Art Abandonment – Hearts for Humanity project brings people to art
As part of Culture Days in Prince Albert, local artist Cheryl Ring opened the doors to her studio on Saturday to allow guests to take part in her public art project.
HeartSpace Clay studio is located on Fifth Avenue East. Ring does her own work out of the studio, and also uses the space for classes.
“It is a one stop shop,” she said. “I have spots for six people to take classes and as you can see there is a lot of work going on here, and more classes starting all the time.”
The back door of the studio was open and people were welcomed to work on her project outside.
The project is called Art Abandonment – Hearts for Humanity. Ring said the Culture Days event drew on the theme Heart of the North.
“Hearts are a very prevalent shape and theme for me, so in keeping with the overall theme of Culture Days, I decided to have participants come in and paint clay hearts that I’ve previously fired in preparation for them to paint and decorate, and then abandon as part of an initiative that I have called Art Abandonment Prince Albert,” Ring said.
“It’s just me right now,” she added. “I don’t know if it’s going to grow, but I like doing it.”
This activity builds on an initiative already in motion, Art Abandonment Prince Albert. Ring started Art Abandonment in the community, a number of years ago. The local project is based on a book of the same name written by a husband and wife artist team in British Columbia.
“They decided they would get their artist friends together and ask (them) to make a piece of art once a month and abandon it,” Ring explained. “I thought, ‘wow, I’d like that for my city.’”
Ring said she has involved the art abandonment project in some of her classes, but has done most of the work herself.
“I will do an art abandonment drop just whenever I feel like it,” she said. “Whenever I have time during COVID, I went into the parking lot at the hospital and put the art abandonment pieces on to the cars of the workers just to give them a little boost because I know things are really hard for them and I like to go downtown.”
She said the Art Abandonment project is similar to the Hope Rocks project that ran during COVID. She has her friend Rhonda Levesque from PA Fast Print make the cards that accompany the abandoned art pieces.
“So when somebody finds it, they can keep it for themselves or they can pay it forward,” Ring explained.
Visitors to HeartSpace Clay studio could paint and decorate small 3” clay hearts, attach an art abandonment card and abandon the art in their neighborhood.
“With kids I’ll say ‘you can make two hearts, you can keep one and give one away,’ right? Because, I mean I’m not going to ask kids to give away their only one piece of art,” Ring said.
She said the point of the project is to spread the joy of art.
“It’s very nice, and over the years I’ve had feedback on it—not huge, not a whole bunch. Any feedback just warms my heart and it just makes me feel so good. And I just love doing it.
“I’m going to continue myself and opportunities like this for me to get people interested. I talked about this as ‘introduce this this concept as making somebody happy, giving something for no reason and not knowing what their response is.’”
Ring noted that Saturday was a beautiful day and any turnout was a good turnout in her mind.
“That is my attitude for sure, because I just doesn’t matter how many people come to participate. We’re changing our community by doing the little steps. Every little step helps.”
Ring is always looking for ways to support her community and was proud to contribute to 2024 Culture Days.
“‘I’m just really appreciative of the Culture Days initiative nationally, but I’m especially thankful for all of the work that goes into it by the local coordinators and anything that we can add to the lives of our community members is a bonus,” she said.
Culture Days – Heartbeat of the North runs from Sept. 20 to Oct. 13 in PrinceAlbert.
Upcoming Culture Day events
• Free Drop-In Art Day – Oct. 5, 10:30 a.m. – Mann Art Gallery
• Bison Ridge Farm Tour – Oct. 5, 10 a.m.
• Studio 1010 Art Reception – Oct. 5, 1 p.m. – Margo Fournier Arts Centre
• Journaling for Caring Hearts with Beth Gobeil – Oct. 10, 6:30 p.m. – Margo Fournier Arts Centre
• Youth Open Studio (ages 7-13) – Oct. 10, 5 p.m. – Margo Fournier Arts Centre
• Make a Beaded Poppy Pin – Oct. 6, 1 p.m. – Margo Fournier Arts Centre
• Youth Fall Pottery Workshop – Oct. 8, 5:30 p.m. – Margo Fournier Arts Centre
• Sights, Sounds, and Tastes of Africa – Oct. 10, 6 p.m. – YWCA Prince Albert
• Paint Your Own Mug – Oct. 10, 6 p.m. – Margo Fournier Arts Centre
• Zine-Making Workshop with All my Relations – Oct. 11, 4 p.m. – Margo Fournier Arts Centre
michael.oleksyn@paherald.sk.ca
