The Okotoks Art Gallery held a couple of exhibit openings last weekend.
On Saturday (Sept. 21), artists Sabine Lecorre-Moore and Dr. Karlee Fellner were in attendance for their openings.
Sabine Lecorre-Moore's exhibit is called Painting Alberta and is all about Wildrose Country.
"But, it is also about history," Lecorre-Moore explains. "It's 140 years of photographs that have been transformed into paintings. They are all 6x6 canvases and they tell everyday stories to, and the people and the culture and the religion. Anything you can think that we do, where we live, where we work, where we play it's in this exhibition."
There are about 360 pieces in the exhibit.
Lecorre-Moore says her exhibit is a love letter to the province and a way to say thank you.
The photographs she bases her art on aren't all hers.
"There's about 120 people who shared their photographs with me. So, there is weddings, there is funerals, there is mushrooms, there is art installations, sculptures," Lecorre-Moore says.
On top of the exhibition, Lecorre-Moore wrote a book on her exhibit, which includes the stories behind the paintings.
The book is called Painting Alberta and is the first in a three-book series.
"There is a story, for example, of the big rock, and how it came to be here."
The pieces in this exhibit are made using acrylic paint.
As part of the exhibit, there is a number attached to each piece that corresponds to a list that provides more information about the piece.
Lecorre-Moore has had her artwork exhibited before, but currently, this is her only exhibit.
Dr. Karlee Fellner's exhibit, living iyiniwak survivance, is in the smaller fallry space at the Okotoks Art Gallery.
Fellner says that her exhibit is about Indigenous people's survival.
"The exhibit is all about the ways that survivance continues to be lived by Indigenous peoples here in, what is sometimes called Turtle Island, North America," Fellner says. "And so, the pieces represent different aspects of survivance."
As part of her exhibit, she has the skulls of several animals, such as a bison, that she used as a canvas for a few pieces.
The bison was harvested, and the meat was used to feed Fellner's family.
"There's bison ribs there as well. Wild bison ribs from the animal. I wanted to do a tribute to the animal, so the floral skull is really just about honouring that animal and the beauty of that animal, because the bison has provided everything for Indigenous peoples of the prairies and foothills, since time immemorial. And continues to provide for people in different ways," says Fellner. "Those aspects of the exhibit are really about how we are land, we are connected to land, and how our traditional foods continue to sustain us."
Part of her exhibit is also a tribute to reclaiming traditional birth practices, traditional teachings around pregnancy, the post-partum period, and honouring those who give life.
"Because that's always been a big part of the cultural teachings I've received, is about how much we honour the creation of life that happens within a life-giver's body."
Her artwork also showcases the land and how it thrives.
"If we, as human beings, destroy the environment to such a point that we can't sustain ourselves, the land is going to be ok. And we saw that during the pandemic. One of the things we saw with the shutdown was the land just healed itself very quickly. And so, what a lot of my work is about is that survivance of the land and that the land has always been here. It will always be here. It's constantly healing itself. And we are also part of the land," Fernell explains.
Her artwork is also made with acrylic paints and resembles beadwork.
She incorporates Indigenous language into her artwork as well.
On top of being an artist, Fellner is also a Psychologist with a Ph.D. and has her own practice.
The exhibits will be there until November 8.
At the opening of the exhibits, there was also a drumming performance by Fellner and a few others.
To stay up to date on what is happening at the Art gallery, head over to their website.