Arin Fay pyrography on display at the Nelson Public Library
By Contributor
Arin Fay’s summer show at the Nelson Library pull from two well-received touring exhibitions: Between the Lines, an artistic tribute to female Canadian writers, and Beyond the Batholith, which focused specifically on female writers who live in the Columbia Basin.
Fay used pyrography — word-burning — as well as acrylic paint in these works. To create the pyrographic elements, she pressed large brands onto wood using found objects — gears, flat bars, cast parts — and detail burning using a pyrography tool , then applied the acrylic paint. Sanding and multiple layers of lacquer complete the effect.
“(These exhibitions) endeavour to illustrate and elevate the artistic accomplishments of a very specific and important component of our cultural community: women writers,” she explains. “These women, literally (pun intended), form and inform the communities in which we live, and as such, function as ambassadors of our collective artistic acumen.”
Writers whose pyrographic portraits appear in the Library exhibition include Kootenay authors Susan Andrews Grace and Luanne Armstrong, and Canadian authors Margaret Laurence, Adele Wiseman, and E. Pauline Johnson (Tekahionwake).
Arin Fay is a curator, writer, and artist living on the north part of Kootenay Lake. She has attended the Banff Centre’s Writing with Style Program and undertaken residencies at the Mackenzie Art Gallery and Sled Island. Arin has been an active member of the arts and culture community in the Kootenays for more than twenty years. She is currently the curator at Touchstones Nelson, Museum of Art and History.
The show continues until the end of August.
