Dale Roberts in his studio

Paint Them Proud

Colin Fraser show celebrates creative queer community

As has been reiterated time and time again on these pages, Pride Week isn’t all parades and drag baseball games. Take, for example, the Colin Fraser GLBT Art Show. This eighth annual event—relocating this year from the First Unitarian Church to downtown’s Martin Batchelor Gallery—is perhaps a quieter, less noticeable celebration, but a celebration nonetheless.

“I’ve seen people I haven’t seen in years come to this opening and sometimes it’s the only way we can get together,” says Claire Turcotte, an artist who has a large painting in the show. “This is my offering [to the community] and it’s what I can do and it’s also a huge part of me.”

Turcotte’s painting, called “My Awakened Heart,” is a significant piece she started after suffering from a heart attack in January.

“For me, the heart attack really represented a breaking open and a new beginning, I think that shows in the painting, there’s a sense of something enlarged in my life, a movement outwards,” she explains. “I don’t usually like analyzing my work, but this one is more about how I feel right now, so it’s a little easier.”

Artist Dale Roberts is creating one of his found-object suitcase sculptures specifically for the show.

“I start with the suitcase and certain images and think about what it means to be a gay man and how that impacts the assemblage I do,” says Roberts, adding that it’s quite a departure from how he normally works. “Usually it’s very intuitive and rather formal in terms of the things I bring together—I look at form, lines, all those things an artist thinks of.”

The diversity of work in the open-call Colin Fraser exhibition is impressive. Not only are there paintings and sculptures, but also pieces such as Pagone Praparattanapan’s lampshades. Originally from Thailand, Praparattanapan immigrated to Canada in 2004 and began practicing art. In addition to the lampshades, which are made out of fabrics from Thailand and India, he also does portraiture.

“My partner had lampshades he’d ordered made out of Indonesian fabric and it was really beautiful,” says Praparattanapan. “I was looking for a class to make lampshades and I found one with a senior lady in the Gorge area.”

Also in the show is textile artist Les Chan, who will have three of his embroidery pieces on display. Chan says he started doing his stitch work about 20 years ago.

“I saw my aunt doing needlework and she was buying patterns, so I started buying the patterns and kits,” he says. “I didn’t like the designs, so I decided to create my own.”

Chan’s work have a sense of whimsy about them and the titles are often double entendres, like his “Tri Coloured Man” piece.

“They all have puns and should all be rather cerebral,” he says.

Like many of the artists in the snow, Chan has been participating in it for several years now and sees it as an important part of Pride celebrations.

“It’s always amazing to me how many people are artistically inclined,” he says. “Last year, we had Phyllis Serota as part of the art show. There are a lot of very key local artists.”

Roberts says the show is as much about celebration as it is about solidarity.

“As artists, you surround yourself with a community and you forget there is a lot of ignorance out there,” he says. “Sometimes this show can be political in nature and as artists, it’s great that we get to do that.” M

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8th Annual Colin Fraser GLBT Art Show
Opens 7pm Sat., June 20 to July 16
Martin Batchelor Gallery, 712 Cormorant
250-385-7919