Gallery Vertigo presents Vernon artist, Heidi Thompson. Paintings created beween 2007 to 2009 are featured in this exhibition of the artist's abstract and colourful works on canvas.

At age seventeen, Thompson moved to Europe and studied photography at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Zurich, Switzerland where she received a four year diploma. She then apprenticed under the German painter Oskar Koller in Nurnberg and then attended the Hungarian Academy for Art in Budapest. After eight years of training, the artist returned to Vernon in 1982. In 2000 she earned her B.F.A and then in 2001, her B.C. Teacher’s Certificate, For over 30 years she has been involved in painting, photography, publishing, teaching art, and exhibiting, including recent shows in New York, Toronto and Montreal. Thompson has also been practicing Vipassana (a meditation technique) for over 20 years and has conducted several Advanced Attention Development workshops in Vernon and Vancouver.Thompson has also published two books, one of which is about the late Sveva Caetani, one of Vernon's most cherished artists. 

I believe that paintings can communicate experience– experience being the one reality we truly know exists. There are many ways to express experience, but of particular interest to me is art’s capacity, with its colour, line, light, space and form, to trigger vibrations in the viewer - similar to those the artist felt while creating the work. Through evoking sympathetic sensations in the viewer, artists can directly communicate their intangible, experiential reality. My aim, though difficult to accomplish, lies in expressing my feelings of equanimity and boundlessness within life’s perpetual movement. If one should look at my work and feel similar sensations or gain insight into the impermanence of one’s nature, then the painting would have been successful in communicating my truth. (Thompson)

Artist Talk:
Wednesday, April 29th
7:30-8:30pm

Thompson will give an artist talk on Wednnesday April 29th from 7:30 to 8:30pm. The artist will talk about the artistic journey that led her to creating non-objective art colour fields. This discussion may interest those trying to break free from dependency on using external forms as subject matter in their art. She will discuss her painting techniques and approaches to art making.

Art & Attention Workshops

The artist will also give two workshops titled "Art &  Attention" at Gallery Vertigo during the run of her exhibition. These workshops will be offered free of charge but pre-registration is required. Please call the gallery for more information if you would like to participate. (250-503-2297)

"Art & Attention is just that – a workshop aimed at developing one’s attention and then applying that focus to painting. A great combination, considering art is ultimately an expression of one’s state of mind.
A calm, observant mind, will affect one’s power to see things clearly, sustain energy and stay focused. These positive qualities will directly influence and infuse one’s artistic expression - whatever that expression may be." (Thompson)

Art & Attention Workshop for Adults
Wednesday, May 6th
6:30 - 9:30pm

Art & Attention Workshop for Children
Saturday, May 9th
10am to 2pm

Heidi Thompson is available for Interviews:
(250) 542-1551
htcthompson@hotmail.com

Born and educated in Switzerland, Armstrong artist Stephan Bircher has worked extensively in set design and construction, specifically in creating light design for theatre both in Swtzerland and here in Canada. In Canada, the artist has designed for theatres such as the  Electric Company Theatre and the Leaky Heaven Circus in Vancouver, Caravan Farm Theatre in Armstrong, Runaway Moon Theatre in Enderby and the Wishbone Theatre in Dunster, Alberta. Bircher has designed lighting for over 40 productions in his career to date. This background informs his artistic practice.

Bircher's knowledge and experience working with the effects of light has had a great influence on his exhibition at Gallery Vertigo.
The artist's installation of small sculptures juxtaposes natural forms with discarded materials from technology and interesting found objects to create what feels like a mad scientist's experiment.
The dark gallery, punctuated by pools of light trained on small exquisitely crafted works, evokes a sense of mystery, perhaps even a slight creepiness.
Bircher's strange, meticulous and macabre process results in something that feels like it could be both primordial and of the future.(Jurica)

Inspired by natural bone forms, technological trash and found objects, I experiment. My sculptures create a balance between the heavy rusty old metal junk parts and the fine, fragile, natural pieces, bones specifically.
Bones are accurate. All mammals have the same number and forms of bones.  Rabbit, cat, mouse, dog, all have the same bones, but with different designs.  Their bones reflect their needs, whether they were runners, or jumpers, or diggers … what their special skills were.

The process in my studio is about experimenting with all the laid out parts.  The sculptures grow out of this “display”. They find conception, develop, come alive again like a new creature...

Another aspect in most of my sculptures is light and movement. Adding lights gives them an intensive, atmospheric expression and contrast.  Lights can create a lot of tension and help to create a situational impact.
The kinetic part forces me to experiment with and solve lots of technical problems, before I start to build the mobile sculptures with small motors, which become dynamic when they move. (Bircher)

NOAA Members Wall Gallery - featured artist:
Warren Welter

This month, the Featured Member Wall at Gallery Vertigo presents a series of photographs of this designer's realized projects in Salmon Arm. Many well-known landmarks, including the facade of the Salmar Theatre, were designed by Welter. Photographs and texts illustrate the projects in progress. View this member's considerable accomplishments and influence in changing the face of downtown Salmon Arm. (Jurica)

In April of 2000, after thirty years in California I moved to Salmon Arm. For the first three years, I commuted to San Francisco to manage the operations of my three person design firm. Wanting to establish a casual presence in the local business community, I made time in between commutes to operate an outdoor food cart on a busy downtown corner in the summer of 2001.

