An Okotoks artist will be chronicling cherished citizens for the Town’s gallery.
As the first-ever artist-in-residence for the Okotoks Art Gallery (OAG), Tanya Zakarow will be painting portraits of prominent figures in the community.
“Just as a way to honour them, more than anything,” Zakarow. “I think it’s really important to honour people who have given a lot of their lives or contributed in a big way.
“It kind of keeps that small town feel alive as well.”
In her time at the OAG, Zakarow will be taking recommendations and nominations from the public as to who has contributed to the Town’s social fabric.
The first portrait for the 30-year resident was a no-brainer: the late Mayor Bill Robertson, who passed away in July 2021.
“That was a huge contribution from him, that town spirit,” Zakarow said. “He really helped to create a foundation in Okotoks of team spirit and community spirit, because there were just so many things that he did.
“I remember he was always going for coffee with people in the community, like I would go to A&W and he would go, ‘Oh hi, how long have you lived here?’”
Capturing that sort of character is the major driver for the artist.
“I think to be able to do a proper representation of people is important to me,” Zakarow said.
“With Bill, I think I have a really good likeness of him, so I think to be able to do that for other people in our community and share my work with the community is amazing.”
Entirely self-taught, Zakarow hadn’t been a full-time artist since grade school until the pandemic hit, when she got her easel out and put paint to canvas.
Simply creating character portraits is a draw for the artist, rather than still life or landscape.
“It’s the story in their face, because when you study a face for so long, you actually get to know that person,” Zakarow said. “It’s almost a spiritual thing, where you understand their lives and what they’ve been through – it's studying each line of the face almost like a road map to their life – that to me is magic.”
The artist-in-residence initiative is a three-part partnership with the Town of Okotoks, the Okotoks Public Library and Okotoks Arts Council, explained Okotoks Culture and Heritage lead Allan Boss.
“She’ll have an open studio for people to come see her work and come talk to her,” Boss said.
“It’s super exciting and it says a lot about our community’s ability to support the arts and value the arts. It’s an incredible opportunity to showcase the talent that we have here in Okotoks.”
That deep bench of talent presented a lot of choice for the initiative.
“Tanya’s a 30-year Okotoks resident who was self-taught, and she’s an incredible artist who has a fabulous project,” said Boss, adding the selection committee had its work cut out.
“Every one of them was incredible, so to see that is pretty cool.”
The initiative also fostered a cohesion among various bodies with a stake in the arts.
“We had an incredible committee of members of (town) council, senior leadership from the library and library board; it was just a great opportunity to bring people together to assess the high quality of artists.
"Programs like this, artist in residence programs, are designed to give an artist a chance to come and expand their craft, to work on something that’s inducive to creation without worry, and really just to concentrate on one thing for a month at a time in any field is just incredible, and it’s especially important for artists,” Boss explained.
“Art often-times is created in isolation, and this is an opportunity for these artists to create in a public realm and for people to go and chat with them about.
“It says a lot about our community of Okotoks that we can create something like this.”
To nominate someone for Zakarow's portrait project, go to https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/KVV8XQK
