Local artists pose with their finished work, after two hours straight of creating. From left: Art Dagenais, Katy Messmer, Harwell Teves, and Michelle Lake. Photo courtesy of Arts Without Borders
Time was ticking for four local artists as they pooled their creativity for a good cause.
The Astec Art Challenge was one of the kick-off activities for the Astec Safety Challenge, which began on Wednesday evening.
Local artist Michelle Lake said she was happy to get involved. In addition to being part of the challenge, she designed and commissioned the trophy for the curling event, which included representations of both provinces and the border markers.
“It was interesting, I got a message on Facebook from Caitlin Mulligan. She said they were … trying to bring a bonspiel to Lloydminster, and as part of it, Jeff wanted it to have an art component,” explained Lake.
“So I went and I met with Caitlin and Jeff (her dad), and discussed how this would work and it was Jeff’s idea to have half the proceeds to the artist and half the proceeds would be pooled into a scholarship. And we (artists) get to be on the committee to decide who is the recipient.”
The artists had two hours to create eye-catching art at the opening banquet. Afterward, the pieces were displayed next to a QR code where anyone interested in buying could go to an auction site and make a bid.
“It’s fantastic because there’s teams from all over the world. With social media these days, like if a team were to post something online about the art challenge or a link to one of us, that could be really beneficial for us,” said Lake.
“And just to get out there and let people see what talent there is in this community, too.”
Each piece of art is one-of-a-kind, and all are created within the time allotted.
“What we’re going to do with the proceeds is, we are going to create a scholarship for someone who is pursuing a post-secondary education in the arts,” said Jeff Mulligan, Astec Safety Challenge co-chair, before the countdown to the art challenge began.
“We’re reaching out to a very important part of our community … the more we bid, the more we create scholarship funds, and I think it’s just another way to extend more goodness from this event into the community.”
Alongside Lake were local artists Katy Messmer, Harwell Teves, and Art Dagenais, who decided to do something a little different.
“Art was going to do glass etching with a Dremel, but then he messaged me and said it would be too noisy and too dusty, so he decided to do leather tooling. I thought, ‘well that’s cool, too,’” said Lake.
“I’d like to thank the artists that did come out to paint with me … for coming out to play. They’re a very talented crew.”
The only parameter set for the art challenge was the theme—winter.
“I did two practice paintings … the hardest thing for me was just painting what I wanted to paint. I had painted quite a hew Highland cows this year, and so I thought I’m just going to stick with what I know,” said Lake.
When asked if it was distracting to have so many people around watching her work, she replied.
“Personally, I love it! I just feed off the energy and I love talking with people. It was great.”
