Longtime Kyla Art Group member Jaret Mayer was surprised to win the People’s Choice award at the 46th Annual Kyla Art Group Show and Sale at Mont St. Joseph Home on Saturday because of the number of people who turned up to vote
Mayer, who has been with Kyla for seven years, won the People’s Choice for the metal sculpture “Arise”, which is a representation of an eagle with wings spread.
“It was great,” Mayer said. “I wasn’t expecting that many people to show up because it was kind of getting ugly out but no, it was wonderful.”
Mayer was among 20 artists who had work on display at the annual show and sale.
The work was a re-imagining of his entry for the Prince Albert Winter Festival Art Show and Sale.
“I made it previously about two years ago and I just made it all—the whole thing—completely out of chain,” he explained. “I put it in the Winter Festival, but I didn’t truly really like it because it didn’t look right. It didn’t look the way I wanted it. So then, just this year, I added all the texture to it, all the nails and made it look how I wanted.”
He said the changes clearly helped improve the piece, with the award being the evidence.
Mayer is noted in and around Prince Albert for his unique pieces of metal artwork. The medium choice was inspired by other work he was doing.
“I was working on motorcycles and I always had parts left over,” he explained. “One day I saw parts lying on the ground and it looked like a little robot. I actually just said ‘ohh’ and I made a little robot.”
He was then pushed to do take that one piece and build on it. An aunt, who is also an artist, saw it and said he was good enough people would pay for his work.
“She’s like, ‘you could make money on this,” Mayer remembered. “’You can sell these.’ She pushed me to start making art, so I just said, ‘I’ll give it a try.’”
Mayer has now been creating metal sculpture for almost a decade. He uses piles of metal in his workshop for inspiration.
“I just look at the piles of metal I have saved up and (ask) what can I make with these? The metal tells you what to make.”
Mayer plans to keep working with the Kyla Group and also continue to enter in the Prince Albert Winter Festival.
“I think actually ‘Arise’ will go in there. It’s got to win again,” he said.
The Kyla Arts Show and Sale featured an afternoon showing for the residents of Mont St. Joseph and the general public, the new format brought a number of people to the show, which Mayer was thankful for.
“(I) just (want to) thank everybody for coming out. It was a good turnout,” Mayer said.
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