11 Stations

February 14th, 2011

Culture Blast Interview: James Mah

by Lima Al-Azzeh

James Mah, a talented local artist and long time member of the Burnaby Art Gallery’s esteemed Art Rental and ales Program (also known as “Get the Picture”), will be hosting a live demonstration on how to make a linocut picture, a type of picturemaking which he excels at.  We sat down with Mah to find out more about his work, his involvement with Burnaby Art Gallery and what he thinks of Burnaby’s arts culture.

Tourism Burnaby:  How long have you been a resident of and working in Burnaby and how would you describe the arts culture of the city?

James Mah: I have been a resident of Burnaby since 1979, but I have been in the Vancouver area since I moved out from Saskatoon in 1972.  In terms of an artistic upbringing, it is not such a bad thing to come from a small city where the community is more closely knit.  Saskatoon had (and probably still has) an active art culture and a sense of artistic community.  In Burnaby the art scene tends to be more diffuse.  This is most likely due to the larger population of the urban area as a whole, the structure of the metropolitan region in which Vancouver city plays a dominant role, but also to the changing art world, in which a much wider range of types of art are being produced. The Vancouver area (including Burnaby) benefits from its spectacular natural setting, the cultural and economical influences of the Orient, and the Pacific Rim as a whole, the proximity to the United States, and its cosmopolitan population but I think its main preoccupations are still more physical and economic than artistic.

The Burnaby Art Gallery has supported local artists for decades through their Art Rental and Sales Program and through curated shows of local work in their galleries. It is a great resource for studying the prints of Canadian artists as the gallery has amassed a formidable collection. It is always enjoyable to stroll the gardens that form part of the estate of the Ceperley Mansion (which houses the Burnaby Art Gallery) and the nearby Deer Lake and park is an ideal setting for the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts.

The Art Rental and Sales Program, also called Get the Picture, is only one of a handful of art rental programs in the Lower Mainland.  It has been a force in bringing art to the Burnaby public for decades.   Only Vancouver’s art rental program is older than the Burnaby’s.  The latter probably started in the early 1970s after the Burnaby Art Gallery began as an association in 1967. The Art Rental Program now has hundreds of artworks from some 70 emerging and established artists made available to the public. I had a great deal of support from the Burnaby Art Gallery through the years,  and now especially from Toby Wesenberg, the present co-ordinator of the rental program and also from Bob McIntyre who administers the art displays in the Burnaby Library system through the Burnaby Art Gallery.

The Burnaby Arts Council is another organization which promotes art activity and provides a space for the display of local art. The Burnaby Artists Guild holds semi-annual exhibitions of the works of their members.  As well, the Burnaby Library and its branches do offer display spaces for artwork which are administered through the Burnaby Art Gallery.  Simon Fraser University also has a gallery and its collection of artwork is  displayed in public areas on campus for all to enjoy.

The artists in Saskatoon use to be concerned about the issue of artistic isolation of small centres at a distance from the international art scene. Today, this is hardly a problem at all given the internet and the ease with which anyone with a computer can see and understand to a great extent what is happening with artistic activity, say, in Berlin or in Shanghai. Art is much more accessible both on the level of the international museum and also on the level of individual artists through their websites.  The more pressing issue on a regional level is the support of local artists and the fostering of a strong artistic community, especially with providing venues and opportunities for emerging artists of all levels.

Tourism Burnaby: How did you come to be a part of the Burnaby Art Gallery’s art rental program?

James Mah: Early after my arrival in Burnaby, I had visited the art Gallery on numerous occasions and I had  enjoyed seeing the great variety of works from local artists in the rental program. I approached the rental program in the fall of 1989 with some of my paintings. At that time, the program was run solely by volunteers and I remember that the ladies had to call the director of the art gallery to adjudicate my work. Eventually the program was administered by a co-ordinator and up to the present time,  there have been 4 or 5 of them, each leaving their mark in improving the program. The Art Rental Program has been a great support to local artists in general, and to me in particular, and I am very pleased to be invited to promote the program in the Cultural Blast.

Tourism Burnaby: Can you tell us a bit more about what you will be demonstrating at Culture Blast?

James Mah: I will be giving a demonstration on linocut printmaking. This is a relief printingmaking process where an image is formed by cutting into a piece of linoleum. Ink is applied to the finished linocut by means of a brayer (a roller) and the image is transferred to paper with a burnisher (a rubbing device).  Where the linoleum is cut away, there will be no ink and the image will show as ‘white’; where the linoleum is left in place, the ink will show as an image on the paper. As a fine art process, linocuts are only about 100 years old, but the relief printmaking process goes back in Western art to the mid 15th century in the form of woodblock printing. This demonstration will give a good idea of how the process works,  and will provide an excellent tie-in to the exhibition of the prints of acclaimed Canadian printmaker Sybil Andrews in the main downstairs gallery which features many linocuts by this important artist.

The linocut is the one of most approachable of all the printmaking techniques. It does not require a press to print the image and I will be presenting it as something that is accessible to most age groups, fun to do, and economical to start. I will be demonstrating basic techniques in non-technical language, providing an overview of equipment and materials,  giving tips on making some of your own equipment, dispensing advice on safety and providing a list of books for further reading.

The demonstration is free and open to all.  It will take place in the Upper Gallery of the Burnaby Art Gallery, shortly after the artist’s talk by Susan Gransby, probably around 3-3:30pm on Sunday, February 20th, 2011.

Culture Blast: An Arts Explosion is a free festival taking place at Deer Lake Park on February 20, 2011 from 12 – 5 pm.  This one day fun, arts-centered event is brought to you by The Burnaby Arts Council in association with the Burnaby Art Gallery, Shadbolt Centre for the Arts and Burnaby Village Museum and will be featuring art demonstrations, kid-friendly activities, entertainment and more!

 

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