Second in an eight-part series
With little experience in creating art, Jean Garnett's transformation into an artist was almost overnight.
It all started with a painting she hated hanging above her bed. She never got around to replacing it until the whole room was painted.
"It was in this huge frame and then I just took it apart, and tried doing my own thing," said Garnett from her home and art gallery in Steveston. "And it turned out really good. So I became an artist at the age of 50."
Now, more than 10 years later, Garnett has more found her niche in working with papers. Her pieces are intricate interactions of various types of papers and fabrics she picks up from art shops across the globe.
Her current project is a series using floral fabrics from Hawaii, complete with drapery rods and interweaving strips of paper.
Three such pieces have been donated to the Gateway Theatre's For the Love of Art silent auction fundraiser, currently set up on the second and third floors until the end of June.
"Creating art is something I never thought I would do," said Garnett. "I would have never said I was an artistic or creative person, but it has completely opened up my mind in how I think and create. I look at the world in a different way."
She said she often has a creative backlog of ideas, and finds inspiration in anything like watching the night's news, waking up from a dream or watching the play of clouds in the sky.
hotos Once the seed has been planted, she takes to her studio roving through stacks and stacks of paper to find the right one.
"I just move the pieces around and see what they say," she said about her process. "Often I just throw a bunch on the table and see what happens."
The summertime is often filled with artist production for Garnett who escapes to her vacation place in Washington State to create. Close by is one of her favourite paper shops, Stampadoodle Art and Paper in Bellingham.
Before becoming an artist, Garnett was part of the Richmond District Parents Association and did some odd jobs as an accountant, while sitting on the boards for the Third Age Learning at Kwantlen and the Confederation for Women.
She has since left the parents association, ditched the accounting and has added one more board to her roster - sitting on the Richmond Arts Coalition.
"The Gateway is also something I like to support," she said. "I've been a member forever and the auction is for a worthy cause."
Although she may have entered the art game later in life, it's undeniable Garnett has been a life-long lover of the arts.
"Owning art evokes that emotional part of a human being, the part that helps you feel. I can't imagine a place or a house without art. It'd be sterile."
For more information about Garnett, visit www.jeansgallery.ca.
To learn more, visit www.gatewaytheatre.com.