In the spring of 2003, the City Administrator called for interested residents to participate in a planning session for the upcoming centennial. A steering committee was formed and as a result of my street corner introduction I was asked to Co-chair the 2005 Centennial.
Shortly after becoming the Co-chair I closed my firm in San Francisco and became an urban renegade in rural BC. My current business, Creatability, is located in the Historic Salmar Classic Theatre in Downtown Salmon Arm. We design corporate identity programs, exhibits, three dimensional displays and architectural signing as individual projects and integrated systems. Our methodology of problem solving is deeply committed to well thought out creative design solutions in response to the unique circumstances and constraints of each project. (Welter)

Vertigo Window Gallery:
Melissa Merrill

Artist Statement

After struggling with confidence issues, my recent work is about dealing with those struggles.  I never envisioned an art career until I found myself at “one of Canada’s most prestigious art colleges”… No pressure!  I started from square one really. Every Monday I sat in Introductory Drawing struggling to draw cones, cubes and balls, and not very successfully…I had tears in my eyes as other students seemed to excel and produce work with ease.  UGH! It seemed so unfair! I did not quit and did my best to work through the ebb and flow of post secondary art education. As time passed the work developed and I gained skills and confidence. But for every success there seemed to be two failures. I found getting started on assignments and work was difficult; it seemed like I had to relearn confidence and technical skills every time I began a project. 
            I worked through university to graduate, but the old issues still existed. I managed to hide out at my “day job” and put painting on the back burner and put those insecurities away. I had an excuse after excuse not to paint: no studio, working two jobs to pay off my student loans, etc. Finally, the student loan was paid off and a studio became available. All systems go! Uh Oh!
            I am a fearless person. I am a fearless person who is pretty freaked out!  These aspects of my life create great tension in life and my recent work. This work is about dealing with fear, learning and relearning. I begin with a splash of paint, I continue by making decisions based on the last decision, the process. Hating or loving a painting is a fine line and varies from hour to hour, splash of paint to splash of paint, even brushstroke to brushstroke. The stops and starts of the work I consider a success.I am enjoying creating a painting that is almost done then being poised to make one little change in one corner of a piece, then understanding that one move can inform a world of changes. Within the work large swatches of paint edit past decisions and add texture, depth and dimension, giving me building blocks to paint from.  
            I am learning to deal with the tension of not knowing the next step, the tension of dealing with my decision-making and technical issues. I am trying to enjoy the flow of the painting as well as the ebb.Having no goal of the finished project allows me to learn new technical issues, colour relationships (my personal favourite), spatial relationships, all those great painting issues and learn and relearn confidence with every mark or splash of paint. So here I go; no fear!

Biography

I grew up in Vernon BC.  In 1999 I ventured to the Kootenays, settling in Nelson BC.  I began a successful business creating stained glass mosaics when enthusiastic customers encouraged me to enter a post secondary art program.  Within a month I found myself enrolled at the Kootenay School of the Arts in the Clay programme. Always admiring the colour and texture in the KSA’s closing Painting programme, the next year I began my Fine Art Degree in Red Deer, Alberta. Venturing out of the bubble a little further I moved to Halifax, Nova Scotia and completed my Fine Art Degree, with a major in Fine Art at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University in 2007.  Not a fan of the east coast deep freeze I moved back to Vernon. After two years at my “day job” I paid off my student debt. I happily have started my studio practice at Vernon’s Gallery Vertigo and am looking forward to shaking the dust off my artistic mind and experiencing what happens next.

Curriculum Vitae:

Exhibitions:

2007         Bliss Bakery, Peachland
2006         Artwalk, Lake Country
2005-8      Peachland Little Schoolhouse
2004-7      solo shows under the sponsorship of
Kelowna and District Arts Council, at Westbankand Kelowna
Libraries, Cottonwoods Centre, Kelowna Community Theatre
2003,4     ‘Conversations in Landscape’ a time-lapse series of landscape sketches, shown in Alternator Gallery Kelowna, and
Gallery Vertigo Vernon.
1978         an invited participant at 'Science in Art in Science' Ottawa.
1972,8    solo shows at Wells Gallery, Ottawa
1973         ‘Three Almonte Artists' - a joint exhibition
with Juan Geuer and Madeleine Moir
1970         two person show at Gallery One, Portsmouth, NH.
with NH artist Jane Kaufmann.

Works Displayed:

2006-8      Art Ark, Kelowna  
2005-8     member’s shows, Kelowna Art Gallery
2005,8      juried Spring show, Vertigo Gallery, Vernon
2004-8     members’ shows, Vertigo Gallery, Vernon
2001-7     members’ shows, Alternator Gallery, Kelowna.
1975        'Survey Exhibition No. 1' - Visual Arts Ottawa
1972-3     Art lending, AGO, Toronto
1972        'Kingston Spring Exhibition', Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Kingston, Ont.
1970        New England Center for Continuing Education, Durham, NH
1968-70   New Hampshire Art Association Gallery, Manchester, NH.

