Half Moon Bay resident Larry Reese has been involved with the arts most of his life but a special art show will bring together some of his talents to help document the artistic process.
Reese will be showing paintings and shooting a documentary at Red Deer Museum and Art Gallery (RDMAG) starting tonight that is called Mapping Creativity. Reese said it will take people on a journey of transformation through his life and the Central Alberta landscape.
“It will be a series of paintings, this might sound egotistical but it is not meant to be, which are self portraits of almost 30 years,” said Reese. “It is in a way documenting this journey of my own personal expressions of creativity.”
What really excites Reese is that he took some time off from being an instructor at Red Deer College’s performing arts faculty to take his art one step further. Reese is making a film, based on the title Mapping Creativity, which details the different processes an artist goes through to create a painting or what artists of other disciplines go through to make their art. Reese has interviewed a lot of high level Albertans who have achieved great things in the arts community, for the film.
He will also be filming the documentary tonight at the opening of the art exhibition where he will be interviewing guests and getting reactions on his work. He will have his paintings, ‘Guardians of the Sleeping Duck’ and ‘Stream of Light’, at the show. They are the first two in a series of three paintings the documentary is centred around.
“We take it from a blank canvas and we filmed it, and documented it in sketches and journals so we can map this process,” said Reese. “In so doing we can compare this to other processes. The ultimate result of the film is hopefully young people when they are entering their passionate sense of artistic merit, they have a source of inspiration.”
His paintings are focused on the beauty of Central Alberta which also serves as a backdrop for his artistic inspiration.
“This is the most beautiful place to paint in the whole wide world,” said Reese. “I can say that with some authority because I have travelled all over the world most of my life. Right here in Central Alberta are the most glorious, glamorous exotic, mystical landscapes. I am trying to celebrate that through my own means.”
Reese doesn’t just paint as an artist either as he has previously been a musician and actor. He has played parts in the films ‘Unforgiven’ and ‘Broke Back Mountain’ to name a few.
“I find there are comparisons between a painting and a film and acting,” said Reese. “I am looking at things like frame composition, colour composition, foreground, design and just all sorts of elements that cross over.”
Reese, as a musician, toured around North America playing all sorts of large venues with the Canadian Rock Opera Company.
“There is also similarities there as a lot of what I paint has to do with music,” he said. “I find that all these things impact on my art and that is what gave me the idea to do this film on creativity. There is a different technique you use to create a role as to create a painting but there are crossovers. It makes them really valuable to each other.”
Reese knows how valuable the different arts can be as he was one of the founders of Red Deer College’s performing arts program. He still teaches in the program and says there are a lot of traits needed to be a good artist no matter what their discipline.
“As an actor or a painter or a musician or whatever you need to be well and calm, you need to be educated and you need to have that sense of what is going on in those other forms of art,” said Reese. “You need to read, you need to open your eyes, you need to open your ears.”
Reese said he thinks of himself as a story teller and each piece of art he does he looks to see if it affects the person viewing that piece or moves that person in some way. He doesn’t want to tell the story to the person but wants to see what story that person thinks about when looking at his paintings or other art.
Reese also said he is a little nervous about showing his paintings as this is the first time he has been part of an exhibition since the early 1990s. Reese has a deep personal connection to every painting he makes and he doesn’t show his paintings a lot because of that connection. Reese said it is terrifying for him because as an artist he has to open himself up to an audience.
“You have to be in a vulnerable position but being vulnerable is a key element for artists,” he said. “Their emotions need to be transparent and there needs to be that sense of vulnerability. However to honestly go and accept that emotion of vulnerability is a terrifying process.”
Despite being nervous Reese is confident he will make a positive impression on people who see the exhibit. He also sees an opportunity to give inspiration through his work — if not through his paintings, through the documentary when it gets finished. Either way he hopes people come away from the show and feel their own sense of value in the environment and it gives them a little better appreciation for their surroundings.
The exhibition starts tonight at 7 p.m. at the RDMAG with an opening reception. The Mapping Creativity display will be featured at the RDMAG until April 11.