2014 Arts Recognition Awards

As some of you may know, the Oakville Arts Council has presented arts recognition awards to local artists over the last five years through our Cogeco Stars Among Us event. We have been proud of this event: a very small team managed each year to deliver a very large event, but the event we held in September 2013 was the last of the series.

Recognizing the excellence of our local artists remains a part of who the Oakville Arts Council is and what we deliver to both the creative community and the public-at-large. In 2014 we presented three awards at our Annual General Meeting on November 6, 2014 at Queen Elizabeth Park Community & Cultural Centre: Emerging Artist, Established Artist and Lifetime Achievement Award. We are pleased to announce this year’s winners:

2014 Emerging Artist: Barb TenEycke

TenEycke studied interior decorating and design at Sheridan College in the late 80’s. Some basic skills in perspective drawing were acquired during this time. During her 20 plus years in the field of decorating and design, she took specialty courses on marbleizing and other interesting decorative paint techniques. Over the years, TenEycke developed a reputation in this field for expert knowledge and application. As she stills enjoys the satisfaction of this type of work, she occasionally accepts small projects. This decorative painting experience, she believes, has allowed her to fast-track her skills in the area of fine art painting. Similarly, years of working with design and colour have helped instill a general sense of composition, balance, and colour values, all coming into play in her work. TenEycke paints full time now, and is passionate about continuing her self-education through online art tutorials, workshops, the studying of other artists’ work, and most importantly ‘miles on the paintbrush’!

TenEycke creates original landscape paintings using acrylic paint on gallery style stretched canvas. She splits her time between her home in Oakville Ontario, and her family cottage near Algonquin Park.  Travelling between the GTA and cottage country on rural roads, provides her with endless inspiration. Old barns, rolling fields, coming storms and foggy sunsets are the stuff of dreams for TenEycke. Her landscapes have a unique blend of realism and abstraction. Lighting, atmosphere, and depth, are key elements that she tries to convey in her work.

“When painting the Canadian landscape, my main interests are elemental; water, rocks, trees, skies. I am particularly drawn to the way light interacts with these elements,” says TenEycke. “Movement is another aspect I strive to convey in a painting. Rushing water, gentle currents in a forest stream, trees swaying in the wind, are challenges I eagerly take on. Connecting the viewer to a memory or emotion is the ultimate reward.”

Please visit www.barbteneycke.comfor more information about this artist.

2014 Established Artist: Charles Demunyck

A native of Dawson Creek, BC, Charles Demuynck holds a doctorate in conducting from the Hartt School in Hartford, Conn. He also holds conducting degrees from the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore and the University of Toronto. In addition, he is an active composer for a wide variety of instruments and ensembles, and his works have been performed on both sides of the Canada /US border.In addition, he is an active composer, and his works have been performed on both sides of the Canada-U.S.border. As the founding artistic director of Masterworks of Oakville, he is proud to lead this group of extraordinarily enthusiastic and talented musicians.

He is the Artistic Director of Masterworks of Oakville Chorus and Orchestra, which is devoted to performing the great works for chorus and orchestra (www.masterworksofoakville.ca). His previous posts include: Music Director of the Brampton Symphony Orchestra, City Centre Musical Productions (Mississauga); Assistant Conductor of the Knoxville (TN) Symphony; Music Director, Natchitoches-Northwestern Symphony Orchestra (LA); Director of Orchestras at the University of Evansville (IN), and Conducting Apprentice of the Hartford Symphony. He is the Music Director at St Andrew's Catholic Church, Oakville, and has also been music director at Stouffville United Church and Prophet Elias Greek Orthodox Church, Mississauga.

Charles Demuynck was Music Director of the Oakville Chamber Orchestra from 1995 to 2002 and returned in 2007 to make music with his friends. He has guest conducted extensively in Europe and the U.S. and with the following Canadian orchestras: Orchestra London, Mississauga Symphony, Oshawa¬-Durham Symphony, Cathedral Bluffs Symphony, Etobicoke Philharmonic, Prince George Symphony, National Academy Orchestra, Royal Conservatory New Music Ensemble, Lethbridge Symphony, North York Concert Orchestra and the Philharmonie des Jeunes d'Ottawa-Carleton. His CD of Beethoven's Symphony No.8 and Brahms' Piano Concerto No.2 with pianist Garnet Ungar and the Varna Philharmonic is on the Americus label (www.americuscd.com).

Visit www.oakvillechamberorchestra.comfor more information.

2014 Lifetime Achievement Award: Naoko Matusbara

 

Oakville is home to a significant number of visual artists who have been working in their fields for many years. With so much talent to choose from, our juries are often challenged to choose just one artist. As you will see from her extensive list of accomplishments, our work was made easier for the 2014 Lifetime Achievement Award. You may recognize her work from the mural installed at the YMCA. We are thrilled to be able to present this award to Naoko Matusbara and thank Maureen Latocki for her nomination.

This distinguished woodcut print artist was born on Shikoku Island into an old Shinto family, and grew up in Kyoto, where her father was a senior priest. She was educated at the Kyoto Academy of Fine Art (BFA, 1960); and was a Fulbright Scholar at what is now Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh (MFA, 1962). She was also a Special Invited Student at the Royal College of Art in London (1962).

After travelling extensively in Europe and Asia, Naoko Matsubara returned to Japan for two years, before being lured back to the United States. There she worked as personal assistant to the late Prof. Fritz Eichenberg, and also taught at the Pratt Institute of Graphic Art in New York, as well as at the University of Rhode Island. Subsequently she lived in Cambridge, Mass.

In 1972 Naoko Matsubara moved to Canada, and now lives in Oakville, Ontario. She has continued to be extremely active as an artist: locally, nationally and internationally. Since 1960 she has had some 75 solo exhibitions, in the USA, Canada, Japan, England, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Holland and Mexico. She has also participated in numerous group exhibitions.

Public collections owning work by Naoko Matsubara include: Albertina, Vienna; Art Institute of Chicago; British Museum; Carnegie Institute; Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Philadelphia Museum of Art; Cincinnati Art Museum; Detroit Institute of Art; Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University; Haifa Museum, Israel; Kyoto National Museum of Modern Art; Royal Ontario Museum; The White House, Washington DC; Tokyo National Museum of Modern Art; Yale University Art Gallery.

Naoko Matsubara has published some 20 books and portfolios of her work, including most recently Tibetan Sky (Calgary: Bayeux Arts Publishers, 1997; Preface by the Dalai Lama); Tokonoma (Bath, England: Old School Press, 1999); and Konjaku monogatari (Tokyo: ALIS, 2002). Her work also includes a large mural and donor pillar for the new YMCA building in Oakville, Ontario (2003); mixed-media screens; and paintings. In 2005, the Royal Ontario Museum commissioned two large works from Naoko Matsubara for the Museum’s Bloor Street window case. The artist generously donated a third work, Emerald Summer (2006). The three works (each 195 cm. high by 95 cm. wide) will be rotated at regular intervals into the outside window. This is the first commissioned artwork to be displayed on the Museum’s Bloor Street Plaza. She also recently completed commissions for Chatham University in Pittsburgh and the City of St. Catharines, Ontario.

Recent major exhibitions have been in Tokyo, Kyoto, Indiana, and Toronto (Royal Ontario Museum). Further exhibitions are currently being planned in Seattle and Tokyo; new books in process include In Praise of Hands. She also continues to travel widely; is frequently invited to speak about her work; and also publishes essays, in both English and Japanese.

Naoko Matsubara’s work has been the subject of countless articles and reviews; documentary films (including two from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation); and several book-length publications: notably Mokuhan: The Woodcuts of Munakata and Matsubara (text by Joan Stanley-Baker; Victoria, BC: Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, 1976); Naoko Matsubara: Development of Artistic Style and Technique (text by Barbara Woodworth; MFA thesis, Harvard University, 1985); and Tree Spirit. The Woodcuts of Naoko Matsubara (text by Arlene Gehmacher, Klaas Ruitenbeek and John M. Rosenfield; Toronto: Royal Ontario Museum, 2003).

For more information about Sensei Matsubara, visit http://abbozzogallery.com/nk/

 

July 30^th marked the fifth Creative Connections meeting after being revived this past

March.  In keeping with the OAC motto to, “Connect, Collaborate and Create!”

we partnered with the Town of Oakville to provide this networking event. 

