Featuring the art of Chris Hodge, a local artist, Centred is the name of the exhibition currently showing at the Chapel Gallery in North Battleford. An artist's reception was held Thursday evening of last week.
"This is a stunning show," said City of North Battleford galleries director Leah Garven as she introduced Hodge. "The pieces are fun and lively and they bring the space to life."
Speaking to the group gathered for the reception, the artist said, "The general idea of the show is based on the idea of being centred. I've been a Buddhist for quite a while and part of the tenets are the ideas of being centred and aware and in the moment."
Hodge chose a particular dimension to his pieces to express the theme.
"With the idea of being centred, most of the pieces in the show are square," he said. "If you do it wider than tall, it sort of turns into a landscape. It gives the piece direction. If you do it taller than wide, we are used to having people around, so you could call it portrait mode. Again, it gives direction. If you do it square, it really puts the focus on the piece itself. At least to me it does. You are not predisposed to one direction or another."
He said a square is really a circle with the "pointy bits left on," which, spiritually, mirrors himself and his journey as a Buddhist.
The pieces in the show are multi media. There are textural paintings on canvas, plywood and Terraskin as well as steel sculptures. All the pieces are abstract, which Hodge finds to be an honest sort of art.
In an interview with the Regional Optimist recently, Hodge said, "I find abstract to be more honest. You’re not trying to fool somebody into thinking it is a tree or a wood or something. It's paint on canvas, or plywood, or whatever you're using."
He would like to think every piece he creates is something different to each person who sees it.
"It’s paint on a canvas, and any feelings you get from it, those are your feelings."
Hodge has been working as an artist in the Battlefords for the past 14 years. He spent most of his adult life working as a mechanical technician then computer programmer in Ontario, hailing originally from Hamilton.
When he retired, he moved to North Battleford to help with his family and has been here ever since. Retirement gave him the opportunity to get heavily involved in the arts world, something he'd always been interested in, even while working in the IT world.
He has served on the local arts board, joined the Prairie Sculptors in Saskatoon and helped found the Arts Quest group in Saskatoon. He is also a member the Artist Run Centre in downtown North Battleford, with his own studio space there.
Centred will run until Nov. 22 at the Chapel Gallery.
"This exhibition shows so well and it just explains how dedicated an artist you are and how you stay true to what you see," Garven told Hodge at the artist's reception. "I'm just thrilled with how it looks."
