The Art of Celebration
The Barrie Examiner
Wednesday September 9, 2009
Sean-William Dawson has made art his life's work.
But he's never made art out of his life -- until now.
The Beeton resident recently created first-person pieces for an inaugural event he hopes will stir up more excitement about art in Barrie.
"I like anything that puts art out into the public so it becomes part of people's lives," Dawson said. "I don't paint on canvas. I use non-conventional materials like bed sheets or scraps of metal I find on the side of the road. This time, I'm going to use big sheets of acetate, which they use for film.
"I've used books that were turned into movies which influenced my life over 30 years and painted scenes from my own life in ink onto the film," he added. "Those scenes all relate to those books and films."
Dawson's paintings, inspired by The Elephant Man, The Fisher King and Shawshank Redemption, will be on display at three downtown locations -- Eye Peek, The Paper Merchant and TD Canada Trust -- during Carnegie Days from Sept. 17 to 20.
The fall festival, boasting 50 exhibitors at 20-plus Barrie sites (mostly downtown), is the brainchild of MacLaren Art Centre staff. It offers local residents and visitors a variety of events aimed at exploring the role of language and contemporary art while bringing business downtown.
It also coincides with Doors Open Barrie, a one-day heritage and culture event on Sept. 20, that opens the doors of the city's historic buildings for residents to explore.
"We're cutting our teeth on this festival," said Carolyn Bell Farrell, the art centre's executive director. "We were looking at a way for people to take notice of our programming, and promote the vitality of our wonderful downtown. This festival touches on the history of our building, which used to be a public library."
Carnegie libraries were an architecturally beautiful style of buildings built with money donated by Scottish-American businessman and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. Since the MacLaren Art Centre was once a Carnegie library in Barrie, the festival name seemed fitting.
"It's part of our ongoing efforts to meld art with everyday life," said Sandra Fraser, the centre's curator. "People are excited about this new festival. It's a way of making art engaging to people by drawing from their own interests."
Festival activities include art exhibitions on site and in store fronts, public art projects, lectures, readings, video screenings and hands-on workshops at the gallery and throughout downtown Barrie.
If sitting stationary at one location isn't for you, hitch a ride on the Read Out Loud moving literature event Sept 20. The mobile event is run by a small group of environmentally conscious artists called Ear to the Ground.
"The tour is delivered in a shuttle bus, and we're promoting language and the (Barrie) library," said group member Jacqui Swanek, of the book mobile-style moveable gallery. "We've made fitted seat covers made of reclaimed fabric, and transferred photo images of book covers onto the seats.
"We've also made huge, life-size words and placed them at four sites on the tour," said fellow group member Jenn Guerin. "The words are basically sculptures, and they are site-specific. They relate to where they're placed, and it gets people thinking about the meaning and history of each word."
Aside from visual art, there's a whole literature section to the Carnegie Days. Barrie writer Bruce Meyer is heading up the 'Eat Your Words' portion of the festival.
"They (MacLaren) wanted to take the written word and turn it into an art form," said Meyer, who will showcase his latest book, Dog Days, during the festival. "Eat Your Words has the art coming to people instead of people coming to the art. No one has tried using the whole downtown, and it's restaurants, as a stage for readings."
Downtown restaurants such as Royal Thai Cuisine, At The Five Resto Lounge and others welcome poets to read their material as dinner entertainment.
"As you eat, the poets will rotate restaurants and read for you. We're trying to explore literature as a living event," Meyer said. "Readings are an old tradition in the literary world."
If all goes well this year, the MacLaren Art Centre is prepared to make Carnegie Days an annual event.
"We'll definitely run it again next year, and keep the core of the event the same. But we'll look at expanding to maybe include film," Fraser said. "
To learn more about the festival, or for event details, visit www.maclarenart.com.
