Brenda Gardiner was invited to participate in a one-off, indigenous art show by the Quesnel and District Community Arts Council last year.
“It was a good showing of what local First Nations artists were doing,” says Gardiner.
Following the show, she and several other artists involved were asked by the Quesenl Art Gallery to put on another, month-long show. The Indigenous Collective art show opens on Friday, May 31, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Quesnel Art Gallery.
Gardiner says most of the artists participating in the show are Indigenous — and the one artist who isn’t has ties to the community and does Indigenous artwork.
There will be work from five different local artists in the show, which will feature watercolour and acrylic paintings, photography, bead work, and possibly pen and pencil drawings as well.
Gardiner, who is organizing the show, says she is very active in the local art community: she sells artwork at the Farmer’s Market, sold some watercolour paintings in the lead up to the Christmas holidays, and often donates her collages to local fundraisers.
“I’ve kind of been an artist all my life,” says Gardiner, “but over the last 10 years I’ve really discovered myself in my art creations.”
She says she creates yard art — and has shown her “artsy” yard on a Lawn and Garden tour, she’s been designing and making clothes since she was a child, and has even sold jewelry she made internationally.
Not all the artists involved in the show are originally from Quesnel — Gardiner included — but all of them call the area their home now.
“I think we’re just a melting pot of people thrown together because we have one thing in common,” she says. “And that is our Aboriginal background.”
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