An Art Filled Weekend...

...gotta love those! Back to back art openings, yippee!

BANFF TOWN HALL


Friday night was the annual Homegrown Show at the Banff Town Hall. This show is always well attended with lots of great food and fun conversation. This year there was also live music. I can't believe that this Quin's third time at both of the show this weekend!





"See" 12.2 x 12.25"
$200
Mixed Media by Tiffany Teske (Record album jacket, embroidery thread, original Polaroid transfer, vintage photograph copy, map, game piece, acrylic paint, stones, not shown in this photograph)
Collage from the series "Wanderlust"

BANFF PUBLIC LIBRARY/YWCA WOMEN'S ART SHOW


The Women's Art Show at the Banff Public Library was the best ever! It has always been well attended by the participating artists but this year the public turned out in droves. It may have had something to do with this article, although the pre-press is always good. I was thrilled that my friend, Kim, who usually hosted the show for the library, participated this year with a beautiful poem about her daughter (our pieces are behind us). Last year we both had big bellies but now look at our lovely babes!


Here is a candid group shot of all the talented artists. Thanks to the YWCA & The Banff Public Library for hosting this important event centered around International Women's Day.


I Need Your Kindness 17x19"
$250
Mixed Media by Tiffany Teske (black & white photographs, embroidery thread, vintage dictionary text, fabric, handmade paper, rick rack trim, vintage ribbon)
Proceeds to go to help build a home for orphaned and abandoned children in Haiti

My Piece for the Banff Homegrown Art Show

"See"
Mixed Media by Tiffany Teske (Record album jacket, embroidery thread, original Polaroid transfer, vintage photograph copy, map, game piece, acrylic paint, stones, not shown in this photograph)
Collage from the series "Wanderlust"

"The Homegrown Art Opening Reception is March 5th from 7-9 PM at Banff Town Hall at 110 Bear Street. Join us for the evening as we celebrate our local art talents. Exhibition runs from March 5 - 26, 2010. This art show offers viewers a glimpse into the work of a wide variety of artists living in the Bow Valley."

Banff Town Meeting

Today was the Banff Town Meeting where the Banff Mineral Springs Hospital presented their case on why they have "temporarily" suspended obstetrics services. Many in the community do not believe that this closure will be temporary, so those of us in support of it reopening have been out in full force to put pressure on the hospital to make good on their promise to reopen should their staffing shortages be resolved. Saturday there was a rally at the hospital as you can see here.


All of the rallies have been friendly, and families turned out in droves. Kids were welcome today, although many had left by the time the meeting reached one hour. Here is my daughter before she got to restless for me to stay. We were there about 1 1/2 hours. She did really well listening to a bunch of adults droning on and on, as did all the kids who were there.


After the hospital had their say, the Councillors asked questions, many of which were from the community. I really have no way of gauging how it went, since I left before it was over. However, the turn out from the community was awesome!


I am proud of my community. When I got home from the meeting, I drafted the following letter to The Banff Crag and Canyon. I am not sure I submitted it in time for tomorrow's edition, but will post it here...

To The Editor:

I just returned from the Banff Town Meeting where Banff Mineral Springs Hospital Administration presented their side of the story as to why they have "temporarily" closed Obstetrics. They also answered many questions from our community, that were asked by Councillor Stavros Karlos, but I had to head home with my 2 ½ year old daughter before the meeting came to an end. I will not recount all of the concerns surrounding the unfortunate closing, as I am sure to forget something, and I don't really feel I know all the facts even though I have been closely following the story since it broke. All the important points have been raised and covered in the pages of our local newspapers, both in articles and letters to the editor, as well as at recent rallies. I would rather write about this issue on a personal level.