Related Activities:

2005-8 – instructed  artists’ workshops, conducted demonstrations,  Peachland
2006,7 – 3 banners, for Peachland  artists’ series of banners.
2007 – commissioned Artisan Series Wine Label (Prospect Winery- Pinot Grigio)

Collections:

Work in collections in New Hampshire, Ontario, Calgary, Vancouver, Victoria, and the Okanagan.  Currently represented by Art Ark, Kelowna, B.C.

Artist Statement:
When we are in a place, we see not continuously, or all at once, but by glimpses, and our impression of that place is built up, glimpse by glimpse, into a collection of images that our mind organizes into one experience. In painting landscape, I seek to convey the message of the land, the story that it tells us.  So I decided to depict landscape as a series of ‘glimpses’, little bits that together tell the story. Nine was used, because it is large enough to allow enough variation to cover most of what was there in the larger landscape, and because it is small enough to permit one to see each glimpse for itself without missing the rest. Together these glimpses put us in the landscape, allowing us to re-experience the time when we were there.  Hopefully these experiences of mine will be yours also. (Jenkins)

Biography: 
Born Vernon, BC, I attended schools in Vancouver, Trail, and North Vancouver, then UBC and U of Calgary graduating with a doctorate in Cosmic Ray Physics in 1966.  Throughout my growing up, I had always drawn and painted, and, although I had chosen to follow my scientific side in my professional career, art remained a strong interest.   I began painting seriously with oil paintings of landscape, mostly, but with my move to the New England area and exposure to the New York art scene, gradually shifted to large minimalist geometric shaped canvases, and acrylic colour stains.  I continued in this vein when I moved back to Canada (Ottawa) to commence a career as a radio communications scientist with the federal government.  A number of exhibitions later, with the pressures of career and a young family, my painting was put on hold - I did not have the time or energy to do it all.  Since retirement, I have been able to restart my artistic endeavors from a very different perspective.  I enjoy hiking in the mountains, and began by drawing the things that I saw.  The earlier, abstract works reflected an inner sense of order and harmony; my present work in landscape is intended to celebrate the 'not always orderly' message of nature.  My scientific background continues to inform my art, and I strive toward integrating my scientific and artistic impulses in my work. (Jenkins)

Exhibition Proposals: Please print a copy of our form and send it off to us with the information requested.
A selection committee reviews proposals once a year, usually in the spring.
Contact us for more information.
info@galleryvertigo.com
proposal form and information for exhibitions in gallery #1 and gallery #2
members wall application
window display

Previous Exhibitions:
2009:
Lucky Number 7: NOAA juried exhibition - Mar.17 to Apr. 9
Social Spectrum: A Group Exhibition by UBC Okanagan Photograpy Students - Feb.10 to Mar.7
Fusion: Fourth Annual High School Exhibition - Jan 13 to Feb 17
2008:
Picasso's Cupboard/ Book Fair - Nov.25 to Dec.13th
not with a Bang, but with and SUV - The 7th Annual NOAA Members Open Exhibition - Oct.7 to Nov.1
the coming night - Jorden and David Doody / Typoportraits - kevin mcpherson eckhoff
Almost Famous Auction - August 17
Ten - Studio Artists - Current Work - July 29 to August 9 / Joanne Sale-Hook:Introduced Species - July 29 to August 17
Katie Brennan - Stasis Strategy / Floribunda - June 23 to July 19
Space (re)Constructed - Miranda Aschenbrenner / Memory/Recall - Suzanne Phillips - May 27 to June 21
March to May - Faith Moosang/Candies - Sabrina Ovesen
Sixth Annual NOAA Members Juried Exhibition - March 18 to April 12
Drawing Conclusions - UBC Okanagan Student Exhibition - Feb.12 to March8
The Wheel: School District #22 High School Students - Jan.15 to Feb.2
2007:
Picasso's Cupboard and Even Dozen
Mellow Yellow - The 6th Annual NOAA Members Open Exhibition - Oct.16 to Nov.10
Look What we Have Done.. Carolina Sanchez de Bustamante / Mutation - Howard Brown - September 11 to October 5
Almost Famous - Ken Jeanotte - August 7 to August 24
Zotz Collective - Kurt Hutterli - July 3 to July 28
Flesh nor Meat - Ila Crawford /All our Ancestors - Tanya Dubick - May 29 to June 23
Spectacles of Intimacy - curated by Lora Carroll - April 24 to May 18
Green - The Fifth Annual NOAA members juried exhibition - March 20 to April 14
Pressing Engagements - UBC Okanagan Printmaking Students - Feb.13 to March 16
Bugs - School District #22 High School Students - Jan.16 to Feb.3
2006:
Picasso's Cupboard, Studio Artists - Nov.21 to Dec.9
Fall Forward - Oct.21 to Nov.10
Helm, Seward, Began - Sept.8 to Oct.6