Lindsay Vallance is a painter, props maker, set painter and papier-mache artist living and working in Fernie.

She trained at the University of Lethbridge in oil painting, but then realized that small, ill-ventilated apartments and turpentine are a bad combination, and switched to acrylics and papier-mache. Along the way, she discovered the First Great Truth of Props: with enough newspaper, cardboard and flour, you can make anything. Her work is influenced by micrography, sculptor Ellen Jewett, and fabric artist Annemieke Mein.

Every moment we are surrounded by infinitely complex patterns-from the layering of feathers on a bird’s wing to the lacy cell structure of a sunflower stem to the whorls and cracks in the grain of a tree branch. Strangers attempts to recreate the intricate machinery of nature, to give it a personality and a (literal) human face. It is also a reminder that, in the alien world beyond our species, it is really we who are the strangers. All pieces are created using repurposed salvaged materials and flour paste.

The opening reception is Thursday, January 7 at 7 p.m. at The Arts Station in Fernie. The exhibit continues until Tuesday, January 26.

The Arts Station

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