I am currently pregnant with my second child, who is due in June of 2009. My family has only been living in Banff since May of 2007 but have made many friends here and are pleased to call it home. I have attended all the support events related to the closing, aside from the first one, when I watched my friend Pam Currie's shop, so she could lead it. I have been a part of these friendly events not only for the concerns of my family. I have been present at these rallies because it is the least I can do for my friends who have recently given birth, who are set to give birth in coming weeks, and for the (hopefully) future births of children in Banff. It is the only way I can effectively lend my voice for people in all our surrounding communities, as the closing of obstetrics here will affect those communities as well.

What I would most like to say is how proud I am to be part of this community! As a professional photographer who has worked on several social/humanitarian related documentaries/photo essays, I have seen people come together all over the world in an effort to make change. All of the experiences I have covered have involved peaceful demonstration in the form of things like rallies or simply by people coming together to bring change by doing whatever they could as a group. I have watched 400 people, most of them teens, repair 60 homes of impoverished, disabled, and elderly in rural Maine. I have witnessed hundreds of students in Terrier Rouge, Haiti, being given the opportunity for a better life because of the compassion of hundreds of people in the North Eastern US. I have watched workers peacefully marching in Spain for better working conditions. And my family and I attended a rally close to home in Calgary last May, arranged by local Banff resident, Ulrike Kimbley-Nicolai, to ask the government to cover midwifery services for women who want to choose this option for the birth of their children. In all of these cases positive changes were made. I am hoping a positive outcome will result from the coming together of our residents over the need for the continuation of birthing in Banff.

I have always believed in the power of people peacefully joining together for positive change. And now that we are under the care of Canmore midwife, Mireille Caron, for the birth of our second child, which will be covered by the government as of April 1st, 2009, I am able to teach my daughter the value of making our voices heard. This weekend she witnessed this at the sit-in and again today at the town meeting. I am so happy I can show her how our friends and neighbours have come together with us on this issue. And I hope I can show her a positive outcome of our collective efforts by the reopening of obstetrics services at BMSH. I hope that this will not have to be the sad example I need to show her of how sometimes, even when you do your best, a change cannot be made. Please, for my family, and for all of the families who live, work, play, and raise their children in Banff and our surrounding communities, think about our future and find a way to allow babies to be born in Banff.

Thank you again to everyone who has been active on this issue. It warms my heart and adds to my long list of good reasons for living to this amazing place. Because of you efforts there is hope that this closing can be reversed. As Dr. David Swann, leader of the Alberta liberals, pointed out in his speech at the rally on Saturday, there have been several rural obstetrics wards that have recently closed, but ours is the only community that has protested. We should be proud that we are not willing to let this issue end without a fight. We can be a positive example to the communities who will certainly be faced with this issue in the future.

Tiffany Teske

Town of Banff HomeGrown Art Show

Tonight we had a ball at the annual Town of Banff HomeGrown Art Exhibition. 48 local members of the community, ranging from amateur to well-known professional, gathered to show off their talent. I really appreciate the concept behind this show; it is open to all, no jurying, the more, the merrier! And when you have that many artists showing their work, it becomes a HUGE party... there were a couple hundred people there. The Town takes a small fee from each artist and then furnishes a spread of awesome food, desserts, and wine from local businesses. Yum yum!



My piece was in the main room with the food. I was happy to see it there, partially because it is a nice open room with good light and you can back up and view the work well, but also because I am pregnant so being near the food it important... My piece, titled "Visions of Banff" looked really good. The photo doesn't do it justice... I could not use a flash without glare, so I had to shoot it hand held without flash and it is a bit off kilter. I am going to write a post about the piece in coming days, along with a step by step tutorial. It is a photo quilt. Something new for me. I am planning to do a series of these quilts. I learned a lot while making this one, through trial and error, and I look forward to honing the technique.





Our daughter, Quin, has been attending art shows with us since conception, and she likes the art, but loves the food. As she looked over the food table she said, "This place is great!" One of the artists even sketched her portrait.


When we got back in the truck to leave she said, "We had a great day!" It is always fun to bring her with. And man, does the girl love a balloon. She is in heaven!


