ABOUT THE ARTISTS


Laura Harness

Laura Harness was born in Aylsham, and is now a resident of Arborfield, Saskatchewan. she studied calligraphy through the Correspondence Creative School of Art of Toronto (and has worked as a sign painter), and has attended art workshops in Arborfield. Her work has been exhibited in local fairs in Saskatchewan, the Arborfield Arts and Craft Exhibition, at the Nipiwin Art Centre, in Carrot River, Tisdale, the Mackenzie Art Gallery's exhibition Grassroots Saskatchewan and through the A.K.A. Gallery's exhibition The Farm Show: A Documentary. In 1980 Laura had a solo exhibition at the Dunlop Art Gallery in Regina.

Laura works in oil, acrylic, watercolor, charcoal and colored pencil. She works in the folk painting or naive style. Her subject matter is prairie farm life, and of her works she says, "I paint and sketch our life...it's sort of like making a record of things that some day will be gone forever..."


Doris Wall Larson

Doris was born in Aberdeen, Saskatchewan, and now resides in Saskatoon. she has studied at the University of Wisconsin, Art Students League, New York City, Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in Halifax and the University of Saskatchewan.

Doris has been making art in Saskatchewan since 1964. For the past fifteen years she has been making multi-media installations which engaged issues of personal, political, and social importance to her. In this sense, she has been a kind of pioneer; one of the few artist of her generation to make art of this kind in the province, and a forerunner to many of the younger artists in Saskatchewan who are now moving into installation work.

Doris Wall Larson has had solo exhibitions of her work at the Mackenzie Art Gallery (Home Truths, 1991). Her work has been exhibited in many Canadian cities including Toronto's Graphic Society Show, the Print-Maker's Showcase in Ottawa, Print Nova Scotia, Graphics Atlantic and Mt. St. Vincent University in Halifax.


Marie Elyse St. George

Born in St. Catherines, Ontario, and now a resident of Saskatoon since 1972, Elyse received her art education in England at the College of Fylde, Lancashire, and at the University of New Hampshire and the University of Saskatchewan.

She has worked as an art teacher, print workshop instructor and with the Visiting Artists Program in public shchools in Saskatoon. She is affiliated with the Susan Whitney Gallery in Regina.

Her work has been exhibited in both group and solo exhibitions across Canada since 1965. Of her work, Elyse says, "My work is personal and, I hope, compassionate view of ourselves."


Patrick Hurst

Patrick Hurst's extensive formal art education began at the University of Calgary where he received a B.A. in 1968. He also received a Bachelor of Architecture at U,B,C, in 1971 as well as participating in group studies in Venice, Italy under a grant from U.N.E.S.C.O. He earned a B.F.A. (with distinction) studying printmaking from the University of Calgary. His M.A. was received from the University of Saskatchewan in 1979. Throughout his academic career he was the recipient of numerous scholarships and bursaries.

He has held a variety of artistic positions from draftsman and designer, to art and ceramics instructor at the University of Saskatchewan.


Jerry Didur

Born in Saskatoon, and now a resident of Regina, Jerry was educated at the University of Saskatchewan, receiving a B.F.A. in 1976. Trained as a ceramist, he turned to painting in 1979, allowing him the scope to develop the often exotic, larger-than-life images for which he has become well known. he is affiliated with the Susan Whitney Gallery in Regina, and has recently shown in solo exhibition in Regina, Toronto and Calgary. Two of his paintings were commissioned by the Saskatchewan Heritage 1985 Committee in celebration of the province's 80th anniversary.

Jerry's work has appeared on the cover of numerous books and publications including Grain Magazine, Changes of State by Gary Geddes, and Way out West by Geoffrey Ursell.

Jerry was employed in both Yorkton and Lloydminster by the Saskatchewan Society for Education Through Art and OSAC as Artist in residence. In this position he provided professional artistic leadership, developing public awareness of the visual arts and stimulating and developing arts activities in these centres and their neighbouring communities.


George Glenn

George Glenn received a B.F.A. with Honors from the University of Manitoba in 1970 and a M.F.A. from the University of Cincinnati. He has worked as assistant Curator at the Glenbow-Alberta Institute in Calgary. From 1982 to 1983 he was appointed a member of the Saskatchewan Arts Board by Order in Council.

Since 1975 he has resided in Prince Albert, working as an art instructor for the Community College and for the University of Saskatchewan, as well as being Artist in Residence from 1980 to 1981. Recent group exhibitions include Livestock and Pets, a show which toured by the Mackenzie Art Gallery; Four From Prince Albert at Regina's Dunlop Gallery in 1987; and Out of Saskatchewan at Expo, Vancouver.


Susan Bustin

Susan Bustin was born in Woodstock, New Brunswick and now resides in Saskatoon. She studied at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in the 1970's and obtained a B.F.A. from the University of Saskatchewan in 1985.

