Generations of art and artists

 Art plays an important part in the mental and intellectual growth of children. 

Generations is a family show, featuring my dad’s artworks, my own, plus works by my kids and grandchildren. When I was teaching art education to teachers at the University, I would use slides of my own kids’ and grandkids’ artworks, to give teachers an idea of what to expect at each age and grade level. From the time my kids could hold a pencil or crayon, I kept their scribbles, their drawings and paintings. When they became able to manipulate clay, I kept the clay objects they made and painted. This exhibition, Generations, confirms that the arts and art education, are fundamental to hand and brain development. 

For almost a decade now, the arts ecology in this province has suffered a drought. As usual, when the economy hits the rocks, governments cut art budgets in the name of austerity. In Europe and Asia, the arts are taught at every grade level.

That’s why we need to advocate for arts education.

We are moving into a future that will require creative thinkers who will be able to solve a host of new problems creatively, using both hands and both hemispheres of the brain.

The Bison are Back

There were between 50 and 60 million bison on the prairies when the railroad and European settlers arrived. Within a couple of decades, their numbers were reduced to about 2000.

Grant McEwan, author and historian, has called this “the most spectacular slaughter of wild animals in world history.”

The prairies were covered with bison skeleton bones. Gathering the bones became a lucrative cash “crop” for the first settlers.  The bones were shipped east where they were processed into phosphate fertilizer, used in the sugar refining industry and in making bone china. Carloads of bones shipped from Moose Jaw and Regina represented well over several million bison.  

Today, bison herds, large and small, are distributed all over North America from Alaska to Texas, and throughout the Canadian prairies.

The bison are back! Enjoy your bison burger!

The Edible Landscape

The Edible Landscape takes us back to the land.

The most profound garden image I carry is of my grandmother in spring, bending down to gather a handful of soil in her hand. She squeezed it, smelled it, opened her hand and let it fall back to the ground. Was it moist enough? Did  she smell the life force of the compost? Was it ready for planting?

There was something magical about her connection to the garden and the bountiful flowers and vegetables she would produce. It is that connection that inspires every bite in my edible landscape exhibition.

                                                        – Victor Cicansky, October 23, 2016

                                            – Photo by Gina Fafard/Slate Fine Art Gallery