| The StarPhoenix |
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
|
Saskatoon artist Monique Martin will soon be heading for Europe, guaranteed two exhibitions of her art, a lecture in an art education forum, and a two-month stay as an artist-in-residence in France.
Martin is excited about the international opportunities, especially since it once took a wager with her husband to give her the impetus to exhibit.
"I always believed I would be an artist," said Martin. "I received the right kind of encouragement at Holy Cross, where John Perret was an influence, and at the University of Saskatchewan, where I graduated with a bachelor of education degree, with a major in fine arts.
"I painted all the while and the paintings were literally stacked up in a basement room. My husband talked me into entering three pieces of art at Prairieland Park's Gardenscape in 1997. He said if I sold one piece at Gardenscape, I would have to approach five galleries, and if I sold two, I'd have to approach 10 galleries. One was sold and it was my husband's challenge that got me going."
Centre Galleries in Saskatoon introduced her first solo exhibit, Glory to the Sky, in 1997, then Gallery on The Roof in Regina showed it. Gilles Hebert, who was curator at the Mendel Art Gallery, included some of her work at the Mendel in an emerging artist exhibit in 2001.
Standing Alone was created as Martin's expression of tulip paintings serving as a way of representing human frailty.
"The tulips are symbols of people experiencing all of the emotions, emotional baggage and scars inherent in living. They are personal statements about society and people, our lack of acceptance of others and our wanting to be part of a larger picture," says Martin.
The tulip became a trademark.
She was invited to be artist-in-residence in Coaticook, Que., in 2001 "and it was one of the greatest things I've done, painting non-stop for four months and working in schools and galleries." She landed representation by Galerie Brigitte Desroches in Montreal. She made contact with Michel Gauthier, director of the Canadian Tulip Festival, where her tulips got a showing in 2002, accompanied by the festival's publication of the Standing Alone catalogue.
Martin's first stop in Europe is in March where she will address the International Society for Education Through Arts Congress in Viseu, Portugal. She will talk about Saskatchewan artists and is taking 50 pieces of art from her elementary school students to display.
She then moves on to Nice, France, where she will be featured artist for the month of March, part of Nice's year-long celebration of Canadian culture.
Martin will get a quick return to Saskatoon for a two-week period and then head for Vallauris, France, where she will be the lone Canadian among 11 other artists who will be in residence. Another highlight of the trip will be the exhibit of three pieces at the Wakefield and North of England Tulip Society, exhibition in Yorkshire, England.
Her art has diverse background. The March of Time work was displayed at the Cumberland Gallery at the Legislature Building in November, and her use of the boots was somewhat inspired by her student artists who produced 500 painted shoes for a Stop Racism: Walk The Walk, Don't Just Talk The Talk, campaign in 2000. Another was Pebble in a Pond, for Meewasin Valley Gallery in 2004, where she interpreted the throwing of pebbles across a pond, painting the pond nine different times in nine different lights.
As a teacher, Martin was employed at two Saskatoon Catholic schools before landing at Georges Vanier School, a designated fine arts school.
"Sometimes, I'm torn between what I want to paint and the need to be a teacher. Throw in the fact that I'm the mother of two teenagers, Trint and Jasmin, and it's a busy time."
She says teaching feeds her creativity.
"I work with children from kindergarten to Grade 8. I like the way they use colours. They want to be bold and take risks. Sometimes I'm learning from them because my own art is influenced by what I see them doing in school."
She is innovative in choosing yearround themes for her art students. A year ago, she honoured Saskatchewan artists. The ripple effect was that the student work was shown in schools in Australia. This year, there is a salute to Canadian artists and inventors.
Martin has made a strong impression on the Arts and Entertainment Biography television network, which has hailed her use of biographies in classrooms to give her a Canadian teacher of the year award in both 1999 and 2001.
Martin has also given her students an appreciation of community values.
"My students had created centerpieces for the Ronald McDonald House fashion show one year and Sandee Day, their executive director, wanted to know if we could create some art on the stairwells at their house. On one stairwell, we did the Garden That Love Built, and the other, which is now in progress, is a Saskatchewan landscape, which stretches from the bottom floor to the top floor.
"It's my way of giving back. I believe in sharing your talent. I think, by taking our students there three days a week, it gives them a sense of community service.
"It is part of giving the kids amazing opportunities. I try to give them a framework for creating, the kids are shocked at how good they can become, and I think they come out, feeling like artists."
Already this year, Martin was a nominee for the Women of Distinction award, a nominee for a Lieutenant-Governor's art award and she received the Saskatoon race relations committee's art award.
