Situated in the rolling foothills of southern Alberta with a view of the Rockies, the Leighton Arts Centre features artists’ work and offers workshops throughout the year.
Their latest exhibition, ‘What A Difference A Day Makes’ featured artwork by the Group Nine (G9) visual artists in their main gallery.
Although each artist within the G9 group is based in Alberta, they each come with different experiences, backgrounds, ages, and practices.
One of the nine artists is Susan Kristoferson, who’s art in the exhibition was a collection of collages featuring the rolling hillside that she looks at from the window of her studio tucked away in the trees overlooking Turner Valley.
“For me it’s really about moments.
Yes, a day makes a difference, but a moment makes a difference in terms of how the light falls, how the fog or the smoke sits,
and the moon at night,” she said, looking out the studio window at the landscape that inspires her artwork.
She noted that several nights prior, she got up in the middle of the night to the sight of a beautiful crescent moon, coloured bright orange due to the smoke that had drifted in from the BC forest wildfires. These are moments that make an impact on her and she tries to create moments like those in her art.
Kristoferson is trained as a fine artist and a painter, but prefers to create artwork through collaging pieces of paper that she has painted or dyed herself.
Skilled in textile arts and paper-making, she creates complex collage works and unique paper objects like jewelry, origami ornaments, blank books, and notecards.
“To do the art, I need a vast variety of colour, pattern, texture, scale, imagery… And I spent about 20 years searching for techniques that would get me to that point,” she explained, walking through her studio full of colourful pieces of paper and tie-dyed cloth.
Using starch pastes, she paints designs on paper using whatever tools she can think of. On a shelf in her workspace she pointed at several kitchen utensils, gardening tools, and stamps she created.
For several years she owned a studio in Calgary, until she came to the realization that she needed to be part of a community. After looking for their own property to escape to, outside of the city, she and her husband settled on a little acreage where they’ve since acquired chickens, some sheep, their dog, and many plants throughout their vast garden.
Since her surroundings influence her artwork, the mountains started to appear more and more in her art after they moved to the area.
She boasted about the great community they’ve joined and the many artists that she’s connected with.
The collection that hung in the Leighton Arts Centre for the past month were different moments in time of the exact same view near Turner Valley.
“Three years ago the fall was moist and long and the leaves of the Alberta wild rose bushes were brilliant red and were lining the top of the hill. It was just stunning.
The gray of the late fall clouds, and the amber and yellow of the fields,” she said.
In Alberta, her work can also be found in at Bluerock Gallery in Black Diamond, Collectors’ Gallery in Calgary, Willock and Sax Gallery in Banff, and at the two Alberta Craft Council Galleries in Calgary and Edmonton.
Masha Scheele, HCN Staff
media@highcountrynews.ca
