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Artists face off at battle
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 29, 2015
VOL 118 NO. 17
Veterans recognized Page A15
CRAIG LINDSAY
Grand Forks Gazette
Top artists from around the Boundary are expected to battle it out at gallery 2 to find out who is the best. The competition is called Art Battle and it goes down May 9 at the gallery. In the competition, 12 local artists will do the best work they can do in 20 minutes and the audience votes for their favourite. “We are a nation-wide live arts event,” said organizer Shannon Frederick. “There are local organizers all across the country. We all link up for our national championship at the end of the art battle season. Frederick says there are art battles going on across Canada going on from September to June. In June, the art battle winners will be brought together for a provincial competition in Vancouver. The winners there will compete at the national competition. Frederick said the event has become popular on the Lower Mainland with several events in Vancouver and in Victoria. She said there have also been events in Chilliwack, Kelowna and Penticton. “There are three rounds and each round is 20 minutes long,” said Frederick. “Events have 10 or 12 local artists broken up into two different groups. The first group features the first six artists. The artists paint in front of the audience who vote for their favourite painting. We then have the second round of painters. They paint and the audience votes.” The third round is the final featuring the winners of the first two rounds facing up. “Again, they have 20 minutes to paint and the audience votes and determines the winner of the night.” Frederick said the competition is free for the artists, although they do have to apply online with a sample image of their work. “We supply the canvas and the paint for our competitors,” she said. “It’s up to the painters to provide their own brushes, tools, implements to paint with. The only rule is nothing mechanical. So no spray bottles, no airbrushes, no fans. That kind of thing.” Frederick said the time limit adds a different element to the painting. “Paintings usually take hours and hours,” she said. “Also, artists don’t paint in front of people. So this really takes the painters out of their comfort zone but it’s a real adrenal rush.” All the works that have been created will be available at the end of the night through a silent auction. “Most often all the works sell and Art Battle splits the money 50/50 with the artist,” said Frederick. Tickets for the event are available on their website at www.artbattle.ca/276-grandforks/ Frederick said there are only a limited amount of tickets and she urges people to get their tickets in advance to avoid disappointment. There are a few painters already signed up but anyone wishing to enter can still do so at the same website.
Perley students (from left) Lucas Davies, Ethan Lovegrove, Lucas Wodyga, Kolton Spurrell and Kayden McGraw listen to a presentation from Aquavan educator Drew MacDonald as they check out a painted sea anemone. Craig Lindsay photo
Van brings sea life to students CRAIG LINDSAY
Grand Forks Gazette
Perley Elementary School students got the chance to see aquatic life up close on Earth Day Wednesday (April 22). The Vancouver Aquarium’s mobile classroom, Aquavan, was at the school all day and students got to hear presentations and get a close look at many sea creatures. The program featured four educators presenting to all the students about aquatics featuring live animals, artifacts and activities. The intention of the program is to inspire young Canadians to build connections with aquatic life so they can become stewards of their environment. Among the live invertebrates the students got to see and, in some cases touch, were: heart crab, green sea urchin, painted sea anemone, leather sea star, Bering hermit crab, leafy hornmouth snail and wrinkled dogwinkle snail. The kids also got to see whale bones and baleen. The Perley PAC sponsored the event. Tobi Reid, Aquavan coordinator, said the students from Perley were very engaged and asked lots of great questions. “It’s been a great reception. It’s really great and rewarding for us to bring the ocean to landlocked communities and make connections between these communities and the ocean. What better way to celebrate Earth Day than to bring some live animals
from the coast.” Reid said it was very promising that the students asked about how they could best protect the sea creatures. Perley was the only stop for the Aquavan in the Kootenay Boundary. Since 1994, over 400,000 students and community members have shared up close and personal experiences with live aquatic animals using the Aquavan. Grade 7 students Lucas Wodyga and Ethan Lovegrove enjoyed the experience of seeing and learning about the various sea creatures. “I thought the display was quite nice, especially on Earth Day,” said Wodyga. “It was quite an awesome display seeing the sea urchins and other sea creatures.” Wodyga said he is disappointed that humans have made such a mess of the oceans such that much sea life is threatened. Lovegrove said he liked hearing the presentations and learning about the sea. “I think they did a very good job at the display and the descriptions,” he said. Wodyga’s favourite part was seeing the whale teeth and bones. “I didn’t know they had just bristles and not teeth,” he said. “It was pretty cool.” He also enjoyed seeing and touching the sea creatures, which he felt were “slimy and hard, which was really cool.” “It was weird too because I hadn’t seen those creatures before,” he added.
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