If I Were You

Vikki Drummond      Judith Jurica       Maureen Kaczkowski

Jan 8th to February 20th
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Open House Reception: Saturday, Jan 8th from 1-3pm

Vikki Drummond is an autodidact who left the BFA program at Okanagan College after one semester. She followed a boy into the Business Administration program and graduated with a Diploma in Marketing. She then spent 20+ years in Sales & Marketing, eventually meeting her husband and owning/operating a restaurant and bar. She left her position with a multi-national company to have a second child and found her way back to her love of art in 2012. Vikki has a soft spot for strawberry lipgloss and wishes her legs were longer. She believes in fairies and loves gummy bears and those strawberry marshmallow candies when they are just slightly stale. She now has a studio and gallery in historic FanTan Alley, downtown Victoria BC. She lives minutes away with her husband and 2 lively dogs.

After spending many years in the Okanagan, Vikki Drummond makes Victoria her home base. Drummond's acrylic and mixed media portraits on paper combine line, colour, and texture, creating a series of work that speaks to the individual and ideas of self. Drummond says, Themes of human connections, seen and unseen, dynamics of viewership, identity, and literal and psychological space are what drive my creative will. I use ideas of escape and the notion of elsewhere and symbolic line work to put form to what we cannot touch.
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Judith Jurica's art career expands over thirty years. Based in the Okanagan, Jurica began her education at Okanagan University College, graduating in 1994 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts. Judith Jurica's work appears throughout the Okanagan and beyond, including the Vernon Art Gallery and Gallery Vertigo, Vernon, The Old Crow Gallery, Gabriola Island, Alternator, SOPA, Kelowna Art Gallery, Kelowna, Headbones Gallery, Toronto/ Vernon. In 2001 Jurica founded Gallery Vertigo. Over the next twelve years, she worked tirelessly bringing together the visual arts, arts education, and community together in the city of Vernon. Judith Jurica continues to be an important supporter of the arts while having a full-time studio practice.

Based in Vernon, Judith Jurica uses collage, painting, and stitchery to describe myths, stories, and beliefs involving birds and the ability of humans to morph into bird-like creatures. These curious compositions combine pattern, texture, and line giving the viewer much to enjoy. Jurica writes, We continue to cling to hope and rise above, despite our earthly sorrows, illness, grief, and loss. Whether it is rooted in youthful madness or ancient wisdom, I think we have a deep need to hold onto a sense of wonder. I think that is what art is for.

Maureen Kaczkowski is a self taught artist who is constantly honing her skills in analogue collage. Her attraction to working with paper and scissors began in early childhood at the age of five, when precisely cutting out paper to create was a favourite pastime. Her first formal education delved into fashion and design, thereby contributing to fundamental artistic elements in her artworks. Born in southern Ontario, Maureen now pursues her love of art from her home based studio located in Lake Country, British Columbia. Life experiences and observations of society have most definitely influenced her work, as has her indulgence in viewing the collective art platform. The artistic freedom of the Dada movement and the surrealists influence her artist perspective. Through her artwork Maureen aspires to evoke responses, initiate reflection and activate the imagination of the viewer. Her expressive conceptual artwork is recognized for its!" distinctive layout technique. Maureen!s relentless attention to detail is visible in her unconventional approach.
 
Maureen Kaczkowski, from Lake Country, uses college to bring together images and text to discuss technology and popular culture, offering a series of questions for visitors to ponder. If I were you, Kaczkowski states, I would start to think deeply about how the inevitable convergence of artificial intelligence and humanity may impact our lives. Will our relationships, society, cultural norms, and political landscapes be forever altered? Can machines and humans co-exist? Will 'human touch' be replaced with algorithm-driven robots? What is the future?