The talents of nine southeast Saskatchewan artists were on display Saturday at the Estevan Leisure Centre’s multipurpose room during the Ev Johnson Memorial Adjudicated Art Show, hosted by the Estevan Arts Council.
Each artist had to submit five works of art from a particular medium and pertaining to a theme. Their efforts were evaluated by adjudicator Sylvia Ziemann, who had the difficult task of selecting a winner of the show, who will have an exhibition at the Estevan Art Gallery and Museum next year.
Ultimately, she chose two artists: Estevan’s Cheryl Andrist and Wolseley’s Marilyn Malo, due to the similarity of the fabric mediums they selected. She believes the two exhibits will look good together in the gallery.
“I’ve seen a lot of fabric work, and this is more art fabric,” Ziemann told the Mercury. “They’ve put thought into it. They have ideas, Cheryl’s work is with the butterflies … and there’s a lot of little weird secret stuff in there, and Marilyn’s work is very Prairie, but it’s also very collagey, and it really says something about this place that we live in.”
The two artists didn’t know each other before this year’s reception, but now they’re going to collaborate together on an exhibit.
Andrist has entered the adjudicated art show on numerous occasions, and she was the curator at the EAGM at one time. She was excited to have her artwork selected for an exhibit.
“It’s hand-dyed fabric, and then I’ve quilted on top of the hand-dyed,” said Andrist. “Before that, I looked at the hand-dyed pieces of fabric, and I wanted to do butterflies that were from the North American continent.”
She researched what butterflies would eat and the colours for the fabric, and she machine-quilted images or shapes of flowers and leaves.
“Then I painted the fabric butterfly, and I painted some of the fabric afterwards on top of the leaves to pop the flowers and the leaves out.”
She only started dabbling in this medium in the past three years.
Andrist, who is a former curator-director of the EAGM, is looking forward to having an exhibit at the building.
Malo started working in fabric to develop art quilts. Several of her submissions involved the depiction of grain elevators. She submitted the quilts to receive an adjudicator’s feedback on her work.
She selected the Prairies as a subject because of her love for Saskatchewan.
“I’m a Prairie girl. I love the farm. I was raised on a farm, I live on a farm, my family all farms, and I like the old buildings. I like the Prairie icons. I’m a big fan of elevators and old trucks and that sort of thing.”
She had a touring show through the Organization of Saskatchewan Arts Councils in the 1980s using watercolour painting.
Malo was pleased to see the calibre of the art submitted for the show, and described it as a wonderful event.
Ruth Langweiser was selected as the runner up for the show, and Ken Frederickson was third. He also won the People’s Choice Award for his bronze sculptures.
Ziemann lauded the efforts of two young artists, Katie Wempe and Sadie Huber, who are still in school. They entered so they could receive feedback, and Ziemann believes they managed to compete with the adults.
Other participating artists were Kayla Hanson, Nancy Samoluk and Melina Shepley.
“I’ve seen a lot of art in the many years I’ve been working in the arts, and I’m just really warmed by this community and the wonderful effort that’s gone into what you’ve all made,” said Ziemann.
She was pleased to see so many different genres represented, including photography, painting, ceramics, bronze casting, quilting and other fabric work.
“There’s a wide variety of techniques and sensibilities here, so it’s very hard to compared,” she said.
If given the opportunity, she believes she could have selected five winners from the show.
Ziemann spoke with the artists before the reception about their submissions. She also led a workshop on Sunday morning in which she taught participants to make artist trading cards.
The art show is named after Evelyn Johnson, who was a founder of the arts council and a champion for arts and culture in the community until she died in 2016.
