Featured Artist: Liks

Hailing from The Land Down under...

Liks grew up riding the Melbourne train system "The Met", through the late 80's and early 90's. Seeing the works of such artists as Merda, Duel, Ransom, Zane Bug, Tame and Puzle, Liks quickly became consumed with graffiti, creating an obsession which remains to this day.

One of the first canvases Liks ever worked on was his parents’ shed in his hometown of Melbourne, Australia, when he was a teenager. Believe it or not, his parents didn’t yell or punish him for releasing his cans of spray paint — they encouraged him to express himself and bought him his first book on graffiti - "Spray Can Art".

When he was 19 years old, Liks moved to the beautiful mountain resort of Whistler. He only intended to stay for one season, but his love for the mountains kept him longer. Although embracing the laid-back mountain lifestyle, his passion for street art is undeniable. Combined creativity and strong work ethic have resulted in various successful projects with local businesses, and clients abroad.

When Liks isn't painting or sketching, he is probably snowboarding if there is fresh powder on the hills, or chilling with his girlfriend and dog Moe on the couch. Through the encouragement of friends and family, his passion for graffiti has snowballed over the years. Liks is happiest when he is painting, engrossing himself in graffiti on a daily basis. In the future he hopes to continue to grow and brighten our dull, boring walls everywhere- giving people something to look at and enjoy.

Visit his website: www.liks1.com to see more of his work!

Featured Artist: Erik Otto

This Spring we are fortunate enough to feature the artwork of Erik Otto: an artist, graphic designer, and art director born and raised in the South Bay Area. He is a graduate from San Jose State University, where he studied Illustration and Animation. After graduation, Otto moved to San Francisco, to be a part of the fast paced art and design environment a bigger city provides. He has since worked with companies such as Urban Outfitters, Old Navy, Jansport, Wells Fargo, and HBO and recently was awarded the Jury Prize at Cut & Paste’s Digital Design Tournament for 2007.


Otto’s personal artwork is exhibited in galleries nationally and is represented by Shooting Gallery in San Francisco.

ARTIST STATEMENT

I consider myself a process artist and it is often during the act of scavenging for materials that I meditate and develop the concepts for the work I am about to create. I often leave the initial stages of my work open and uncertain while intuitively working out a resolution that will decide its final outcome based on the suggestive qualities of the medium and materials at hand.
Through my artwork and installations, I am narrating an autobiographical story that depicts the struggle to connect my awakened state to the desires found within. Pulling from what builds me as well as what tries to destroy me, my goal is that through my work, I may find peace in creating and questioning my own existence. In a world that seems to have fallen apathetic in wanting to make a difference, my hope is that my artwork is an honest reminder of the importance of dreams and the necessity of living a life of significance.

We love Erik, and know you will too!
Come by to see his creations hanging from April through May.
More information can be seen at www.erikotto.com or check out the art on threads at www.newleafclothing.com or www.blog.newleafclothing.com!

Featured Artist: Betsy Barnum

Betsy Barnum has an M.F.A. from the San Francisco Art Institute and is an artist, designer and maker of things. Her collage is featured at Mount Currie Coffee Company for the months of March and April 2008. Betsy lives in Edmond, Oklahoma and loves traveling and going places she's never been. "I have lots of goals and projects I'm working on, and mostly I just want to live my life and create things that mean something to me."



Betsy's work features many layers and dimensions leaving you with a piece of her personality and beautiful worldy outlook...

"I use my works on paper to describe my life, expressing my thoughts and emotions about a specific moment or circumstance through my relationships with those I am close to. I build up thin layers of paint, ink and pencil to conceal and reveal images the way emotions and behavior are unconsciously layered to hide or signal something to others. The gesture and composition of the figures in my work are very important, as they are the first indicators of the work's meaning. I use recurring objects from piece to piece as symbols or metaphors for people and ideas. For example, I often use a typewriter to represent myself, or birds as metaphors for fear and emotion. I use paper as my surface because of its flexibility, smoothness, and capacity for erasure. Like a palimpsest, it shows the progression and history of layers of marks. Like skin it wrinkles and fights back when worked on, asserting its personality into the painting or drawing. Like journal pages, my work is an ongoing narrative, each piece chronologically linked to the others. Each gesture, color, layer, and object is significant, and each work interacts with the others to establish meaning through a repetition of these elements."

More of her work can be seen on her website: REVERIE STUDIO
or you can also EMAIL HER HERE
She's crafty as well.. (imagine that.) Her, one of a kind, work along with her twin sister Dana's are available at the LIME STORE.

Featured Artist: Karen Love-Protter

Local Pemberton Artist -Karen Love- showcases her work from December through February!


ABOUT KAREN LOVE:

I was born and raised in Kleinburg, Ontario, home of the McMichael Canadian Art Collection. While growing up I spent a lot of time at the gallery and in the woods and fields surrounding it. The Group of Seven, Tom Thompson and Emily Carr, naturally, were huge influences on me. As a girl I participated in many sketching outings led by A.Y. Jackson, who lived at the Gallery in his twighlight years. We'd go out to the wooded gallery grounds and sketch, and he'd be pushed along in his wheel chair and talk about our work - and his. While I'm very interested in abstract painting and often go through abstract phases, my greatest enjoyment comes from expressing nature's fundament though art.


I studied fine art at Art Sake Inc., a school known for experimental painting, and continued my studies at Sheridan College School of Craft and Design, BCIT, Emily Carr Design Institute, and at Capilano College. I spent four years traveling, working and living in the Canadian Arctic, both in the Yukon and the North West Territories. Naturally I'm an avid outdoors-woman - I really enjoy paddling, horseback riding, mountain biking and running.


I spend a lot of time wandering our farm property in Pemberton, BC, always discovering new beauty in the field, forest, pond and garden. Nature's colours and geometric shapes are incredibly interesting to observe through the different seasons.I often find my own artistic development through my children and through teaching others to paint. Children are such great observers and love to spend time examining at nature's most minute details. I've spent my working life immersed in the visual arts - as a graphic designer, photographer, muralist, decorative painter, silversmith and painter. For many years, my husband and I owned and operated a marketing communication firm with a national client base. We moved to Pemberton in 1990, and have two children.

To see more of her work go to: http://www.karenloveart.com
or email her!