Two Weyburn artists will soon be taking a one-of-a-kind show on the road - all the way back to their home town of Calgary.
Rickee-Lee Webster has joined her mother, Heather van der Breggen, in the studio this year. Together, the two have taken a journey into the past and have created something special to share with the world.
On September 29, at the Aero Space Museum of Calgary, Simple with a Twist will host a public gala for the one-time launch of 'Still...', a uniquely inspired and breath-taking series of paintings by mother and daughter, van der Breggen and Webster. An unveiling of van der Breggen's featured work, a twelve by eight foot, eleven-canvas polyptych, will be presented to music, performed by Roadside Attraction, at 7:30 p.m. The exhibit will be on display for only one night.
Van der Breggen is accomplished professional artist with a reputation for astounding colours and liberal imagery. Her presentations are a special treat for all eyes and her works can rouse the art lover in anyone.
Since Heather is also including with this exhibit the inaugural paintings of her daughter, Rickee-Lee, the excitement of this event is particularly profound.
"It's been a full circle experience for me to have been involved in creating with my mother," said Webster.
With a background in dance, Rickee-Lee Webster has found a new way to express herself, yet her sensibility for movement is certainly apparent in her paintings.
"What a wonderful journey to share with someone who has always inspired me so much," she added.
The threads that tie together the artistic works of both mother and daughter are woven from the artists' own family history, transcending individual families, encompassing a greater tapestry of universal themes.
Each piece in the 'Still...' exhibit was largely inspired by a box of letters exchanged by Heather's parents during the Second World War. They were love letters between two young people, a pilot and a school teacher, separated, with a growing family in a world full of conflict.
Heather and Rickee-Lee only read those letters this year, after both of Heather's parents had passed. Gordon and Florence Campbell, in fact, spent their last years in Weyburn, but that was more than sixty years after the letters were written.
Many of the letters end with the phrase, 'I still do...'. They were speaking to one another with tender assurances while also speaking to their descendents about the human struggle, mirroring contemporary themes.
"They were in a state of uncertainty on a global scale," said van der Breggen. "They were worried about the world war, which was real, and they wondered what the future would be like, from a personal level to a global level. Now, with global warming and bucket lists, it's the same as it was then in many ways."
What has become clear to these artists, indeed, is that people are still the same now as they were in those times. All things still depend upon love, grace and honour.
"We're all kind of searching for stillness, for being," said van der Breggen.
The 'Still...' polyptych takes on the visual perspective of a pilot during a stall and spin, as van der Breggen's father had described in his letters.
"It is indicative of our world now," she said. "We feel everything is spinning and we are standing still. But it is we who spin."
Heather connects to the letters' legacy through her memories of flight and with the aspect of raising a child alone. Rickee-Lee connects to the timeless romance between her grandparents. Two artists' different perspectives join together to tell a story, or two, about a great love that was the backbone of a family.
Heather and her husband Abraham have long since settled on farm land near Weyburn and the artist describes herself as having a passion for the prairies. She still fondly recalls the time she spent at her grandparents' farm near Three Hills, AB.
"That's where I learned freedom," she said.
Nonetheless, the reason for the artists' choice to take the show to Calgary is significant and compelling. The Aero Space Museum of Calgary once served as an RCAF training hangar and, in fact, it was the first place Heather's dad went for training as a young pilot. He later served the ASMC for 20 years as a volunteer.
The original source of locale inspiration for van der Breggen was an abandoned training hangar in Halbrite. However, the journey to Calgary is meaningful not only to the artists and their family, but also to the families of the men with whom Gordon Campbell served.
"It's full circle for me as well as for my parents," said van der Breggen.
Weyburn residents who will be in Calgary next weekend and wish to attend the free public gala can visit Simplewithatwist.ca for more information.
