The Making of the 2016 Okanagan Arts Awards
The 2016 Okanagan Arts Awards award sculptures were created through a collaborative art project between the Arts Council of the Central Okanagan, the Cool Arts Society, and previous Okanagan Arts Awards winners and nominees.
Under the direction of lead Artist Lucie Parent, the artists began the project by sketching out their ideas while reflecting on the three inspirational words: Happiness, Magic, and Surprise.
From there, the artists began working on the armatures that supported the shape of the sculptures, and then covering the armatures with tin foil and masking tape. After that, a layer of Paverpol was then applied. (Paverpol is a non-toxic, water-based textile hardener created by a group of Dutch artists in the early 1990s as a user- and environmentally-friendly alternative to resin.)
Once the sculptures were dry, community members and previous Okanagan Arts Awards nominees and winners joined the Cool Arts Artists to paint the sculptures – these included Jazz Singer Anna Jacyszyn, 2015 Okanagan Arts Award Winner Kelsie Balehowsky, and Executive Director of the Kelowna Arts Council Lynda Norman.
The Cool Arts Artists put the finishing touches on the award sculptures, dry brushing each award with gold or silver metallic paint, before sending the award sculptures off to have plaques of the winners names attached to them.
Thank you to Jordan Lige, Samantha Mayer, Katarina Gerhardt, Shannon Armstrong, Laura Gerhardt, Matthew Nakayama, Janice Bickert, Randi Grant, Katie Biggs, Dylan Jeaurond, Scott Gould, Kathryn Pooley, and Shameera Rosal, the wonderful artists behind the amazing awards sculptures
An extended thank you goes out to Custom Granite Works in West Kelowna for donating the granite bases for this year’s awards.