Kerry McCluskey
Northern News Services

Cambridge Bay (July 16/01) - One hour spent in the company of Elisabeth Hadlari convinces you of one thing -- the woman is an artist.

Her passion, her eloquent words, her very essence comes alive when she speaks of what happens when her paintbrush skims canvas.

Elisabeth Hadlari is the instructor and co-odinator of the jewelry and metalwork program at Nunavut Arctic College in Cambridge Bay. - Kerry McCluskey/NNSL photo

And if possible, the Cambridge Bay resident's eyes sparkle even more when she talks about passing on her skills to her students.

News/North: For how long have you been instructing jewelry?

Elisabeth Hadlari: I've worked in this program for a good five years now.

N/N: Did you start it up?

EH: Yes, I did. I first started with introduction to arts and crafts courses and I brought in a jewelry program, an introductory print-making (program), and drawing and design. For two years, we did those introductory programs and combined them with a lot of upgrading.

It became apparent that people really liked the art and wanted to go on and really concentrate on that. I found the jewelry and metalwork seemed to suit the students the best of all of the programs I was bringing in. I think it goes back culturally to ancient Arctic history. If you look back hundreds of years, almost all the artwork traditionally was small, portable, precious objects that were wearable. It's just like the parkas and the sewing. It's all an art form that's wearable.

Jewelry is an art form that's wearable. That seems to really be embedded -- it just reaches so far back. Also, you have a large concentration of people here who have really good eye-hand coordination.

The jewelry program is very individual work. Everybody works at their own station at their own pace. It's the idea of having a space that's just yours. Students really adapt well to learning that type of art form. It's all learning by doing.

When I teach, I never have the situation where somebody is talking and 10 people are listening. Everybody works through their own projects and you don't go on to the next project until you finish the one you're on. They have to complete certain things. They have that pressure going. They come in evenings and work on their own.

N/N: What made you start to offer the programs?

EH: I had been working as an adult educator for a number of years and I didn't think the upgrading program really suited the learning style. Because I have an arts background, I understand how you learn from art. Art is an amazing learning tool and I'm always very upset because it's not in the public schools or high schools.

When I did half days of art, even though their upgrading subjects were reduced to a half a day, students progressed faster in their upgrading than they did when they were going full-time.

I know it's because art is an incredibly powerful learning tool. It's the ultimate in problem-solving. You can't help but get involved in it and you're making decisions all the time. You're using everything you have -- your head, your soul, your feelings, all of you. You can't just think about it and read about it, you have to do it to learn. You're working with a language.

It's a coding just like math is. Art is a language -- line, colour, form. Students learn to use that language and they learn to make it work. They are forever problem-solving. That's very transferrable. You just transfer that over to math or language. People think jewelry is loose and easy. It isn't. It's incredibly disciplined and people have to understand numbers and measurements and proportions. Plus, you learn to take something and work it through to the end.

That's the same with writing or solving math problems. You can look at it until you're blue in the face, but you won't actually solve it until you put the pencil in your hand and start. You do lots of hard work and then you finish. You are constantly doing that in this program. You get an idea, you start something, you work it through and figure out what has to go first. You learn to focus. I get to see them learn the process of making things work. Even if they don't go on to do jewelry, the process of learning has an impact on them.

N/N: You said you had an arts background?

EH: I have a fine arts degree from the University of Toronto from about 25 years ago. I do a lot of print-making. I'm a painter, I've always been a painter. I do water colours, acrylics, oils. I love drawing.

N/N: You're a bit of a renaissance woman.

EH: I go right across the disciplines. I just finished going out for a year at the University of Ottawa to work on my own painting. When it comes to my own passion, I do jewelry work as well, but I love to paint. I get such incredible satisfaction out of my artwork. I think if you're an artist and you don't produce, you're frustrated. Only another artist would understand that.

I talk to women in town about their sewing. I understand how they feel when they make something really beautiful. When I'm painting, I'm in a whole other world. The time just goes by and at the end, I go, "What planet am I on, where am I?" You get that incredible release. Where else in life do you have control except over your own artwork?

N/N: How many of your students are supporting themselves through art?

EH: Probably a handful. Not as many as I would like. If this jewelry program in this community were to shut down, it would shut down everyone who is practising jewelry because they need somewhere to go for resources, help with marketing, to get orders, for advice. If you think of arts training in the south, you don't train for two years or four years and then become a self-sufficient artisan. You work under someone for a number of years, apprentice with someone. It takes time to develop that.

People who are graduates always come back and need help and advice or orders. The reason people who are graduates don't start up arts (careers) on their own is because there isn't a person in the communities who does the marketing and the business end and helps with the financing. That's a whole other set of skills that often an artist doesn't have. How often do you get someone who is good with money and an artist?