Teyle Alexander poses in front of several of her drawings that are on display at a collaborative pop-up art event featuring a handful of artists from CORE Association, Next Step and REDI Enterprises, plus two artists from Taber Special Needs and Venturers. The event continues Saturday from noon to 5 p.m. at TREX Space downtown.--NEWS PHOTO BRENDAN MILLER
bmiller@medicinehatnews.com
A handful of local artists, as well as a pair visiting from Taber, are showcasing and selling their work at a collaborative pop-up art show that wraps up Saturday afternoon.
Artists who utilize social services provided by CORE Association, Next Step and REDI Enterprises, along with Taber Special Needs and Venturers, are in attendance with their work, some for sale, displayed at the Creative Community art event held at TREX Space.
The event was organized by bringing together various social agencies to support the artists and give them an outlet to display their talent and showcase their work.
“There were lots of people I knew that were artists and wanted to sell or showcase their art,” says Karlena Martinuk, co-organizer. “We just thought this would be a great opportunity, an opportunity to make friendships and relationships and build community relationships.”
Many of the participating artists have never had the opportunity to display work at a public art show, including 21-year-old Kammi Obrigewitch, who specializes in mixed mediums and showcased a large variety of unique pieces of art.
Obrigewitch says at a young age she was inspired by a clay painting her grandmother had and uses 3-D effects in a portion of her work.
“It was made out of clay and it was just squiggly lines and the clay of 3-D and it had cool markings as well on the clay,” says Obrigewitch. “So that inspired me to start looking into 3-D.”
Some of Obrigewitch’s favourite pieces focus around Disney princesses.
“That’s why Sleeping Beauty has flowers with pipe cleaners to represent the vines in her films, that’s why Belle has a 3-D bookshelf with an actual functioning (miniature) book,” explains Obrigewitch.
Obrigewitch says she was a little nervous to display her art publicly but found a new level of confidence after receiving several compliments from visitors Friday.
“It makes me want to continue running my art shop, even though no paintings were bought today, it’s still good and positive,” she says.
Artist Teyle Alexander, 27, is also showcasing her work inspired by anime at the art show, including works with popular pop culture characters from Sailor Moon and Avatar, as well as dozens of original characters she has created.
Alexander began drawing in high school and has since developed a range of traditional and digital art and also makes stickers and keychains.
“When I have ideas an image just pops into my head and I draw what my hand feels,” says Alexander. “Drawing a character is a little tricky, especially (when you think about) what story is behind them, what’s their names and their backstory?”
Alexander started working with digital art in 2021 and has a YouTube channel called ‘Sissie-chan’ that features videos showing the process of how she creates her art.
Artists and their work will be back on display and on sale from noon to 5 p.m. Saturday at TREX Space, located at 512 Third St. SE.
