These days Canmorite Katie Barron is deep into dessert research.
During trips to the thrift store, she’s always on the lookout for vintage cookbooks and moulds to add to her confectionary-creating collection. Despite not being able to quite put her Ladyfinger on why she’s drawn toward the sugary substance, Katie’s busy making, eating, and painting Jell-O.
This may sound Odd and Unusual, but on the contrary, it’s a continuation of the work she did for her first solo show - titled just that - at artsPlace from August 19 to Sept. 15, 2019 as part of the RISE Emerging Artist Program.
Amongst the shadowy oil painting portraits of food paired with objects, such as a baseball sandwiched between scoops on an ice cream cone and birthday candles atop a burger, sits a lone seahorse suspended in blue Jell-O.
“My paintings can make people uncomfortable but in my mind, they are whimsical and fun,” she says. “For me, it’s about the small pleasures of life. The nostalgic objects and food are a good marriage of enjoying the little things.”
Katie explains that each painting comes with its own ritual, from uncovering the idea to tasting the final product, adding that she uses meditation, sensory deprivation tanks, and strolls down store aisles to jog the idea. “Once the idea strikes I go out and buy the items necessary to create whatever monstrosity I'm going to paint.”
Katie says she has tasted all of the subjects from her paintings. “I like to try the food to experience the object in reality before it's gone and lives on only as the painting. The weirdest one was probably cherry Jell-O with spinach, celery, and bell peppers.” Digesting Katie’s weird and wonderful work can often require an eclectic palate, but she wants to assure her audience it’s meant to be a simple feast, designed to please even picky eaters.
Self-taught to paint in 2018, Katie quipped that she was Googling “how do you become a successful painter?” before she was selected for RISE. The program allowed her to ask a mentor questions rather than the Internet and in her case, he was Canmore-based artist Dan Hudson.
“Art, like all disciplines, has its own protocols. The sooner an emerging artist can learn to navigate the field of play — the better. A mentor can really help with this process,” says Dan.
Katie described the opening of Odd and Unusual as an amazing opportunity, not only were her paintings displayed in a gallery rather than stacked in her kitchen, but she was able to reintroduce herself to her community as an artist.
“Something that really surprised me from RISE was to see how much support there was from people who showed up to the opening,” she says. “It really solidifies the sense of community that artsPlace creates.”
The RISE Emerging Artist Program offers Alberta emerging artists the opportunity to educate, exhibit, sell, and promote their artistic practice within the Bow Valley while pairing them with a mentor and local art professional.
