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Feature - To make a stone stony

Whistler's arts underground comes up for air and an audience

Making art is a pointless thing. What you create is essentially useless, and it's not going to get you rich. In fact, in data compiled by the federal Culture Statistics Program (2000), artisans and craftspersons were found among the 25 lowest paying occupations in Canada in 1995, while painters, sculptors and other visual artists, as well as musicians and singers, were found in the bottom 35. No culture occupations were found in the country's 25 highest paying occupations (which make on average $80,200).

Whistler is home-base for plenty of people who have chosen, at least for a time, "lifestyle". Most of us are willing to forego certain opportunities, like a six-figure or even an $80,000 salary to be able to pursue our physical and athletic passions in this playground.

Artists, however, in following their bliss, are generally committing to a life of poverty. Particularly in Whistler, where the cost of living is high, business and rent costs are prohibitive and landlords continue squeezing the canary just to its point of asphyxiation, the barriers to entry to life as a self-supporting artist require Olympic-standard pole-vaulting skills.

Cost of living aside, Whistler is not a particularly arts-friendly town. The local galleries rarely showcase art from local artists, generally citing inferior quality and an inability to afford to take risks on work that won't move, particularly considering their own overheads. Public art commissions are more widely enjoyed by artists from out of town. There's not a big sense of community as far as artists gathering, collaborating, banging ideas around. Space is at a premium, and artists struggle to find the space to work, or showcase their work.

"I'm surprised there isn't a more active artistic life in the visual arts in Whistler," says long-time resident and the principal of Art Junction @ Function gallery, Jan Holmberg. "Compared to other North American ski resorts, like Vail and Aspen, Vail has about 30 different galleries, whereas Whistler has only about five. This probably has something to do with the maturity of the resort - Vail is a lot older. And it has a more affluent customer base. It's been tough for galleries to establish themselves here. Doing business in the town centre is prohibitively expensive, and there's no forecasting data, so you can't really make concrete business plans, you just have to go with the flow."

The Whistler Arts Council is trying to do something about that. Since its inception in 1982, the Arts Council has worked to promote the arts in Whistler and provide cultural opportunities. Its inaugural event was an art exhibit and sale featuring 17 local artists. The current Arts Council's vision is that Whistler become world renowned for both the arts and recreation.

February's Whistler Arts Showcase aims to go some way towards providing this exposure. "Until Celebration 2010 in 2003, there had never been a broad-based festival celebrating local arts and culture involving all artistic disciplines in Whistler," says Executive Director of the Arts Council, Doti Niedermayer.

"We want to build on the momentum of last year's Celebration 2010. An annual arts showcase gives artists and performers the exposure they need. 2010 presents an opportunity for Whistler and Vancouver to spotlight local, regional and Canadian talent on the world stage. The Whistler Arts Showcase aims to build that capacity within our own community."

Building capacity is something Stella Harvey knows about. Harvey left a successful business career in the dust as she took the fork in the road that led to the writing life. Her initial sense of this detour was that it's a long, lonely stretch of pavement. Whistler had no established writing community for her to tap into, so Harvey pulled a Field of Dreams manoeuvre, and advertised in the paper. And they came.

The Writers Group has since become one of Whistler's most professional and proactive arts groups, hosting workshops, literary readings, annual conferences and regular meetings, as well as publishing a collection of work.

Harvey's business background is evident in the vision she has for the group, and for building a literary community. She has identified several priorities which include networking, meeting and learning from established writers, and mentoring and encouraging the youth. Financial support is also important to build a vibrant artistic community, be it in the form of free advertising or venues to host readings, workshops and conferences.

The bottom line, though, for emerging writers, is to have a place to come out from behind their keyboards and announce themselves, air out their work. As Anais Nin said, "there's nothing that stinks so much as a pile of unpublished writing."

"Public support from the community in the form of an appreciative audience that comes out to organized events, buys our journals and books and reads our words" is Harvey's first ingredient for building a vibrant literary culture in Whistler. The Vicious Circle will send its aspiring writers off to the lions, hosting two public readings at Uli's Flipside, Feb. 22 and 23. Despite the bloodbath-invoking name, eight local writers and four established writers from Vancouver and Squamish, have all offered to read at the free, catered event.

This need to expose your work before an audience is the conundrum for all artists early in their careers. As an emerging or developing artist, your art is not necessarily ready for the world stage.

Sometimes the world isn't ready for you. Dr Seuss, a.k.a. Theodore Geisel, was on his way to burning his first manuscript after 14 rejections, when he ran into a friend who worked in the publishing industry. The Impressionists had to start their own Salon to exhibit art, the Salon de Refuse, because the established art community was stuck in a rut of still-lifes and portraits of knights. Whether it's the world, or you, that's not ready, the reality is that until you reveal yourself to an audience, you are essentially in the closet.

