MELFORT — There’s something lurking in the back alley behind Melfort’s Main Street – art.
The Northern Lights Gallery in Melfort is having its second annual Back Alley Tour on Thursday, July 19, from 4 to 8 p.m.
For the tour, visitors will be taken to the back alley behind the gallery, where they can get to see and purchase art pieces at a wide variety of styles and budget. Some pieces will be worth $10 while others are worth hundreds.
“It’s meant to feature our local artists because we have very many talented artists around here that have work displayed all over North America and are involved in all kinds of different things,” said Sandra Dancey, owner of Northern Lights Gallery. “It’s the kind of thing local people don’t really grasp – how many talented artists we have around here.”
There will also be demonstrations, workshops and the nearby Melfort Legion will hold its weekly Chase the Ace.
“It’s an excellent free summer event and they get to meet some of the local talent from the neighbourhood,” Dancey said. “They might have otherwise not realized how good these people are, because a lot of them have day jobs.”
Some of the artists featured will include Jim Mason, a woodcarver with a piece currently touring Canada, Bobbi Clackson-Walker, an artist of various mediums who has work in collections across the world and Sean Simmons who draws the comic “Rizzo”.
Simmons started doing comics in Grade 1 in the margins of his school work, and kept with it to adulthood, where he made “Rizzo”.
“I don’t have words about how to be a success, because I haven’t figured that part out yet, but I do think everyone should do art, all the time. Just do it – whatever your thing is, do it,” Simmons said. “It’s beautiful for other people to see, and it’s therapeutic for you, and you’re making what you love and what amuses you. I suppose that’s the only thing we can do here on this planet.”
