Artist Q&As
Welcome to our PLRAC Artist Q&A – six questions posed to several artists – their answers uniquely their own.
- What are you working on?
- What matters to you most as an artist?
- Any tips for balancing your artistic practice with the rest of your life?
- Who are your artistic influences?
- How does the Peace Liard community influence your artistic practice?
- Can you share a sample of your work or a picture of your working space?
Q&A June, 2018
Dawn Gullackson (Fort Nelson)
This month features Dawn Gullackson, a visual artist from Fort Nelson who has just published a book of paintings in recognition of 2017’s 75th Anniversary of the Alaska Highway.
What are you working on?
I am currently work in resin, but in the book I was working on a 75th Alaska Highway Anniversary project of some places of historic importance.
What matters to you most as an artist?
The things that matter to me most as an artist is that I experiment with my feelings and show a love for the images that I am painting within the mediums that I choose to use.
Any tips for balancing your artistic practice with the rest of your life?
I try to balance my artistic practice with my life through nature and by being self aware of my thoughts and feelings as I am expressing them with the mediums I am using.
Who are your artistic influences?
My greatest artistic influences are Pablo Picasso and Vincent Van Gosh. Although I do not paint like them I strive to be like minded in my thought processes. I also strive to be proficient in more than one style and medium.
How does the Peace Liard community influence your artistic practice?
My art is always a product of my environment.
Can you share a sample of your work or a picture of your working space?
Q&A April, 2018
Miguel Eichelberger
“I think the point of expression of any kind is to reveal something to people. If you do it right, authentic art teaches people about themselves.” – Miguel Eichelberger
This month we are delighted to feature Miguel Eichelberger, a writer who grew up in the Peace-Liard region. Currently writing out of Vancouver, BC, his poetry has appeared in literary magazines such as Poetry Salzburg, The Rotary Dial, Jonah, Existere, pacificREVIEW, Joypuke and many more. His play, Cave, was shortlisted for the 2015 Vancouver Fringe New Play Prize, and his new play Stupid Cupid, has been making the workshop rounds in the UK and was recently selected for the full run of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival August 1-27th 2018.
What are you working on?
I am currently working on a new play that explores the effects of generational conflict between two societies and how this impacts those who are caught in the crossfire. These ideas are distilled down to two prison cells, two prisoners, an interrogation room, and the tactical and strategic psychological engagements between three drastically different ideals of peace. I am also working on a collection of poetry that explores the beautiful, ugly, true and untrue things that come from the loss of a mentor, example, hero, friend and father all in one person. Consulting grief in all of its forms is an unexpectedly uplifting experience.
What matters to you most as an artist?
I believe in authenticity. It makes art impactful; it makes relationships beautiful, relentless adventures. An authentic person is often their own unique version of an archetype; describing these archetypes through words, paint, music, and film offer people a way into themselves as they recognize their circumstances, their traumas in a phrase, an image, a song. I think the point of expression of any kind is to reveal something to people. If you do it right, authentic art teaches people about themselves.
Any tips for balancing your artistic practice with the rest of your life?
Schedule. Schedule. Schedule. If I don’t schedule my work time it doesn’t happen. Employing an early morning routine was a big game-changer for me as it guaranteed creative time. Being awake at 5 am means no interruption, email, or outside stimulus of any kind. Beyond that, I work when I can, wherever I can. Lunch hours, after the kids are asleep, on the bus to work, you name it.
Who are your artistic influences?
Leonard Cohen, David Mamet, Margaret Atwood, P.K. Page, Aphra Behn, A. E. Housman, William Blake… the literary and stage lists go on and on. A contemporary visual artist, Tlwst Santiago, working out of Toronto, blew me away with his ring box sculptures; I think his work has greatly influenced me these past two years.
How does the Peace Liard community influence your artistic practice?
I believe in trying, failing, and trying again until you succeed. Growing up on a farm in the Peace Liard community, I was encouraged to read, learn, act, sing, play sports and, most importantly, write. My family, and that community, taught me to try and keep trying. I was given every opportunity to go after anything I was interested in.
Can you share a sample of your work or a picture of your working space?
Jazz
For my father
(Previously published in Existere Magazine)
Friend, have you seen the flowers grow through snow
Marching at the head of spring in robin-song,
and snow-flower percussion.
Now, this is jazz.
This is a warm sway in a shadowed bar
the smooth martini sunsets we forget in the darker months;
here, they play the stand-up bass
they coax, like a scent, man and woman
to vibrate and hum, create rhythm.
The singer can be you or anyone.
With a fedora petal tipped and the wink of a yellow iris,
you sing.
as the flower touches the wind (and not the other way ‘round)
To see a beautiful couple stand and dance
slowly, a smell of spring playing about
As they move and love before your eyes.
Friend, you should see the flowers grow through snow.