Performing artists, because of the nature of their art, enjoy more opportunities to showcase their work on-stage, especially now that Whistler has a performance space. Dance recitals and amateur theatre groups are more widely supported within the community. However, founder of the Whistler Dance Academy, Trina Eby, reiterates the need for an audience. "It takes community support, by making the effort to volunteer and to go out and see shows. New opportunities for budding artists are arising in the Whistler community, but there is still a ways to go. The Whistler "culture" is primarily a club culture where the arts aren't given much thought by the majority of the population. In Canada, art is seen as a luxury, not a part of everyday life."

Visual artists have more trouble connecting with an audience. There are fewer opportunities to expose their work in the public realm.

Marielle works in acrylic and oils. She's been painting for 20 years, and works primarily with landscapes, still life, and portraits. Two years ago, her alter-ego Helga Ruiterman, approached MY Place to provide a space for exhibiting work by local artists. "It's really hard to get into the local art galleries in Whistler," she explains, "and maybe we're not good enough, I can understand that. But I was an artist here, and felt we should have a place to exhibit our work."

The art galleries are necessarily motivated by commercial constraints. But as a community, perhaps we're not working hard enough to urge those emerging visual artists out of their studios and into the limelight.

Pemberton artist, Patrick Meagher is currently showing a collection of his paintings, Boreal Bestiary , at the MY Place gallery space. Meagher has a fine arts degree from Concordia University in Montreal, graduating top of his class in Studio Arts. He subsequently built a studio and foundry in Pemberton, established Cayoosh Bronze Works and served three years on the municipality's Public Art Committee from its initial inception.

Meagher's art is all on a grand scale - from the wall-dominating paintings that are hanging at MY Place ("they're fun to paint that size, but it's hard to store your work"), to giant wood carvings that garland Whistler Mountain, to bronze castings, including a life-sized self-replica.

"I'm very much more invested in the material and physical aspect of art, that's what really grounds my work. When I'm doing a painting, I'm really aware of the materiality of the paint, it makes me salivate, the smell of the oils. It's not just a means to an end. The material is really important." Little wonder with such a visceral commitment to making art that Meagher elected to return to the foundry after law school, to pursue his craft.

Having worked as a logger on the West Coast for nearly a decade before heading off to art school, Meagher was commissioned by Whistler-Blackcomb's Arthur DeJong to create a collection of large-scale carvings. Merlin, magicians and engineers watch over the Blackcomb Kids Ski School, looking as if they've just stepped through a portal and are waiting for the next full moon and some magic dust to come to life. Standing guard outside the Roundhouse atop Whistler Mountain, a giant bear, a snowshoeing trapper, a raven and a mountain lion also bear Meagher's fingerprints, as well as the caresses of his chainsaw.

Meagher also built one of the only art casting foundries in the Pacific Northwest. His bronze castings are a labour-intensive process, that involve designing the cast from wax right through to completing the patina on the bronze. He sets one of his latest bronzes before me. A curious cat, in an artist's smock, holds a twisting double-helix in his paws and regards me quizzically. I'm half-waiting for the cat to come to life, to start speaking to me.

Meagher designs unusual furniture that incorporates animal motifs and whimsical characters, reminiscent of Aesop's fables, the Brothers Grimm, the Wind in the Willows. Some of the castings stand alone; others are incorporated into table bases, to create a fantastical combination of function and form, a "fable table".

"I had sold a couple of paintings early in my career, for about $500 a piece. And the people who bought the art decorated their whole living rooms around it - with custom-dyed mulberry leather couches, the works. They would have spent 10 times what they spent on the art customizing the furniture to the painting. It seemed to me that people don't have a problem spending money on furniture, but are more loath to spend it on art. So I decided to sneak the art into the furniture surreptitiously. I took the pieces to trade shows, but people were saying, no, this is gallery work."

Meagher now sells pieces out of Calgary's Wallace gallery and is making a trip to Seattle this month to develop some gallery relationships.

"Galleries are a very important part of creating a nurturing artistic climate," explains Meagher. "It's critical to have a gallerist that believes in you and promotes you. The galleries are paying their rent solely to promote your work, and they have marketing people on staff, so I have no problem with them taking half of the sale price."