Her work has been exhibited at A.K.A. Gallery and the Snelgrove Gallery in Saskatoon, the Mackenzie Gallery, Regina and the University of New Brunswick Art Centre in Fredricton.


Brenda Francis Pelkey

Brenda was born in Kingston, Ontario and has resided in Saskatoon since 1980. She has been an active member of the photographic community in Saskatoon as a member of the Photographers Gallery and as a sessional instructor at the University of Saskatchewan. (Brenda also attended Sir Sandford Fleming College of Applied Arts and Technology and Trent university in Peterborough, Ontario). She recently received her M.F.A. and has been appointed as an assistant professor in the Department of Art and Art History at the U. of S. She has recently exhibited her work at the Photographers Gallery (1990) in an exhibition titled Foundry, in the Faculty Show at the Snelgrove Gallery, in Vancouver in the Transpositions: B.C. Transit Show, and at the Toronto Photographers Workshop in Saskatchewan Photography.


Frances Robson

Born in Meadow Lake and now residing in Saskatoon, Frances received a B.A. honours from the University of Saskatchewan, studied photography at the University of Ottawa, and received her M.F.A. from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1985. She teaches part time in the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Saskatchewan.

Frances Robson has had solo exhibitions of her work at Latitude 53 Gallery in Edmonton and the Mackenzie Art Gallery in Regina. She has participated in numerous group exhibitions, including Left to Right at the Randolph Street Gallery, Chicago, and Making Space organized by Joan Borsa for Presentation House Gallery, North Vancouver.


Molly Lenhardt

Molly Lenhardt, born Sefanka Molly Bassarba, is uncertain of her exact year of birth, but believes it to be 1914, on Christmas Day. It is also uncertain whether she was born in the Ukraine or in Canada. Her parents acknowleged the importance of education and encouraged Molly's training in art. Her interest in art was fueled throughout her schooling by empathetic teachers. She completed grade ten - at that time a major accomplishment for a young woman on the prairies - before she went to work. After saving some money, Molly returned to school, but illness prevented her from completing her high school. She then went to business college in Yorkton.

She married Joe Lenhardt, and together they raised a family and ran the Fairway Confectionery until shortly before her death in 1995.

Molly resumed painting at some point in the late 1960's, when her children left home. In order to find undisturbed time to paint, she enrolled in classes at the local community college, and adopted the standard materials af amateur art, oil on commercially prepared canvas board. In 1973 her work was accepted into the Watrous Salon. During the years she entered the Art Salon, she became acquainted with David Thauberger, Joe Fafard and Vic Cicansky, who encouraged her work.

The Dunlop Art Gallery recently mounted a major retrospective of her work.


Brent Hume

Born in Arcola and now residing and working as a farmer in the Carlyle area of Saskatchewan, Brent Hume has studied at the Photography Studio, Banff Centre for the Arts and has a Photography Certificate from David Thompson University Centre in Nelson, B.C.

His exhibitions Neighbours (organized by the artist) has shown at the Photographers Gallery in Saskatoon, National Exhibition Centre in Estevan, The Floating Gallery in Winnipeg, Dunlop Art Gallery in Regina, National Exhibition Centre in Swift Current and The New Gallery in Calgary.


George Kerr

George H. Kerr was trained as an architect in Scotland before emigrating to Canada in 1952 to practice architecture in Saskatoon. Art is his first love, however, and he has been drawing and painting all of his life. He has had shows in Saskatoon, Winnipeg and Victoria, where he moved with his family in 1971.

George's preferred medium is oil on canvas or masonite. He works in and out of doors and calls himself a solitary artists. He believes it is essential for the artists to 'paint for oneself...to paint for an exhibition is a hindrance'. He thinks too that 'local governments and the Dominion government might do more to bring art into everyday life by having paintings - particularly murals, sculpture and decorative metal work, incorporated into Public Buildings, city halls, bus terminals, federal buildings, offices, etc. This has been done with great success by London County Council in Britain and in many Continental countries.'


Allen Benjiman Clarke

Allen Clark, a young Aboriginal artists started his artistic work when he was small and in grade school at Canwood. The family moved to B.C. when Allen was young and after ten years there, he moved back to the Prince Albert area. Allen explains that he has lost touch with much of the traditional culture, and when he uses visual references in his works, they are not used in a traditional way.


David Thauberger

David Thauberger was born in Holdfast and is a resident of Regina. he was educated at the University of Regina, receiving a degree in Education and a B.F.A., at California State University in Sacramento, where he obtained a M.A., and the University of Montana where he earned a M.F.A. He taught public school for a short time, before embarking upon a career in the Arts.