Thanks to the Town of Banff for putting on such a fun family event where the residents of our community can shine!

On a really fun note, my friend, Michelle, is finally back from the sticks of Fort Chippewa, for good! I bumped into her at the show and am so excited she is back. We had our daughters on the same day, and she has a little boy now, too. Throw in our little one on the way and fun times are ahead...

Awful, Wonderful Day

I was running behind this morning, as usual. To say my daughter and I aren't morning people is oh-so-truthful. I don't plan many things for the morning. On Monday, I was supposed to meet up with the coordinator of the Banff After School program, but my husband was home sick with a bug and my daughter was bit sluggish. In the end, she didn't get sick but we rescheduled our meeting for today, at 11 AM. No worries, right? Well, yes and no. We were ready to leave the house on time, but driving would probably have been a better idea than walking. Both in time factor and the fact that there were storm clouds brewing, something I only noticed once we were pretty far from home. I almost turned around but QQ wanted to "walk" (she was in the stroller)... so I pretty much ran, and I was pulling up to the Town Office pretty much on time. I started to gather all our bags and my child and then I noticed, MY PURSE WAS GONE!! It had been hanging off that thingy you hang your bags off of on a jogwger stroller. And now it was GONE. Of course, I am panicking, not sure if it fell off or, since I live in a densely populated tourist town this time of year, if it was stolen. I was completely frustrated that I was going to have to run and tell the person I was meeting that I needed to reschedule YET AGAIN. I ran in, put down my other bags, daughter on hip, not even able to remember the name of the person I needed to meet. There were about four people standing inside the door of the community services office and I blurted out, "I just lost my purse, I have to go." One woman, was like, "go,go!" and the person I was meeting who had at this point been identified, looked shocked. Then, I left. As I RAN back through all the steps I had taken I was feeling for the most part stupid. Stupid because I had been in such a rush, stupid because I had not taken the car (since I would have just throw my purse in), stupid because I know better than to hang my purse on the stroller when I can put it safely underneath the stroller, stupid because every time I try to do something work related lately I feel like I fail, stupid because maybe I was just an airhead and had left the purse in the house, or the garage, or on top of the car in the driveway, stupid because I had worn uncomfortable shoes with no socks and now my heels had blisters the size of quarters... I was huffing and puffing when I got home. No purse on the car or in the driveway, not in the front entry, upstairs, or the garage. Oh, I forgot to mention in between feeling stupid I was thinking, "oh no, my cell phone (which I had already replaced last fall because I put it on top of the car and drove away), my wallet, my $600 Leica Point and Shoot digicam that I bought myself for Christmas after wanting it for two years, my little notebooks with all my ideas, notes, designs.... gone, all gone! I hate owning things I can't do without but I guess to some extent that is inevitable. We need wallets, I am a photographer so I need a camera, and well, cell phones... No purse at home, at least I was not an airhead. I called my cell phone, no answer and more importantly I could not hear it ringing in the house. I called my husband to tell him the whole story. I called my credit card company and my US debit card to place blocks on the accounts. I called the woman who I still needed to meet with to reschedule and apologize. Andre, my husband, called the Town to find out where I should file a missing purse report, which conveniently happens to be at the Town Office, where I was now headed back to for my meeting. As I got in the car it dawned on me that I had ALMOST put my house and car keys in my purse but had handed them to my daughter instead, otherwise we would not have gotten into the house and could not now drive the car. A-ha, things COULD be worse. And my two year old had actually been really really extra good while I was making all of these phone calls, since she knew I was distraught. I drove to the Town Office, had a great meeting while QQ played on the floor in their box of toys. Good news is, I am going to be the local artist who comes in to teach the Recycled Art Project for the After School Program, one Monday a month, starting in Setember. Yippee! I am very excited about that! Ok, off to file a missing purse report, and then we went to the PO, Nester's Local Grocery, the Parks Administration Building, and the OH Canada Museum to see if anyone had turned my purse in. Nope. But, I did make 6 Polaroid Spectra double exposures for my October exhibit during the course of all this craziness. I figured why not since we were visiting all these local places, which are a big part of the subject matter of my exhibit. Are you starting to see the theme of my day, Awful, Wonderful? All day it was bitter sweet. Well, ok, not all day. It was exactly 2 1/2 hours from the time that I lost my purse to the time I returned home to hear Andre on our voice mail telling me he had found my purse by calling my cell phone every five minutes until someone picked up. It was at the coffee shop next to the post office and he was on his way to get it!!! OH, yeah! No more thoughts of applying for a replacement health card, driver's license, debit card, etc etc etc. I just had a feeling it was all still in my purse. And I was getting a warm fuzzy feeling about how I knew that someone would do the right thing (ok, I didn't know, I had my doubts, but I was hoping...) and how great that is! Andre came home, all was in my purse, and he told me that someone had turned it in and how nice the people who had it were and I felt like I am right to think the best of my fellow man. Breathe. Deep breath... get on with the rest of the day. Call and take the block off the cards, have lunch, get Etsy trade and client CD ready for the post office, drive to Canmore, go to thrift store, find house plant (yippee!) and some terracotta pots for after school program, as well as some chipped pottery destined for recycling to use for my kitchen back splash, QQ & I see chiropractor, pick up snapshots at photo lab from our Ottawa trip, go to post office, drive home, Q nap, edit client session, meet friends visiting on a whim from Vancouver for dinner, grab Starbucks, home, get friends settled for 4 day stay, have a glass of wine, package another Etsy order, sit and chat, put Q to bed, upload portrait client session to the web. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!

