art
Poems and paintings mark 499th anniversary
The story of Anabaptist origins came to life on Sunday, January 21, as Gareth Brandt marked the 499th anniversary of the Anabaptist movement with a presentation of art and spoken word.
Watch: Rockway sparks community with new music video
What better way to bring a community together than 350 red umbrellas?
Starting at the beginning of COVID-19, Rockway Mennonite Collegiate in Kitchener, Ont ., has been working on creating a music video for “Someone to You” by the Banners. The result was uploaded to the school’s YouTube channel last month.
Music comes alive through synesthesia, art
Imagine if you could see sound. When Anna Schwartz listens to music, she not only hears the different instruments, keys and dynamics—she sees them. That’s because she has synesthesia, a neurological condition in which information entering a person’s brain stimulates multiple senses at once.
Graphic novel by Mennonite creator set for publication in May
Nova Scotia-based Conundrum Press has announced a new title from creator Jonathan Dyck. Shelterbelts, a graphic novel, will arrive in bookstores in May. “Through a series of linked stories, Dyck, who was raised in Winkler, Man., and is based in Winnipeg, weaves a rich tapestry that depicts a close-knit Mennonite community in the midst of defining its future as it reckons with its past,” Conundrum said on social media last month.
Gallery to feature ‘Daily Diaries by the Assiniboine River and Lake Winnipeg’
WINNIPEG—The next exhibit at the Mennonite Heritage Centre Gallery will feature the work of Manitoba painter Jane Gateson. “Daily Diaries by the Assiniboine River and Lake Winnipeg” is on display from Monday, Jan. 31 until Saturday, April 2. Gateson divides her time between Winnipeg and Victoria Beach. The exhibit is the result of a project she undertook for a year to record visually, each time she was in her studio, what she saw, felt and heard around her that day. The result is more than 1,300 small, labelled “diaries,” each a 6” x 7” painting.
Artist ‘aims to empower’ with webinar logo
Working with the theme of “What we need is here,” young Canadian artist Dona Park of Emmanuel Mennonite Church in Abbotsford, B.C. was commissioned to illustrate the logo and banner for the Women Doing Theology webinar series for Mennonite Church U.S.A.
Watch: Winnipeg artist Curtis L. Wiebe is 'The Imperfectionist'
Impressive work at Hutterite art exhibit
"We Are Best Friends," an acrylic painting by Laura Gross from the Millshof Community.
There are one hundred and seven Hutterite colonies in Manitoba and those colonies are home to a talented enclave of visual artists. I recently visited the Mennonite Heritage Centre Gallery in Winnipeg to see Our (Hutterite) Life in Art, a new exhibit of artwork by members of some of Manitoba’s Hutterite communities.
Exhibit features professor’s paintings of historic Anabaptist sites
Gareth Brandt, an Anabaptist history professor at Columbia Bible College, stands beside ‘Strassbourg,’ one of his ‘simple folk art’ works at the Mennonite Heritage Museum, where his ‘Stories of the Anabaptists’ collection is on display until Nov. 1. (Mennonite Heritage Museum photo by Julia Toews )
A love for the arts, combined with an interest in Anabaptist history, has inspired a professor at Columbia Bible College in Abbotsford to create paintings depicting early Anabaptist history. The exhibit of Gareth Brandt’s water-colour paintings, “Stories of the Anabaptists,” was introduced Sept. 11 at the Mennonite Heritage Museum in Abbotsford.
Breathing new life into a centuries-old folk art tradition
An Ontario artist is enlivening a Mennonite folk-art tradition that hasn’t been widely practised for more than 150 years.
Making art ‘like breathing’ for B.C. illustrator
For Dona Park, making art is the equivalent of eating, sleeping and breathing. She does it every day because she needs to.
The 24-year-old attended Goshen (Ind.) College, from which she graduated with a double major in fine arts and history in 2017. She is now a freelance artist based in Abbotsford, B.C., where she attends Emmanuel Mennonite Church.
A crisis of compassion
'We heard about monarch butterflies and how they are the symbol of migration. This really captured my heart and stayed with me during the following days.' (Image by PublicDomainPictures/Pixabay)
Mennonite Central Committee’s “People on the Move: Human Rights and Global Migration” student seminar in Ottawa this past February sparked in me a new curiosity and interest in the stories of migrants.
Following the seminar, I contemplated and reflected on the different topics, the work of the speakers presented at the seminar, and the conversations I had with fellow participants at lunch hour and breaks.
Watch: “I Am a Mennonite” trailer
Winnipeg filmmaker Paul Plett has announced his next project: a documentary exploring his Mennonite roots.
From mould to masterpiece
Swords into ploughshares, guns into art
Irian Fast-Sittler spends her days hammering hot steel and welding metals together at a forge in Floradale, Ont.
Recently, the 20-year-old blacksmith created a modern-day take on the analogy from the Book of Isaiah of turning swords into ploughshares. Instead, she turned her grandfather’s shotgun into a work of art.
Voices Together visual art chosen
Visual art for the Voices Together hymnal has been chosen by the Mennonite Worship and Song Committee. The 12 visual art pieces selected will appear in the forthcoming hymnal—including the pew, worship leader, digital app and projection editions.
