It's all about man's relationship with nature when it comes to the art of Gladys Wozny Siemens who, along with her works, received an official welcome to the Estevan Art Gallery and Museum last Thursday evening with the opening of her exhibit entitled Shorelines.
"I was trained in the modernist tradition," said Wozny Siemens, a graduate of the University of Saskatchewan's fine arts program.
"I did a lot of abstract sculpture for years. Then I quit for family reasons, but when I came back to it, this is where I ended up," she said, referring to her heavily casted pieces that will be on display in the community gallery until Feb. 25.
"I was walking in my garden one day and saw these tracks. They looked like cougar tracks, so I took a plaster casting of one and I was amazed at how it turned out and other people found it interesting also. That was the start of it," she said, referring to her recent work that began in earnest around 2006 and now consists of several temporary artifacts from nature that are cast from sand and soil and comprise a piece of her collection. They include not only the paw prints, but also feathers and other fine examples that nature leaves behind, but only for awhile.
"There were patterns on the ground, so I started with a pail of plaster and went looking and now I call it earth sculpturing, I build the sculpture around what I find."
Wozny Siemens has intensified her interest in nature and she has been fortunate to get others engaged in the details too. She finds interesting designs and geometric forms and preserves them and adds to them with some inspirational words and phrases that become a part of the artwork, whether it is included within the frame or on the sculptured piece itself.
"They are very heavy pieces. I'm still able to shift them around on a work table, but they weigh up to 80 pounds apiece. My husband designed a lift we can use to help us mount works on the wall. I'm impressed with how the work was mounted in the gallery. The plan for safely installing them came from the Swift Current Art Gallery where the exhibit had been before. They sent their information to Estevan, so I thank them for that," Wozny Siemens added.
She adds the words and phrases, because "words have power and they can help explain the art sometimes."
The artist said she has had a number of failed attempts when the castings went bubbly, but she was never afraid to fail.
"I get to use plaster almost as a painter would use paint, so this whole experience is leading me down an interesting track. I never know how good a piece is going to be until I see it in its actual finished form."
Wozny Siemens refers to herself as a veteran artist, and celebrates the fact that "you're never too old to do art."
She added that the whole new episode in her life began with that singular cougar.
"I somehow felt close to the cougar without ever seeing it. I did the nature thing, using my experience with abstract art and got this going."
She did a cast from a mould for a trio of sculptures and a particular feather piece has been recast and refinished and re-detailed for a series of nine sculptures.
"Reference, deference and difference," she said with a smile during her address to the audience that was in attendance for the opening night.
"I get to work backwards. You know I work a positive image but first it is cast in negative form. Some of it can get boring, but I want to get it looking the way it's meant to look either by sanding, toning, plaster pouring and then using stencils (for the words and phrases) to work this piece of nature into another work of art."
The exhibit may be viewed at the EAGM during regular business hours throughout the week, admission free.
Wozny Siemens was welcomed to the gallery by curator/director Amber Andersen who introduced her to the gathering during the reception that included snacks and refreshments for all.
