life in the
moment
artist profile
Carving out a Future Wood artist Eric Proulx goes with the grain story by Ellen Kelly | photos by Kristy Reimer
O
riginally from Rimouski, Que., artist Eric Proulx came west in 1989 to work in his brother’s antique store and decided to stay. Proulx’s relationship with wood began about the same time, as an interest in carving and through working with his brother to restore and refinish antique furniture. “The first day I started waxing and cleaning furniture. You have to do it right and be patient without cutting corners. It’s a craft,” he says. Proulx was attending art college in Quebec, but when the opportunity arose to come west, he left.“I really wanted to come here and learn English and see something different. I thought if I don’t like it I can always go back, but I’m still here after 25 years,” he says. When he first came to Calgary, Proulx lived on the same block as Studio Think, an artists’ studio that accommodated woodcarvers, painters working on their art projects and a community of likeminded artists supporting each other.“I was walking by one day. I looked through the window and the carving and painting caught my heart on fire,” he says. There he met chainsaw carver Rick Silas, who became his mentor. “One day he just gave me a chainsaw and said go ahead,” Proulx says.
18 airdrielife.com
| summer 2014