EVELINE KOLIJN & ROMY STRAATHOF Calgary, AB
Recipient of the Bluerock Gallery Exhibit Opportunity
Eveline Kolijn and Romy Straathof are Calgary artists with a focus on paper arts and are graduates of the Alberta Collage of Art + Design. An Alberta Creative Development Initiative grant from the Canada Council allowed Eveline and Romy to explore producing paper from local materials through a residency at the Banff Centre. The UNESCO World Heritage Site status of the Parks meant that only fibres from plants native to, but collected outside the Parks areas, could be used.
Visit www.paperlandscape.com for more information on this project.
Harvesting materials from the land where our studios are located, we proposed to create a variety of papers from local plants and trees, experimenting with native and introduced species, and to consider also, the invasive alien species that threaten what is true-local. We were drawn, too, to plants that interest us in other ways, for their early medicinal and practical uses or historical significance, though we realized that they might not yield particularly ‘good’ paper. Even determining what is a native plant and what is alien or imported is an understanding that we ourselves are transplants or the descendants of transplants. And so, the materials of our own ‘backyards’ from which we created a variety of paper, have provided us with insight into both the history and current nature of our local environment… We see the stories of the landscape in this paper.
“Landscape in Paper, Sheets”, 2011, sheets of hand-made paper from 100% local fibres, harvested and produced by hand, 28 x 22 cm each. Photo Credit: Eveline Kolijn
“Landscape in Paper, black liquor ink”, 2012, 12 bottles with black-liquor inks from the papermaking process, with coloured willow branch, 51 x 10 x 10 cm. Photo Credit: Eveline Kolijn
“Woodland Allemande”, 2011, handmade paper, Cattail pulp, linocut embossing printed with pulp, 91 x 61 cm. Photo Credit: Eveline Kolijn
TINA MARTEL Grande Prairie, AB
Tina Martel was born and raised in Saskatchewan and moved to Alberta in 1991. She focused on painting degrees in both her Bachelor of Fine Art from the Alberta College of Art + Design and a Master of Fine Art at the University of Calgary. Tina is a multi-media artist who has exhibited across Canada and internationally. She is currently residing in Grande Prairie where she is a full-time instructor in the Fine Art Department of Grande Prairie Regional College.
“evolve” was created during The Works Art & Design Festival in Edmonton, June 21 – July 7, 2010. During the two weeks, with assistance of my team, I produced hand-made paper casts of five Smart cars. This project presented the idea that although we remain ‘thin, fine and so easily broken’ we are taking steps to ‘reduce, reuse and recycle’. Directions of a positive nature are shown in the decreased size of vehicles, improved mileage, and the use of recycled materials in manufacturing. Large scale photographs of the installation are currently traveling with TREX. Lean more here.
“Inside/Outside”, 2010, Smart car tire cast in hand-made paper on aspen shelf, 91 x 91 cm. Photo Credit: Tina Martel
“Transport”, 2012, digital print of photograph with archival ink on fabric, 122 x 183 cm. Photo Credit: Tina Martel
BRIAN QUEEN Calgary, AB
Recipient of the Kensington Art Supply Exemplary Merit Award
Brian Queen has been making paper for 25 years utilizing a wide range of materials and techniques. Brian specializes in creating light and shade watermarks and building papermaking equipment but his interest spans from letterpress printing to new technology applications in bookarts. He owns and operates Sensa-Light, a company that manufactures custom architectural lighting for offices, hotels and restaurants. Brian Queen’s experiments in papermaking and technology has led him to create many wonderful objects, one being his working miniature paper making kit, housed in a wooden book-shaped box.
Watermarked paper is backlit in one of Brian’s ingenious lamps. The portrait in the lamp is a tribute to Dard Hunter, a collector and researcher of papermaking. During the Arts and Craft Movement Dard Hunter designed for the Roycroft line and in 1911 changed his focus when he saw an exhibit on papermaking at the London Science Museum. Dard published numerous books on the art and techniques of papermaking and founded the Dard Hunter Paper Museum.
“Miniature Papermaking Mould in Book”, 2007, velvet, wood, paper and wire mesh, CNC cut and assembled, 4 x 6 cm.
“Dard Hunter Chiaroscuro”, 2008, watermark lamp, paper and steel, 20 x 26 cm. Photo Credit: Laura O’Connor