Thursday, February 18, 2016

Throwback Thursday

Takeover
30 x 24"
acrylic on canvas
© Nicki Ault, 2007
sold

Wow, this takes me back. At the time of this painting I was working with acrylics. It would still be a couple of years or so before I would try oils. This photo isn't the best; the moss is not as white as it seems here. 

Mmmmm. I remember working on this at the University of Saskatchewan Emma Lake Kenderdine Campus. I was a relatively new mom and I somehow gave myself permission to take a week off to indulge myself in something I loved and missed desperately: creating art. With a five and a three year old under my wing at home there was not much time to squeeze in a shower let alone time to paint, so having a week-long retreat to take a workshop at the campus in the northern forest was in many ways a life-saver. Certainly it was a sanity-saver. I was sleep deprived and worn to a frazzle. I was losing touch with myself as a unique and individual woman with dreams and aspirations of my own. Having that time restored my energy and tapped into my dormant passion.

photo © Nicki Ault, 2007
painting near the beach at the Kenderdine Campus


There is something to be said for concentrated, uninterrupted work in an inspirational setting when you are a creator. I would eat breakfast at 8:00 and then head to the studio to work all day and into the night, breaking only for meals and the odd coffee. The opportunity to do that for seven consecutive days was invaluable. And it has been lost to our arts community because the university closed the campus in November 2012 for three years to determine its future. The loss has been immeasurable. A rich history of seventy-six years of operation has been cast aside. Why? Because they say it didn't make money? It opened in 1936 for crying out loud- in the midst of the Great Depression. If it can work then, how is it possible that the current administration of the university can't make it work now?

The end date of the three year closure was up three months ago and I anxiously await news of the reinstatement of the Emma Lake Kenderdine Campus. Right now the silence coming from the University of Saskatchewan is deafening.

2 comments:

Barbara Muir said...

Best of luck on getting it reinstated, and I love this painting.

Our art group had a similar thing happen, when the perfect space we
painted in, was taken over by an environmental group (and I really care about the environment) who raised the rent beyond what the artist group could afford to pay. It was just as frustrating because the group was promised a space in the Don Valley in perpetuity by the city 50 years before, but all that changed. Now the group has joined another kind arts group, and we share a small space. That is home now, but your post made me remember the sadness we felt when we lost the place we loved.

XOXOXOXOXO Barbara

XOXOXOXO Barbara

Nicki said...

Thanks Barbara, it has been hard to wait for action. It is such a gem of a place. You would love Kenderdine. I am glad you have been able to continue with another arts group.

XO Nicki