The Leighton Art Centre is opening two new exhibitions for the spring.
For the 21st year, the Annual Juried Members Exhibition returns to showcase the Leighton’s wealth of talent in the tower and main galleries.
To shake things up, however, a glasswork installation dubbed ‘Human Sprawl’ by artist Michelle Atkinson has taken up roost in the Leighton’s indoor garden.
“I started to focus more on Albertan wildlife and nature, so it kind of shifted me into the at-risk/endangered species realm,” Atkinson said, adding each creature silhouette is cut life-size.
Nestled into various spaces within the indoor garden are whooping cranes, swift foxes, bull trout, among others, all species affected by human impact and thus classified as either threatened or endangered.
Fittingly, the body of work was not only inspired by, but in turn supplied by human consumption.
“In the pandemic, my own consumption increased drastically. We were stuck at home and our Amazon orders went a little silly,” Atkinson said. “I live in a condo, so my cardboard started adding up and one day taking it down to recycling I looked at it and said, ‘There’s got to be a better way.’
“So I took that into not just my personal life but also my artistic life.”
Largely self-taught in glass work, Atkinson forged her own path using reclaimed post-consumer glass that she melts down and cuts with a water jet — laser cutting would actually shock the glass, causing it to shatter.
“For my actual process, I learned traditional glass techniques, but then how do I alter them with new technology, different ways of doing things,” Atkinson said.
“I take a bunch of broken windows, I put it in a rectangular form in my kiln and melt it down, then use a water jet to cut it out.
“I tried moulding them as well, but I really liked the crisp edges of the water jet.”
Originally an outlet from her day job as a graphics designer, she became a full-time artist through the visceral act of giving form to her creations in molten silica.
Suspended from the ceiling is an abstract arrangement representing the yucca moth and its symbiotic plant partner, soapweed.
“It’s mainly found in southern Alberta – it's never been hugely abundant, but it is endangered,” said Atkinson, whose arm is adorned with tattoos of the flora-fauna dyad. “It’s a great mutualistic relationship: the yucca moth and [soapweed] plant need each other to survive, so I liked that co-dependence aspect of it.”
As the gallery’s Annual Juried Members Exhibition adorns the gallery spaces, among them is Diamond Valley artist Greg Pyra, who moved to the region six years ago.
“I’m honoured to be included with many fine artists,” Pyra said. “It is a reflection of the passion and commitment of the artists in the local area, and of course the hardworking staff at the centre.”
Living on a hillside near Diamond Valley, he draws his inspiration from the vistas and light that shine through his windows, using his abstract and voluminous painting style to translate not just the dapple light pouring over the Foothills and through his trees, but also his feelings looking out at that.
“I’m beside a ranch and a forest, and can’t help be influenced by the natural surroundings,” Pyra said. “It is incredible, and so I want to channel that energy, that beauty, that colour into the paintings in a way that is intuitive and emotional."
The light of the big sky prairies pours into his home to awaken his inspiration.
“Every morning I’ve been doing this, I look at the pink, the violets or the yellows, and there’s this kind of yellow light coming in through the window,” Pyra said. “It is fantastic and so brilliant that it wakes me up.
“So I appreciate light as never before.”
For more information about the Leighton Art Centre and its exhibitions visit leightoncentre.org.
