Shades of Life
Carol Whetter had a whale of a time creating her Podcast exhibit.
Nine pieces of her work are now on display, along with drawings and carvings by Greg Bradacs, in a new exhibit called Shades of Life.
The exhibit opened with an artists’ talk and reception Thursday and it is on display until Jan. 15 in the new gallery space at Studio 2880.
Whetter’s drawings are done on art paper, then mounted on repurposed metal printing press sheets. The idea for her subject matter, whales, came from a few places – and one person.
“I grew up on the East Coast where I could see the Atlantic Ocean. So I guess it is in my DNA,” said Whetter. “My mother was born in the 1930s and she was a big radio listener. I got that from her. I just love listening to CBC Radio podcasts.”
Whetter moved across the country to Vancouver in 1985 and, in 1993, came to live in Prince George. Her career path also contributed to the theme in her most recent exhibit.
“I spent most of my life in communications,” she said. “I’ve worked in sales, marketing and hospitality and when I was making my art for Podcasts, I realized that it all had to do with communications.”
In her artist’s statement, Whetter says:
“I have a thing for Jian Ghomeshi, the host of the CBC radio program Q. Before him, I loved Peter Gzowski – and they aren’t my only CBC crushes. They fascinate me because these lucky folks get to engage in conversations that introduce me to all kinds of people. This made my own meeting with Canadian art superstar Norman Yates seem normal, almost.”
Whetter said she got the idea of blending her two pleasures – art and listening to the CBC, from Yates when he was at Two Rivers Gallery giving an artist’s talk to Fine Arts students at UNBC and College of New Caledonia.
“He said he put on CBC to occupy his logical brain and that freed his creative mind to work unfettered by internal chatter. If it worked for Norman, it might work for me.”
As Whetter listened to a podcast and needed to decide on the subject, whales seemed the right choice, she said.
“I thought about how they communicate with their songs and that led me to thinking about communications generally: soundwaves, symbols, binary code and intuition.
“When you look at the pieces in Podcast, the drawings may remind you of those from Moby Dick. That’s intentional. It fits with the printing press thing going on.”
The artist said when she showed up for work each day in her studio, she felt as if she “shared space with Ghomeshi, Fran Lebowitz, Billy Corgan, J.K. Rowling and several musical acts.”
“By listening, I reaffirmed that each of us has a story to tell, a song to sing. In the Great Cosmic Ocean, I believe we are all member of the same pod.”
The Community Arts Council presents Shades of Life with works by Carol Whetter and Greg Bradacs.
The exciting new exhibit will be on display at Studio 2880 on 15th Ave. from November 15 to January 15.
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