Artist Leslie Blacklock and Sophia Chamney Lavigny pose for a photo in front of some of the pieces on display at Cafe Verve as part of the "See the Endless Sky" gallery.--News Photo Anna Smith
asmith@medicinehatnews.com
Cafe Verve will host a visual “road trip across Saskatchewan” on its walls for the rest of the summer, made possible by an unlikely collaboration.
For artist Leslie Blacklock, the story of the installation begins not with her paintings, but with a trip around the track at the Big Marble Go Centre.
“I’ve only lived in Medicine Hat for about a year,” said Blacklock. “So I go to the Go Centre every morning, and I talk to a lot of strangers, trying to make some friends. I was walking one day with a couple of ladies. It seemed really friendly, and mentioned I was an artist. One of these ladies mentioned that her granddaughter is an Emily Carr University of Art student.”
That student, Sophia Chamney Lavigny, is from Medicine Hat originally, and currently works at Medalta as a museum interpreter.
With the connection between the two women, there was an opportunity to put together a show, which occurred to Blacklock after seeing another gallery at Cafe Verve from fellow Medicine Hat Art Club members.
Chamney Lavigny has been curating the show since roughly April, helping Blacklock select a series of pieces from the collection she has amassed since she started painting in 2019. Selecting out a series of landscapes, Chamney Lavigny put forward the theme of “See the Endless Sky,” focused on the diversity and beauty of Saskatchewan, where all the pieces were created.
“The thing that kind of stood out to me about Leslie’s work was how many ways it portrayed Saskatchewan and how many different parts of Saskatchewan she portrayed,” said Chamney Lavigny. “So for this, we wanted to kind of take a broad range of the landscapes that she’s done, as well as some of the less representational pieces that she’s done, like a piece called Windy Day that kind of portrays the Saskatchewan winds.
“We almost wanted to portray the feeling of being on a car trip where you can see so much of Saskatchewan, and you get to see all of these beautiful landscapes.”
For Blacklock, this has been a unique and incredible experience, and she expressed gratitude to both the owners of Cafe Verve for making this possible, and to Chamney Lavigny, pleased to be able to provide the experience for her and to have her work displayed with so much care.
The installation is up and available for public viewing as of today, and will remain on the walls of the cafe until Sept. 6.