Mennonite Gallery celebrates 20 years of art and relationships
Ray Dirks, centre, is pictured with Teresita Chiarella, left, and Winnipeg artist Anthony Chiarella at the Mennonite Heritage Centre Gallery’s 20th anniversary fundraising event. (Photo by Gladys Terichow)
Eleanor and Al Hamm of Steinbach, left, are pictured with Winnipeg artist Lynda Toews at the Mennonite Heritage Centre Gallery’s 20th anniversary fundraising event. Toews painted the nativity scene from her photograph of people from Grace Mennonite Church in Steinbach: Al is the shepherd on the left, Eleanor Hamm is one of the wise men whose face has been changed, John Peters is Joseph, Alyssa Lord is Mary, and Gary Brown is the faceless shepherd on the right. (Photo by Gladys Terichow)
A nativity painting by Winnipeg artist Lynda Toews brings attention to Joseph’s commitment to God, and to the bond between farm animals and people. The donkey’s dorsal strip forms a cross pointing to Baby Jesus.
‘We became family to each other’
The plaque accompanying the painting reads: ‘“Congregation” by Tom Neufeld, pastor of TUMC, 1976-1979. Presented to CMU by members of Thompson [Man.] United Mennonite Church.’
George Epp, Ted Redekop and Jack Crolly—members of Thompson (Man.) United Mennonite Church from the 1970s—ski together. (Photo courtesy of the Mennonite Heritage Archives)
What do you get when you start a Mennonite church in the middle of nowhere? A community that is still going strong more than 50 years later, even after the church itself has closed its doors.
Broken glass angels provide hope and jobs
Originally, they were made of pieces of broken glass from the rubble an Israeli tank left behind when it slammed into the gift shop at the International Centre of Bethlehem (ICB) in 2002. Today the glass angels of peace are made of used bottles and have emerged into a small business enterprise employing around 50 people in the Bethlehem area.
‘Poetry and art for mental health’
Adriel Brandt reads his poem “The Crow” at the May 3, 2018, “Art and Poetry for Mental Health” reception in Abbotsford. In the background is the photograph by Dale Klippenstein (sitting behind Brandt) accompanying the work. Communitas Supportive Care Society sponsored the art exhibit, focusing on mental health issues. (Photo by Amy Dueckman)
Depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts and eating disorders may not sound like subjects for art, but a recent exhibit at the Reach gallery proved that art is a powerful medium for educating and talking about mental illness.
Not a ‘mirage’
David MacGregor, a Grade 11 student in Alan Sapp’s drama class, performs his version of ‘The Shoes.’ Multiple performances were offered by different students, each one a different interpretation using only the same pair of boots. (Photo by Dave Rogalsky)
Lei Tian, an international student from China, shows off his industrial design project. Using parts ordered online and a 3D printer, his project is for a face recognition bike locking station. A Grade 12 student, Tian has been accepted into the prestigious Central Saint Martins, a constituent college of the University of the Arts in London, England. (Photo by Dave Rogalsky)
The works of Grace Kim focus on the theme of perceptions, using reflections to explore reality. Notice that in the painting of puddles the figure only appears in the reflection, not in reality. The artist is the daughter of Kyong-Jung Kim, the former director of the Korean Anabaptist Center who is now studying at Conrad Grebel University College in Waterloo, and Ellen Kim. (Photo by Dave Rogalsky)
Karen Scott Booth, head of Rockway Mennonite Collegiate’s Grade 10-12 visual arts program, exudes pride in the work of her students.
“Mirage: An exhibition of visual art,” held at the school on April 24, 2018, showed why.
‘Just doing my best’
Grace Kang’s installation at Bethel Mennonite Church in Winnipeg consisted of 400 prints depicting different pairs of feet suspended in the air using twine and surrounding a large ceramic bowl. (Photo by Aaron Epp)
‘Suffering will always be a part of my art, because it’s such a big part of being human,’ Grace Kang says. (Photo by Gabrielle Touchette)
Grace Kang can’t remember a time when she wasn’t making art.
As a child, “I was always drawing, I was always writing stories,” the 22-year-old says. When she learned that art is not something everyone does or is interested in, “I realized it was a unique way I could contribute to the world.”
‘That’s the Spirit’
Talking birds, paper and rose petal beads, walking jewellery, found-art sculptures. With these and other works, Carolyn Good’s recent show at the WalterFedy-Architecture, Engineering, Construction offices on Queen Street in Kitchener showed off her Mennonite roots of reusing and recycling.
The Anthrocene revisited
‘Death and Life.’ A stump rotting away at Hidden Acres Mennonite Camp speaks of a life well lived and a death creating new life. (Photo by Canadian Mennonite)
Annemarie Rogalsky’s Waterloo ‘Hinterland’ paintings, a four-season cycle, at her solo show ‘The Anthrocene Revisited’ at the Minto Gallery in Harriston, Ont., in February. (Photo by Canadian Mennonite)
Annemarie Rogalsky presents her artist’s statement at the opening of her solo show ‘The Anthrocene Revisited’ at the Minto Gallery in Harriston, Ont., on Feb. 4. (Photo by Canadian Mennonite)
Annemarie Rogalsky, a member of First Mennonite Church in Kitchener, Ont., had a solo show of her landscapes at the Minto Gallery in Harriston during the month of February. Of her images, she says: