KLAC NEWS
Don’t miss a single update with our e-newsletter, The Kawartha Lakes Cultural Connection. As the voice of culture in Kawartha Lakes, we aim to provide news, information, and updates — connecting relevant stories, current events, and all people and influencers involved in the cultural scene in Kawartha Lakes. Contributions and feedback are always welcome.
The Joy of Teaching the Arts
Top secondary school educators in the Arts comment on their favourite aspects of teaching youth and share their top frustration with educating in the Arts.
It’s All About Pleasure
It never ceases to amaze me how many people, including me will exchange currency for food. To experience exquisite “taste” for many, it is worth performing laborious tasks that often take time. Not only that, but for many of us that pleasure is amplified when the food is delicious. A true culinary sandbox.
Photographers’ Profile
Submitted by Roxanne Carter. Rebecca is a self-taught painter, photographer, and designer. Sharon loves exploring nature and always has her camera with her.
Photography As Art …
Or more appropriately, Photography IS Art. The debate surrounding photography, and its place in the traditional art world has been raging for over 100 years. Fast forward to 2021 and the confusion heightens with the explosion of digital imagery, social media sites, crypto art and the ever-present, high quality cell phone camera. In this endless discussion, semantics matter!
Mindfulness and Creativity are linked
It’s 8:57 am on a Wednesday morning and I’m lying on my yoga mat in the last five minutes of savasana, with the cardinals and house wrens distantly complaining about the gentle rain I can hear falling on the steel roof of my art studio.
Jesse Marshall
The solitude of the last year has been good for Jesse Marshall’s creative process. A 2020 graduate of Humber’s Bachelor of Film and Media Production, Jesse has taken advantage of the relative quiet to find the discipline to work on feature film scripts.
How to Find Rest in a Busy Life
When I first heard the topic of this month’s newsletter, I was a little daunted at the thought of writing an article about it. If you know me personally or have asked about my life in the past year or so, you will know that I am incredibly busy. You may think that the meaning of rest and relaxation has eluded me, and you wouldn’t be entirely wrong.
Artistic Adaptation and Innovation
Adaptation and Innovation are an art form in and of themselves – and 2020/21 certainly has created much cause for this. We may all be tired of hearing the word “pivot” but those who have been able to, have fared better. Two of KLAC’s members have shared their stories about pivoting. Join the conversation and tell us how you’ve adapted.
Bruno Cantieni
Living in Whitby, Bruno found city life too hectic, prompting him and his wife Julie to look for a country property. They fell in love with an old Irish settler property called Braeside outside of Fenelon Falls. The property includes a century home, ample space for their gardens and a 150-year-old barn which Bruno has converted into his studio.
KLAC Potters Honour Earth Day
April 22nd is Earth Day and who better to comment on their connection to the earth than the KLAC members who literally get mud under their nails? We reached out to our potter members to ask them, “How does the Earth bring inspiration to your work?”
World Art Day celebrates the Universality of Creativity
What is the one common element in just about every single aspect of our lives? ART AND CREATIVITY! Think about it. Your clothing, furniture, home design, hairstyle, the music you listen to, stories you read your children, many aspects of the computer you work on, a play you go to see, how you set the dinner table, reflect how the arts and creative thinking fit into your daily life.
Downeyville – A record of traditional music and oral stories of the Irish
I am often asked why “culture” and “heritage” are combined in telling history. A short five-minute drive west of Lindsay to Downeyville, answers this question completely.
Commentary on Music During the Pandemic
As a member of the Kawartha Lakes music community, I recently took “Music Therapy Month” as an opportunity to touch base with some local musicians to see how life has changed for them due to COVID-19. This handful of folks included teachers, performers, and of course, a music therapist.
Artist Couples Make it Work… together.
Celebrating 50 years of married life in October 2021, Paul and Beverley look back on their creative adventure together. They met in 1969, at Black Creek Pioneer Village, while Paul was working in the Harness Makers shop and Beverley, an OCA Material Arts graduate, was demonstrating spinning and weaving. They soon discovered they both appreciated the fine workmanship of previous generations. The crafts movement was just underway and together they enjoyed creating unique leather and textile products to sell at new marketplaces like one of a kind shows.
Local Artist, Lucya Almeida, cashes in with Canadian mint
Jewelry Artist Lucya Almeida, who works from her home studio in Bethany under the company name The TIMA Collection, has been designing jewelry for over 30 years but has just recently landed a unique opportunity to design pieces for The Canadian Mint.
Patrons and the arts
I consider myself fortunate to have grown up in a family and living in communities that valued arts and culture. My grandfather, Philip Patrick Murphy, was a musician and music educator, settling post-WWII in Windsor, Ontario. My brother and I, as boys, spent many summers on his coat tails, as he went from rehearsals, to concerts, with the many bands that he directed, both in Windsor and Detroit.
Little Red Canoes - A Creative Idea Turns Sentimental And Heartwarming
It’s been just over two months since I started the "lil red canoe" Project. What started as a simple idea of carving a canoe and sending it down the river has quickly turned into something much more. In the beginning, I set a goal of 99 little canoes for 99 days, committed to traditional environmentally friendly dying colour methods. Hence the "lil red canoe" Project was born on the Miskwaa Ziibi River (Ojibwa for Red River).
Paint! Dance! Sing! Everyone is an Artist.
Have you ever mindlessly doodled, scribbled or made vigorous circles, lines on paper? I have. The desire to draw comes naturally. Give a toddler a crayon and they will instinctively start to scribble! As we grow, the act of art-making progresses from a flurry of ‘meaningless’ scribbles to images and words that make order of our world. In short, drawing and other forms of art are simply part of our instinct to communicate and express ourselves.