Art took focus over the weekend at Westlock’s third annual Westlock Celebrates the Arts event held in conjunction with Alberta Arts Days.
It was a time for all age and skill levels to celebrate art, culture and community through a variety of events held throughout the weekend.
Many participants expressed upset with the low number of participants in the events.
“I’m disappointed in the turnout,” said Ursula Harper, who was taking the opportunity to take part in a print making demonstration at the Westlock Community Art Club Gallery on Saturday with her mother.
“It’s too bad because there’s an awful lot of work in getting it ready and then nobody shows up. I expected lines of people,” she said.
The workshop was led by Britta Seward, who said there is a small group of people interested in art in Westlock, but the group is not huge.
Despite the small number of participants, there was a strong passion for art amongst those that got involved.
For Marianne Strobl, art was something she turned to when she first started going blind.
“I had to do something. I couldn’t see TV, I couldn’t write,” she said. “I had to do something.”
Strobl has been doing wax encaustic for about two and a half years and was demonstrating her work at the Smithfield Lodge over the weekend.
The weekend’s celebrations shed light on a variety of artists, including Philip Maslanka, who has been painting by mouth since 1995.
“I enjoy it. It keeps me and my mind occupied,” he said.
Maslanka used the day to showcase his work at the Artists at Work exhibit at the long term care facility, where a collection of his intricate pieces were displayed.
The events were a perfect place to showcase work by all ages, including up-and-coming artist Travis Ladouceur, 23, who does all sorts of medias, from graffiti on canvas to paint and modified wax encaustic.
He says the reason he paints is it centres him and is a way to showcase his inspirations, adding that he wished more young people were involved in the art scene in Westlock.
“I used to live in Barrhead and when I was in high school there, I used to paint. There’d be maybe 13 kids in the class and I’d paint graffiti on canvas and it inspired everyone to join art class,” he said, adding that the next few years had full classes with upwards of 40 students.
He hopes to inspire youth in the area to take up art as a way to express themselves..
Alberta Arts Days took place across the province to share art and educate the public on it’s importance in communities.