Holmberg of Art Junction @ Function, says he appreciates the importance of this role. When the gallery was started four years ago, they wanted to find a niche, and chose to focus on art that contained B.C. subject matter, or where the artist was either born in or lived in B.C. Art Junction is the only Whistler gallery to focus exclusively on this B.C. connection. "We stuck to that," explains Holmberg, "and it hasn't been at all challenging to find good work within that. Gallery space is limited and we always have people we'd like to expose. We are now encouraging more Whistler-based artists, and when they're ready and they fit our concept, we accept them. Down the road, I wouldn't mind if we would exclusively showcase Whistler artists."

In the meantime, Whistler artists need other outlets to expose their work.

Self-promotion, though, is rarely an artist's specialty. Right now, in Whistler, there's a dearth of entities promoting local artists. With the lack of support and the high cost of living, there is a serious risk that Whistler's "leakage" problem will also include talented young culture workers slipping away.

Some community support for visual artists is there, if you know where to look. Local businesses, like the Pique, which puts original, locally-created art on its cover every week, local cafes like Esquires and BBK's who lend their wallspace to artists, and the municipality with its public art projects, all provide opportunities for local creators.

The Whistler Arts Council is another resource, and is hosting a workshop for artists on writing artist statements and bios. "Building capacity as an artistic community doesn't happen overnight," explains Doti Niedermayer. "We have to look long-term."

Mixed media artist and designer, Jimi Galvao, is focusing on digitizing his portfolio, to enable him to connect with galleries and buyers. "What motivates my art? Part of it is a desire to create. Part of it is a passion for creativity. I'm drawn to things that are creative, music, theatre, poetry readings. It's just how I express myself. It's a need, like a need to eat, I need to paint, it's on that same level."

Galvao, who is currently working as the Programming Co-ordinator at the Whistler Museum, and freelancing in design work, has a degree in fine arts/visual arts and a certificate in Cultural Resource Management. Galvao worked for four years in an art museum in Victoria, as a preparator, a multimedia designer, exhibition designer and assistant curator.

"I thought Victoria was a fairly conservative place until I came here," says Galvao. "I don't think Whistler wants to be conservative. I think it feels it has to be, because of the obvious necessity of not offending the tourists. I think you can extrapolate from recent events - like the slate of letters to the editor complaining about G.D. Maxwell. It seems to me they were largely written by non-residents. Or the shut-down of the underground radio. From my own efforts to get my own exhibit, I realized the artwork that is preferred is more non-confrontational. Family oriented. Boring."

Galvao's portfolio is extensive and design-oriented. Modern and edgy, his work incorporates random pieces of text. The abstract content hints at unrequited love, shadows in the midnight hour, an appreciation for the dark. There's no bowls of fruit there.

"Inoffensive art is not necessarily bland, but it's become bland because it's overexposed. If there's an equal distribution of complacent art and confrontational art, then they're both equally inspiring," says Galvao when I ask if "tourist-friendly" art is bland. "If your goal is to sell your art, there might be better opportunities here, in a tourist town. But when you sell your art, you're basically truncating your creativity, because you can't totally express yourself, you have to think about what is popular, what will people buy. Mainstream society siphons us into thinking in certain ways already and creativity is one of the last chances we have to be individuals.

"I've reached a point in my life were I feel like I need to make some kind of professional attempt at this. I've taken it as far as I can go on my own, and now I need to share it with people." Galvao's work will soon be appearing all around Whistler, on the WAVE buses.

Visual artists have an opportunity to partake in a Public Art Workshop, being hosted by the RMOW, as part of Celebration 2010. From 4 to 7p.m. Feb. 19 at MY Place, a panel discussion, moderated by Scott Roberts will deal with Keys for Success in Entering Public Art Competitions. The panel comprising artists Kat Sullivan, Jill Anholt, juror Brigitte Loranger, and competition organizers Tom Barratt and Kevin McFarland will focus on the structure of public art competitions, the artist and juror experience and upcoming public art opportunities in Whistler.

"To make a stone stony: that is the purpose of art", wrote Russian literary theorist, Viktor Shlovskym.

"Art brings new perception," says Patrick Meagher. "It's one thing we do that doesn't meet our survival needs. It might be the thing that makes us human."

For Zen teacher Norman Fischer, it's not just making art that is key to being human. It's also experiencing it.

"If you really look at a piece of art or hear a piece of music or poetry or see a dance, you walk away wondering about your life. This is what these objects are supposed to do, this is why artists make such sacrifices in the doing of what they do - because this doing is the undoing at least temporarily of what has been done to them in their lives and would do them in to the point of death or madness if it weren't undone in the process of making art."

It seems to me if these people are willing to starve themselves in order to create art, then the least we can do is get out there and experience it.

For more details about the Whistler Arts Showcase, check out the Pique entertainment listings, or visit

www.whistlerartscouncil.com .


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