Artist in the Community- Pearl VanGeest

Join Pearl Van Geest, Guelph’s 2014 Artist in the Community, and take part in the creation of a large-scale community art project: Terrain of Sensation: A Collaborative Mapping Project. Tour the grounds of the West End Community Centre for inspiration, then draw, paint, sketch or make prints on site. Workshops are free and family friendly. No art experience is needed!

'Her project, Territory of Sensation, is a collaborative mapping of the naturalized area of the community centre that combines traditional cartography with individual, personal artistic interpretations.'

(from the city of Guelph press release)

Pearl is Guelph's first Artist in the Community! Chris and I had an opportunity to go check out her new project at the West End Community Centre last week. The weather turned nasty on our way there but then cleared up thankfully while we were outside. Pearl explained what we could do to participate and gave us squares of mylar to work on.  We wandered the lovely naturalized area beside the recreation centre. We each chose a square section from the map as our area to draw inspiration from. 

I am still surprised how wonderful it is there. We have been to the West End Community Centre many times but never wandered around the lovely ponds outside.

This is Pearl with her maps and sections of map that we chose to work with. Once all of the sections of map have been interpreted and photographed by Pearl, they will later be arranged together in an installation to show at the Centre. The unveiling will take place during Culture Days.

This was the area that I chose to work from. I did something fairly representational but then did two different views and layered them on top of my map section.

This is Chris's piece on top of his map section, which you don't have to use but we just liked the finished look.

This is my layered piece at the bottom of the light table. After the work was documented by Pearl, we were given our paintings to take home with us. Yay. Can't wait to see the finished piece after September 26th. There is lots of time still to take part in the project as there are workshops running through most of September- see below.

You can read a Guelph Mercury article about the project here.

September

• September 4: Workshops 10 a.m. – noon and 4 – 6 p.m.
• September 5: Workshops 10 a.m. – noon and 2 – 4 p.m.
• September 11: Workshops 10 a.m.– noon and 4 – 6 p.m.
• September 12: Workshops 10 a.m. – noon and 2 – 4 p.m.
• September 13: Workshop 10:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
• September 14: Workshop 10:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
• September 26: Workshop 10:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m., Presentation of work 1 – 5 p.m.
• September 27: Workshop 10:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m., Presentation of work 1 – 5 p.m.
• September 28: Workshop 10:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m., Presentation of work 1 – 5 p.m.