday, Oct. 7 as many admired the four exhibitions from local artists.

Jewelles Smith‘s exhibit is a fascinating insight into what she describes as the Dialogue on Motherhood: Visual Interrogations.

“Women who are disabled and who are mothering, they’re doing a great job, it just might look different than you would expect,” Smith said.

Smith is in the middle of her PhD and turned to painting in the evenings to understand and process the dense theories she was studying.

“I discovered that’s where I worked things out and figured out actually how I connect or don’t connect with specific theories,” she said.

“It’s been really exciting to talk to women about their responses to a visual expression of some of the theoretical ideas I am exploring. Because too often people speak in jargons, the message gets lost and the story gets lost, so giving a space where we can creatively explore women’s narrative I think is really important.”

There are explanations on each of Smith’s paintings, one in particular Grieving Goddess details the pain of miscarriages.

“Before the births of my two sons, I experienced two miscarriages, and the death of my daughter, Petra. The years before my sons were born, I often felt like an unacknowledged entity walking through the world: We have words for people who have buried their parents, who have buried their spouses, but not for us who buried our children.”

Jewelles Smith represented the theories she studies on canvas. Photo: Emily Kemp/Revelstoke Mountaineer

Another artist, Jacqueline Palmer, presented her exhibit A Thousand and Two Wild Horses.

She expressed her theme through a variety of pottery and artwork rejoiced in the freedom and power of horses.

“The idea is to emphasize the symbolization of the horse — it’s beauty, courage and freedom,” Palmer said.

Artist Jacqueline Palmer. Photo: Emily Kemp/Revelstoke Mountaineer

Mother and daughter team Susan and Kristi Lind’s paintings are featured around town. Kristi’s work is on show at Main Street Cafe.

To the untrained eye, their style appears similar although a closer look reveals Kristi’s seems more stylized with intense colouring, whereas Susan’s could be described as softer.

Mother Susan (right) and daughter Kristi left) team up to display their art. Photo: Emily Kemp/Revelstoke Mountaineer

Susan Lind’s work (left) is different to her daughter Kristi’s (right) in colour intensity. Photo: Emily Kemp/Revelstoke Mountaineer

Kip Wiley’s examination of the delicate snowflake was featured in his exhibit Seeking the Holy Grail. The Revelstoke Mountaineer’s September edition featured this artist. Read on for the full story.

By Imogen Whale

“When I first saw the image, my jaw dropped,” says photographer Kip Wiley. Keen to pursue a new photographic challenge, Wiley decided to tackle the subject of snow. When faced with the first results of his efforts in macro and magnification, he was taken aback.

“I just stared and stared,” he explains. The William Blake poem, Auguries of Innocence that Wiley had learned back in his days as an English Literature major, sprang into his mind.

“To see a World in a Grain of Sand

And Heaven in a Wild Flower

To hold Infinity in the palm of your hand

And eternity in an hour…

“That verse captures how I felt about the images,” Wiley notes. “[They are] incredibly beautiful, symmetrical creations full of texture and design elements; and it’s just frozen water. I was dazzled by the wonderment of snow.”

It’s this sense of wonder that Wiley hopes viewers of his latest art exhibit, opening October 7 at the Revelstoke Visual Arts Centre, experience when viewing his work.

“Here in Revelstoke the snow is near and dear to us,” Wiley says. “Residents’ lives and hobbies are shaped by snow.”

Kip Wiley’s Seeking the Holy Grail exhibition at the Revelstoke Art Gallery. Photo: Emily Kemp/Revelstoke Mountaineer

It is Wiley’s love of skiing that inspired the name of his exhibit, Seeking the Holy Grail.

“As a skier, the holy grail is those epic powder days that come few and far between. I realized, for me, those holy grail days aren’t something you can be aware of or understand until you have years of experience skiing in the backcountry. Those years give you a benchmark for comparison. It’s only when you’ve seen and skied enough those rare days hit home.”

Wiley’s exhibit expresses the inherent beauty of snow and how, sometimes, skiing in it can shift your perception to one of gratitude and amazement at the nature that surrounds us.

The exhibit runs until Oct. 28 at the Revelstoke Visual Arts centre.