July 28, 2021
2. Tell us a little about your technical artistic process. What materials did you use to create the image for Gather?
gather | making art with shari-anne vis
Shari-Anne Vis is our poster artist for Gather: Stories In Nature! You may have seen her beautiful piece, featuring two frogs observing a swirling pond, on our posters for the show. We asked Shari-Anne a little about her process and what in nature inspires her work. You can learn more about her and her work at http://shariannevis.com/.
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Gather: Stories In Nature runs August 3-14 in Queen Elizabeth Park.
1. Gather focuses on personal relationships to land and outdoor spaces. Is there a recent time where you’ve felt particularly strongly connected to the natural world?
I live by the Vedder River and on Thursday afternoon I went for a swim. Slipping into the current, and suddenly being eye level with the rocky shore, full of tansy, hickory, and white sweet clover, made me feel as though I was inside something bigger than myself, inside the earth’s current. As I got out I shivered, and the river stayed on my skin for hours after.
2. Tell us a little about your technical artistic process. What materials did you use to create the image for Gather?
I used watercolors and ink on cold-press watercolor paper and cut out smaller pieces of watercolor paper to build up the image–assembling a kind of collage. I love the tenderness of watercolor on this textured surface–the washes offer a dream-like quality.
3. What inspires you most to paint and draw?
The act of making is a kind of invitation to more inspiration. The more I work, the more sensitive I become to my surroundings, whether the natural world, other creative work, or relationships; and the more sensitive I become, the more inspired I am to experiment in my studio.
4. How did you come to be associated with Gather: Stories In Nature?
I have loved Pacific Theatre for years and always prioritize going to their shows–I always leave feeling so stirred and reflect on how the performance expressed and transformed the story in so many ways.
5. Is there someplace outdoors you love to be?
I love being in the river, in the lakes, and hiking through the dense forests near my home, where ferns cover the floor and feathery and immense barred owls follow us with their eyes.
6. Is there a piece of art that moved you deeply recently? Could other folks see/read/hear it somewhere?
I was deeply affected by a show called “Arising” that I saw recently at Monte Clarke Gallery by artist Alexine McLeod! These pieces involve light, screens, transparencies, projections, light boxes and feel ephemeral with illusory shadows and tensions, causing me to attend to my own sense of perception.
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