CANMORE – Strange, yet appetizing – from a baseball-ice cream cone hybrid to a toy horse immersed in icy blue jello, Katie Barron’s work throws onlookers into a frenzy of conflicting emotions all at once.
“They have a weird feeling to them," Barron said in an interview with the Outlook. "You’re not really sure what to think. They’re not really something you’d expect to see,” she added.
Odd and Unusual is the first art exhibit from the emerging local artist at artsPlace until mid-September. She pushes the limits of reality by painting strange food and object combinations in a hyper-realistic style of oil paintings.
“When I picture food paintings, I picture like old baroque oil paintings, really kind of different to the food I eat, so I wanted to do more fun foods like ice creams and burgers and then at some point I just started putting a twist on them and it seemed so perfect that they all have to have a twist now,” Barron said.
Oftentimes mistaken for photographs. Barron’s paintings take contrasting elements and fuse them together, while the addition of dramatic shadow play brings attention to the oddity in front of us.
Sugarbaby, for instance, is a baroque style oil painting of a baby bottle filled with candy. From the baby bottle itself and the gummies inside down to the tiniest grain of sugar, Barron’s precise technique makes her paintings look incredibly real.
Barron’s solo art exhibition was fueled by the RISE Emerging Artist Program, which provides mentorship to emerging artists and a platform to exhibit their art at artsPlace in Canmore.
“Katie was chosen as a RISE emerging artist because her portfolio was unique and complete. You could see that she really spent a lot of time thinking deeply about her subject matter,” said artsPlace’s programs manager Nicole Fougère.
“The images were playful collaborations between food and toys that were very striking and her technique is amazing, which is even more fantastic because I believe she is mostly self-taught.”
Barron independently learned how to paint and draw through online resources, but especially with the help of YouTube, which she referred to as “independent YouTube studies.”
“But then also they give you a wider scope of what it means to be a professional artist and how to navigate that space, which is especially helpful for people like me who never went to art school, I don’t really have a background like that,” Barron said.
Barb Fyvie and Dan Hudson are the artists mentoring and supporting Barron through her early stages as an artist, teaching her organize art exhibitions, writing grants and preparing artists talks.
Fyvie said that while she helps her with the professional side of the arts, she let’s Barron explore her own creativity.
“Each artist is individual and speaks in their own voice … [We] give them that opportunity to explore that voice," Fyvie said. "I’ve also done some teaching in Canmore, so it is a teacher’s role to take an artist who has experience and just sort of see where they can shine and kind of get a feel for where they’re headed."
For Barron, the RISE program is an opportunity for her to grow as an artist and she’s excited to get her name out there.
ArtsPlace will be hosting an opening reception for Barron’s art exhibition, Odd and Unusual, on Aug. 19 at 5:30 p.m. The exhibit will be on display at artsPlace until Sept. 15, with all pieces available for purchase.
All profits will go towards supporting Barron’s artwork with 30 per cent going back to the artsPlace’s RISE Program.
Following Odd and Unusual for the annual RISE Emerging Artist exhibits will be Made-Up Orchard from Avril Lopez in October and another at the end of the year featuring work from Indigenous artists.
