Alberta Culture Days are coming up Sept. 27-29, and Westlock is well equipped to give young and old the chance to let their inner artist out.
On Sept. 28, the Westlock Municipal Library is running a series of four workshops to let people express themselves while learning a new art form.
Titled “Discover your Inner Artist – Everybody has one,” the four sessions will allow budding and experienced artists to work with different media, including paper, glass, light, ink and paint, said assistant library director Wendy Hodgson-Sadgrove.
“Everyone has an artist inside of them, you just have to learn to let it out and be happy with whatever it does,” she said.
The four sessions at the library start at 11 a.m. with the “Paper + Folding = Sculpture” workshop, where participants can learn to fold pages of a book-sale book and give it new life.
At noon, the “It’s Recycled – See the Light” session starts. Here, visitors get to transform an old jam jar.
The “Try your hand at Mono-Prints” workshop is at 1 p.m. Hodgson-Sadgrove explained a mono-print is somewhat like a wood etching, where an image is carved into a block of wood, ink is applied to the wood and paper is rolled over the block.
Finally, aspiring impressionists can learn to “Paint Like Monet” at 2 p.m.
Although the library’s sessions are all visual arts seminars, Hodgson-Sadgrove explained art is not limited just to what can be put on paper, canvass or made out of clay.
In all its forms, art is a way to strengthen the brain, she said.
“It exercises the right side of your brain, which you don’t always use a whole lot,” she said. “If you keep it well exercised it helps the left side.”
No matter what type of art one does, Hodgson-Sadgrove said if someone is doing it for themselves first and an audience second, it is always uplifting.
“There’s such a feeling of self accomplishment that comes if you do an artistic piece and recognize that you’ve done it and it looks good,” she said.
It all comes down to realizing it’s your piece of art and because it’s yours it is “unique and great,” she added.
Because art is so personal, Hodgson-Sadgrove said it’s important people acknowledge that just because society seems to constrain artists to produce what is deemed acceptable, that’s no reason to deviate from what you want to do.
“It’s like colour within the lines,” she said.
“You can colour within the lines, but sometimes it’s really fun to colour outside the lines.”
Admission to the library’s four sessions is free, and open to all ages. Younger participants are invited to bring an older helper to lend a hand.
