 Meet Christina Hartwick, multimedia artist who specializes in amazing and beautiful wire sculptures! I am always enthralled at the detail and unique character of each of her creations! Visit Christina this weekend during for her first Art Studio Open House, October 6 to 8 (co-hosted with artist Cheryl Sartor). Read ON to discover Christina's inspirations and more about her work! What path led you to working with wire? What other mediums do you work with when creating? I first started out doing portrait drawings of people and animals. Wire became a new form of drawing for me which brought my drawings off the paper and into a 3D form. I enjoy working with many different mediums. Some of my favourites are wire, wood, rock, paints, fabric, pen & ink, pencil & coloured pencils. I most enjoy sculpting and working with hand tools and electric tools. 
Your work feels whimsical yet very strong and grounded, what is your inspiration? At the family cottage was where I found a lot of my inspiration. I would sketch just about anything at anytime. I would take extensive time shading with pencils, coloured pencils or pastels. I would always travel with my pencils and sketch book. One time I had forgotten my supplies back home and felt lost. So I began a search for other textiles. I came across some rusty old wire in the garage and that’s where it all began. I brought the drawings in my mind to life into a 3D form. It was very satisfying to see those images come off the page. I believe art heals the artist and the ones who appreciate it and want to know more of its story.   What are your favourite subjects to create? Do you accept commissions? Outdoor and large sculptures are my most favourite to create. Being able to create large pieces without welding is a complex process and the outcome is always engaging. I have and do accept commissions.   Where may people find your work, in person and online? My art can be found at Art & Home Studio, Orillia Opera House and the Orillia Museum of Art & History. On facebook, find my work on my All Wired Up - Wire Sculptures and Mixed Media Art page. Contact me through e-mail or at my studio 705-326-6713. Website up soon! www.allwiredupartist.com Artist Bio: Originally from Newmarket, Christina has always had a passion and a appreciation for all forms of art and music. She took art through high school and continued her love of Fine Arts throughout the years as a self taught artist. Christina has called Orillia home for many years and would visit the parks camping as a child. She has participated in local art events such as, Art Meets History, Maple Masterpieces/Streets Alive, Women’s Art Show Exhibit, Woods End Studio Tour, Art Studio Open Tour and Somniatis The Wearable Art Show. Christina has her art displayed for sale at the Orillia Museum of Art History, The Orillia Opera House and Art & Home Studio. She is also a member of The Orillia Fine Arts Association. Christina is hugely inspired by her two children, exploring the outdoors, wildlife and music. She works with wire as her prominent form which requires a level of manual dexterity and her sculptures are of life like proportion as well as abstract.
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 Meet Tanya Cunnington, a contemporary painter who balances life as a full-time artist, gallery owner and mother. Her vibrant landscape paintings radiate with gorgeous colour and strong lines! Read ON to discover more about Tanya and her work ... You are a gallery owner, working artist and a mother, how do you balance those dynamics? Red wine. Lots of it. But in all seriousness, it is hard to shut things off in your mind when you are passionate about them, so I had to create a balance. I genuinely love being a mom and owning my own business and of course being an artist. I’ve designed my life so that our son can be a part of all of it. Because I own my own business, he can join me at the gallery anytime he wants to, and he has his own studio so he can create when we do. It also really helps that I have a supportive partner who is also an artist and understands how important studio time is. When I get really overwhelmed, I do yoga.  Tell me about your gallery, Lee Contemporary Art? Lee Contemporary Art is a curated rental gallery that exhibits emerging and mid-career artists. I opened it three years ago with the help of the Business Enterprise Research Network Program when I realized that I wanted to work in a creative industry, side by side with artists. I had done some curatorial work in the past and loved it. I get really excited when I see a great submissions from a new artist, so a gallery just seemed like a natural fit. I tend to exhibit work that is more abstracted and less traditional because that is what I am drawn to as an artist. I’ve exhibited artists of different disciplines from all across Canada and recently from the U.S. as well.  How has your art practice evolved over the years? What is your main creative focus now? My art making practice just underwent a huge shift. After working in abstracted grid-like collage for almost 20 years, I recently moved into landscape. I didn’t realize how much I was being influenced by my surroundings in Toronto until I moved back to Orillia 6 years ago. Being a really nostalgic person, my work has always been about the passage of time and memory, so I am enjoying finding new ways to express that. Most recently, I began work on a series of “rocks and trees” based on my childhood in Northern Ontario. I don’t think that I have exhausted this subject yet, so I plan to continue with it until I do. I will also continue my explorations with colour.  You currently have a new exhibition showing at Loop Gallery in Toronto, what are the details and what is up next? Dream, comfort, memory opened at Loop Gallery on September 15 and runs until October 7. It is an exhibition of ten new paintings all based on Northern Ontario. The title is borrowed from Neil Young’s Helpless. Loop Gallery is located at 1273 Dundas Street West (at Dovercourt) in Toronto, open Wed-Sun. Upcoming is a two person show of works on paper with Jill Price at the MacLaren Art Centre in Barrie, Ontario. It opens December 6 and runs until March of 2019.    Dream, comfort, memory runs until October 7 at Loop Gallery, Toronto Tanya's gallery Lee Contemporary Art is located at 5 Peter St. S. in downtown Orillia's Arts District. Currently on exhibition is Sean Rees: Imperfect Precision and up next is Annie Kymta Cunnington: Plan B, October 4 to 27, 2018. Interested in showing at the gallery, contact Tanya!
AND, discover even MORE about Tanya' work here! |
Artist InspirationInspiring ARTists & ART!
Zephyr Art & Artists
Xavier Fernandes Greg James Thomson Peter Fyfe Sylvia Tesori Christina Hartwick Kathryn Kaiser Paul Court Tanya Cunnington Nancy Jones Meg Leslie Robyn Rennie Murray Van Halem Brian Tosh Heather Price-Jones Linda Plourde Archives
January 2019
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