HUMBOLDT — Dimensions 2021 at the Humboldt and District Museum and Gallery features 35 works by 34 Saskatchewan artists creating a vibrant and colourful display of mediums including pottery, needlework, carving, hand knitting and printmaking.
Dimensions is the Saskatchewan Craft Council's biennial, open, juried, touring exhibition which encourages and rewards excellence in hand-crafted work.
Russ Mirasty, lieutenant governor and honourary patron of the Saskatchewan Craft Council, called it a beautiful and thought provoking exhibit.
“The impressive works selected for the exhibit reflect the remarkable creativity and skill of members of Saskatchewan’s fine craft community,” Mirasty said in a statement.
Two artists local to the east central region that made it through the selection process were Jeff Stewart from Meacham and Mel Bolen from Humboldt.
Stewart’s piece is titled Storage Jar. Made with wheel-thrown clay and altered wood, it was fired in a Lake Lenore kiln. Stewart said his goal was to create forms that will interact with the kiln’s atmosphere. The resulting piece gives the appearance of an oxidised, twisted pot.
Stewart said he was proud of the outcome of his work.
“It comes out of a wood fire kiln where the atmosphere is varying all the time,” Stewart said. “It’s in the kiln for a long time, about a hundred hours. As it cools the oxidation and the reduction change again. So the surface is difficult to get and quite unpredictable.”
Bolen’s piece titled Panning for Gold, is made using porcelain clay, glaze oxides, wheel thrown, carved and gas fired to 1,300°C. Bolen said the piece reminded him of the years he had bees: industrious, complicated and creative. The result is a large porcelain platter with intricate patterns and colours appearing woven together.
A founder of the Saskatchewan Craft Council, Bolen said the piece represents the continual cycle of artist improvements and tangents through the creation process as exemplified by the size and choice of delicate porcelain.
“It represents my whole period of making and showing, it all culminates in ‘the next piece is your best piece,’’’ Bolen said.
“It’s on the big side and it’s a porcelain clay body. They’re more apt to break and give you troubles. They’re the problem child of potters, but when they come out they come just incredibly well and also when they don’t you have lots to learn from it.”
While the piece looks like a pan for finding gold, Bolen said it probably wouldn’t be too useful in practice.
“Those ripples in the bottom might catch a few flakes of something, who knows?”
Other artists featured include Marcy Bast, Allison Brandt Malinski, Susan Clark, Ron Cooley, Cecilia Cote, Jane A. Evans, Terri Franks, Michel Fulop, Kamron Garbe, Gary Greer, Jude Haraldson, Heather Hochbaum, Robert Holowaty, Cindy Hoppe, Grant Irons, Sarah Lightfoot Wagner, Dale Lowe, Morley Maier, Chloe Meadows, Cecile Miller, Claude A. Morin, Akiko Muromura, John Peet, Deborah Potter, Evan Quick, JoAnne Sauder, Regan Schneider Donna Stockdale, Lorraine Sutter, Ba-Hung Tran, Reuben Unger and Deb Vereschagin.
The show will be available in Humboldt from Jan. 7 to Feb. 19, before travelling to Weyburn for March and April, Saint John, New Brunswick for May to June, and October to December in Lloydminster.
The Humboldt and District Museum and Gallery is open from Tuesday to Saturday from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Bolen said he recommends seeing the show, as “nothing is spared.”
“This will give you a really good idea of what you can see and purchase in the province,” Bolen said. “We make work and show it and hopefully sell it and continue on.”
This year due to the pandemic the submission and jury process was entirely digital, with 83 craftspeople submitting 130 entries for consideration including 21 entries from emerging artists.