He has been Visiting Artist at the Burlington Cultural Centre in Burlington, B.C., and at the Banff Centre. From 1983-85 he held the position of Visual Arts Consultant for the Saskatchewan Arts Board. David is affiliated with commercial galleries in Toronto and with the Susan Whitney Gallery in Regina.

David Thauberger has exhibited extensively throughout Canada in both solo and group, and private and public exhibitions. His work has been shown in London, England at Canada House Cultural Centre, at the 49th Parallel, Centre for Contemporary Canadian Art in New York City.


Taras Polataiko

Taras Polataiko came to Saskatoon as a Chernivist, Ukraine exchange student in 1989, fresh from a two-year stint as a painter in the Red Army. A graduate of Stroganov Institute of Fine and Industrial Arts, Moscow, where he honed his technical proficiency, he escaped the dehumanizing effort of the Army first by dodging three drafts, then through being given a studio, once drafted. In it, he produced the required poster propaganda, but often managed to incorporate ambiguous visual content that went over the heads of his military superiors. Ploataiko has participated in numerous exhibitions in both Moscow and Kiev. In Canada, Polataiko's dark, contemplative paintings are drawing widespread attention and hefty prices, from the art community. He has dual citizenship and travels back and forth between his native country and his adopted one.

At 27 he has had a number of exhibitions, including a recent showing in the Diane Ferris Gallery, Vancouver, where all his works sold out. the Rosemont Gallery in Regina has mounted his work in November 1994 as did the Mendel Gallery in Saskatoon also that year.


Lorraine Malach

Loraine Malach was born in Saskatchewan, and received much of her art training at the University of Saskatchewan's Regina Campus School of Art, the Pennsylvania Academy and the Barnes Foundation in Merion, Pennsylvania.

Lorraine spent some time in Italy and Turkey, and both countries influenced her development as and artist. She now resides in Regina, where she has worked full time as an artist for many years. In addition to her watercolors, oils, ink and charcoal sketches, she has also worked in a wide range of media, including clay, mosaic, egg tempera, and paper sculpture.

Her larger works have included an egg tempera mural of the Last Supper, and ceramic-tile Stations of the Cross, for St. Michael's Retreat House in Lumsden, and a set of three mosaic panels on the exterior wall of Regina Wesley united Church.

Critics have said that Miss Malach's drawings and nature studies as well as her portraits show her to be a well-developed draftswoman with a sensitivity for her subject matter. She also possesses a deft and delightful sense of humor, displayed in the gentle whimsy of her pieces.


Buffy Sainte-Marie

She was born on a reservation in Saskatchewan, Canada. She received her Ph.d. in Fine Arts from the University of Massachusetts, and also holds degrees in Philosophy and in teaching. These combined interests are clearly evident in her music, her visual artworks, her writing, and her life.

Her electronic paintings on her Macitosh computer have been exhibited in both museums and galleries and well as online. In March she was inducted into the Canadian music industry's Juno Hall of Fame. The versatility in all this work is a reflection of her own life, and is best described as extremely varied, both universal and unique.

Today her digital home studio is as personal and hands-on for her as a guitar was in the 1960's. Her come-back CD, Coincidence and Likely Stories, was made at home in 1991. Using her Macintosh as a recording instrument, she played most of the parts herself. When it was just the way she wanted it, she dialed the number of her co-producer in London, England, and sent the music down the phone lines via modem, bounced it off the satellite, and it went onto tape in London. Upon the release of that album, France named her "Best International Artist" and presented her with the Grand Prix Charles de Gaulle award.

As a college student in the early 1960's Buffy Sainte-Marie became known as a writer of protest songs and love songs. Her songs have been performed by hundreds of artists including Elvis Presley, Indigo Girls, Barbara Striesand, Chet Atkins, Bobby Darin, Donovan, Glen Campbell, Roberta Flack, Neil Diamond, The Boston Pops Orchestra, and Janis Joplin.

She won an Academy Award for writing the song, "Up Where We Belong" (from An Officer and a Gentleman) but has also scored movies, ducked bullets, raised a son, and spent 5 years on Sesame Street teaching little kids and their caretakers that "Indians still exist".

Buffy Sainte-Marie continues to give concerts both large and small, having performed with her four-piece electronic band for 20,000 people last summer at Big Sky in Alberta, as well as for tiny Reserves and fly-in communities across Canada. She also teaches at colleges and lectures in a variety of fields including digital art, philosophy, film scoring, electronic music songwriting, Indian issues and the Native genius for government, and most importantly, remaining positive amidst tough human realities. Her digital paintings vary in style like her songs, speeches, classes and assays do, each reflecting her lifelong wish to empower creative people's multifaceted individual potentials 'because we need fresh alternative ideas from every direction...students, artists, women, indigenous people'. (from EMI Music Canada, January 1996)

Key Concepts
Background Information
About the Artists
About the Works