Home Grown Art Show

Tonight we went to the Home Grown Art Show at the Banff Town Hall. It is an annual event and I submitted a piece for the month long exhibition. This annual exhibition "showcases the work of a wide variety of artists living in the Bow Valley. Some are professionals, while others are amateur artists who create art for personal pleasure." I believe there were even some works by kids and young adults.

It was also the unveiling of the maquettes (miniature models) made by the finalists in the 2008 Banff Public Art Competition.



It was both a well run and well attended event. I would say there were about 200 people over the course of the two and a half hours we were there. There was awesome food, and the town hall was a nice place to have all the works of art. It was a bit like an art treasury hunt as it was on walls, in cases, and in several different rooms all through out the building. I would say there were about 50 works of art. Photography, paintings, wood working, sculpture, mixed media. Of course because it is in Banff I woul say that 85% of it was landscape or wildlife based.



My piece was one of the more unique pieces, which is fun. It was kind of the joke of the night between my friends and family that my work was at the bottom of a wall case in a hard to find area but I took it in stride, since you win some, you lose some. I really entered this exhibit to get to know other artists in the community and I was content to sip some wine, gobble cheese, and watch my Quin play with the other kids, while socializing. We saw some familiar faces which was great. I also met a woman named Kelly, and her daughter and husband, and we hit it off and were invited to Motoring Munchkins tomorrow. Fun, fun!



After the exhibit we went to Sylvain and Mariana's for awhile. They will only be here for a couple more weeks, which is a bummer. "Ana" is Q's second mama. We will miss them :(



When we got home from their house, there was a voicemail message on the phone. It was someone, calling me from the art reception (earlier in the evening) who works at the Town Hall. He had seen my piece, Self Emerging, which is a gelatin plate monoprint incorporating one of my color images that I made black and white for the piece. He wants to purchase it! That of course was the cherry on an already awesome evening.



I have to say, that since I started creating work for myself (last February for the Erotica exhibit in Chelsea, Quebec)and not for its marketability, I have sold almost everything I have exhibited. That reinforces things for me, makes me more confident as an artist, and inspires me with possibility. And I am THRILLED that the two works that I have exhibited in Banff were both bought by locals. Awesome :)