by Stephanie Staples | photos by Leah Gray –
How fortunate are we to have Panorama Recreation Centre on our beautiful Peninsula? Offering more amenities, fitness and courses than you can imagine, catering to the young and young-at-heart, to creatives, the sport-minded, the dancers, the musically inclined – well, to everyone but the couch potato!
Panorama has a cool partnership with another Island gem – McTavish Academy of Art. This inclusive community art centre, once a primary school, is now a vibrant space with walls that dance with colour from art of every form. They also offer an eclectic buffet of classes to light up both your mind and body; you can even visit the chickens out back and pick some blackberries if your timing is right! McTavish also rents out their unique space for private events and are always on the lookout for new instructors with creative ways to share art, if that is something you are interested in. What talent might you like to share?
Of all the many options of things to learn, the one that jumped out at me this month was a unique mini-course that brought out the child in me: Stamp-Making!
Enter fine artist and teacher Madi Phaff; with degrees in both Education and Fine Arts, Madi shares her gifts and talent educating both children and adults and creating art in a plethora of ways.
Just like in an exercise class, we first had to “warm up” for the art that she had lined up for us.
Looking at the tables chock full of items from the kitchen, the backyard and the craft cupboard, the small group of us realized early on that we were here to play, and Madi had us rolling paint onto a plethora of items to explore designs we could print. This felt relatively safe and fun and definitely brought me back a few decades in time!
Next, out came the blocks of linoleum (lino) which varied in thicknesses and ease of cutting – the simpler to cut, the more fragile the completed stamp. We were each presented with the crème de la crème of stamp carving tools – the Speedball Linoleum cutter: a compact little tool that houses five uniquely-shaped cutters. It’s less than $25 and I imagine it being almost impossible to do this craft, safely, without one. The name strikes me as funny because this art is not speedy at all.
You could choose to print off a picture from the web, you could get lettering transposed or could draw your design freehand on the lino. This is where the truly creatives in the group and I went our separate ways – them with their free-hand, complicated butterflies and me with my safe and simple heart.
I admit the process felt rather decadent, with the focus it required and the time carved away from other things in my life to carve out this little rubber heart. It felt like a bit of a gift that I gave myself: the gift of time for art. Could I buy a Speedball, some lino and watch a YouTube video? Sure. Would I? Nope. That is the beauty of a class. It has a beginning, a middle and an end. You show up, allow yourself to be guided, create and stop at the end. At home, every other chore is calling your name, distracting you from your best intentions.
When I freeze, afraid to try something harder than my simple heart, I feel that familiar feeling of “stuckness” – that my art is not good enough or that I might make a mistake with the cutter. Madi may be young in age, but wise in spirit – she says this: “Mistakes show that you are learning. Not everything is going to turn out the way you want it to, and sometimes that’s better than your original idea.
“Curiosity and mistakes are key elements in being an artist. Yes, you ARE an artist! Are you making art? You ARE an artist! An artist doesn’t need to be selling or showing their work. An artist is someone who takes the time to participate in art making and challenges themselves to discuss art among peers. I want my students to leave class feeling confident, even when they make mistakes.”
This seems like great advice in both art and in life. Choose a program via Panorama/McTavish, give yourself the gift of focused, uninterrupted time and enjoy! Let me know what you choose; I may just send you a handmade, stamped card with my imperfect heart art!
