Dancer turns to painting
Arviat youth contributes to national mosaic project
Beth Brown
Northern News Services
Monday, October 10, 2016
WINNIPEG
Arviat's dubstep dancer Shelton Nipisar has added painting to his artistic repertoire.
Shelton Nipisar speaks at the opening of the Maplewish Mosaic at the Winnipeg Art Gallery on Oct. 1. The Arviat youth painted the stem of a maple leaf created to recognize Canada's 150 birthday. - photo courtesy of Sam Butt |
The 21-year-old was chosen to represent Nunavut as a contributor to a 14-piece maple leaf mosaic recently unveiled at the Winnipeg Art Gallery. The sections of the work, titled Maplewish Mosaic, were painted by emerging artists from each province and territory.
The mosaic is an initiative of Explore 150, and will be on display for six months to recognize Canada's 150th birthday.
Two pieces were contributed by Nunavut, with Nipisar completing the piece by painting the stem. He said he had done some painting in the past, but the mural could be considered his visual arts debut. His talent was discovered by accident when he chose to paint a piece with a visiting friend.
"I'm a dancer," Nipisar said. "I don't paint a lot."
Dubstep, his art of choice, is a kind of contemporary electronic dance music. Nipisar demonstrated his moves at the mosaic opening on Oct. 1.
The dance presentation was one of his first since recovering from surgery for a heart condition.
"I'm taking it slowly right now," he said, but wanted to show his skills.
The mural was unveiled as part of the event Nuit Blanche, an overnight city arts festival. The individual leaf pieces range from nature scenes to abstract works, in a wide range of palettes.
The stem of the leaf, by Nipisar, is inscribed with the phrase "Make a Wish" in English, French and Inuktitut, each in a different colour.
"It's red in the background, blue for 'make a wish', green for Inuktitut and orange for French," he said.
The piece took around two weeks to make in Nipisar's spare time, while waiting for the coats of paint to dry.
Sam Butt, Explore 150's national program coordinator, said the eight-by-eight foot mosaic is meant to start conversations about Canadian identity. Contributing artists were asked to incorporate their artistic response to the question of what Canada means to them.
"That brings up issues of reconciliation, that brings up new immigrants, it brings up a lot of diverse dialogue," Butt said.
He said Explore 150 is glad to have Nipisar on board as an ambassador for Arviat and Nunavut.
The Winnipeg Art Gallery is known for its promotion of Inuit art, and has also recently opened a Nunavut exhibit, titled Our Land.
The exhibit showcases a territorial collection of both historic and modern Inuit artworks currently archived at the Winnipeg gallery that was previously housed in the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre in Yellowknife.
Nipisar said he isn't sure what his next piece will be, but he does plan to keep up with the brush work - when he isn't dancing.
