If you aren’t going to the South Country Fair this weekend, check out a couple unique art exhibits opening at the Bowman Arts Centre on Saturday, July 16.
Local artist Len Komanac and yours truly w
ill both be opening our exhibits at the Bowman Arts Centre this weekend.
My exhibit, the Essence of Music: Musical Moments features a solid overview of my career covering music, both the cornucopia of amazing local acts as well as some superb touring acts.
Most of them have been blown up from digital photos from the past three years, since I started L.A. Beat. Most of them have appeared on the site or in the Lethbridge Sun Times.
I also went through my files and dug up some old black and white photos from the beginning of my career as photo editor/ photographer and writer for the University of Lethbridge newspaper the Meliorist back in the ’90s and found old pics of some of the cats still playing on the scene.
“It’s a good interesting historical archive of music in this city,” observed curator Darcy Logan who has made my work look pretty awesome in massive white matted frames.
While I’ve never considered myself be an artist, there is an art to being at the right place at the right time with the camera set at the right settings. It comes with experience — watching a show through a camera lens and anticipating when something cool is about to happen.
And besides, my walls needed decorating, so I went through thousands of pictures and chose 40 or so of my favourites — the ones I thought would look best on my wall. I chose the ones which I thought best conveyed the emotion and excitement of the show taking place. If you weren’t there, I wanted to take a pic that told the story of what you missed. I didn’t do much adjustment to them, other than to sharpen them and in most cases, I took advantage of the natural lighting on the stage.
But that’s enough about me, I’m excited to be opening my exhibit alongside Len Komanac’s Dr.
Strangelen. I’ve always enjoyed his quirky and humourous take on pop art and pop culture.
“It’s a exhibit of paintings and sculpture. He’s built a nine foot tall R2D2 out of cardboard and other material he found around his house,” Logan noted.
“It’s definitely pop art. He’s taken pages and frames from comic books and re-contextualized them by adding his own speech bubbles,” Logan said, estimating he has at least 20 pieces in his exhibit.
“It’s an interesting take on popular culture and how it interacts with people,” he said.
The opening reception for both exhibits is 7-9 p.m., July 16 or longer depending on how many people show up. There is no charge to attend. They run until Sept. 17.