The town provides the room at QEPCCC and refreshment and always includes

 a representative to field our “Town of Oakville” related questions. 

Round table introductions start off the meetings, welcoming, both OAC members

and non-members to this FREE event.

The environment is purposeful yet fun! and we’ve noticed overall that conversations

have been extending well past the 1 hour.  Upon reflection at the July

 meeting, Bernadette Ward, OAC’s Executive Director, and I noted that four,

and possibly five, working connections had already been made! 

What is our next step?  To grow these networking sessions to bring

 you more resources, opportunities and connections with like-minded individuals.

 

It all started with seeing the Beatles on television and a homemade toy guitar put together from an old cigar box. 

As a child, Curtis Ray Smith was exposed to various kinds of music, especially blues, R&B and soul, which influenced the then aspiring musician. 

Growing up my mother was a big fan of Ray Charles and that sort of music, so I grew up listening to him and bluesy kind of music,” says Smith, and then he chuckles.

Continuing on, he remembers how badly he wanted to play guitar. “I was trying to make one out of a cigar box, and my mother kind of took pity on me and took me to a store and bought me one of those plastic little ukuleles.”

At the age of 13, Smith got his first guitar while he was still living in Lubbock, Texas.

“It was after I got out of high school that I really started getting into the whole James Taylor sort of singer-songwriter thing and got into acoustic finger-style guitar,” says Smith. “People were playing in rock n’ roll bands and so on, and I really wasn’t. I was playing acoustic finger-style guitar. And I really specialized in that, playing stuff like Paul Simon and Doc Watson.”

In the early 70s, at the age of 21, the young musician moved to Canada and haunted the downtown Toronto area playing music. It was during this time period he played in an acoustic guitar trio called Appleshine, which played across played across the country.

From there, many opportunities came his way, including work from Yamaha Music.

“When I was playing and working with Appleshine back in the ‘70s, I was also active as a guitar teacher,” says Smith. “One of the music stores I was teaching in at the time was a Yamaha dealer, and I used to do these little clinics and seminars for the retail store. And some of the people from Yamaha saw those and then approached me after I moved out to Vancouver from Calgary.”

Smith remained with Yamaha Music from ’77 to ’87. During his tenure with them, he helped design custom guitars for individuals such as Rik Emmett and Bruce Cockburn.

In the mid ‘80s, Smith met a man named Glen Johansen.

“Glen owned a recording studio in Toronto, and a friend of mine asked me to come in and record a guitar solo on a project they were working on,” says Smith. “They were working on a demo for GRT records. Glen was producing that project and I met him there and I actually ended up practically living in his studio after that. For about four or five years I played guitar on just about everything he produced, including Glen’s first solo album.”

The friendship proved to be a highly valuable one, and their collaborations together lasted throughout the years.

In 2007, when it was time for Smith to record his first album Masquerade, he sought help from none other than long-time collaborator Glen Johansen.

“I was doing these gigs, and people kept coming up and asking if I had CDs for sale,” says Smith. “And so I finally just said, ‘this is crazy, I should just record a CD just to sell at gigs,’ cause people were asking for them. I called Glen and he helped me record this CD. He played pretty well everything on it, except my guitar parts.”  

Currently, Smith can be found in the Oakville and Toronto areas putting on performances of blues and jazz music. He regularly appears at J Bistro at Jonathans on Church Street.

Regarding another possible album, Smith would like to get to recording, but his itinerary has been keeping him busy. 

“I need to record another CD, but it’s really a matter of finding the time to do it,” says Smith. “I’m doing a new series of shows and they’re called ‘J Bistro presents,’ and they’re going to be music shows where we’re really sort of converting the bistro into a live music venue for that night… It starts May 28, and it’s basically going to be guest artists who will be coming in and performing with me.”

Smith also notes the importance of constantly writing new material due to his exclusivity at J Bistro when performing in downtown Oakville.

“I’m in the Bistro at least six times a month,” says Smith. “So when you’re playing a residency gig like that where you have a lot of regulars… you really have to spend a lot of time working on new material and developing the repertoire to keep it fresh and keep adding new things to it. When you’re doing a residency gig, the last thing you can do is let everything get stale, and keep playing the same stuff every night. Every week I like to add at least one or two new songs.”