While local artist Eric Spoeth is perhaps better known for his work as a filmmaker, it's his unique talents in a different medium that will be put on display at the Maggie Porozni Foundation for the Arts building over the next year.
Spoeth is the first artist in residence to take up a newly completed space at the arts building, which is located on main street in St. Paul, and run by the St. Paul & District Arts Foundation. Renovations at the space have been ongoing to for a couple of years now, and have recently wrapped up.
When work began in the space to build a few more rooms, Spoeth was approached by the foundation on what his recommendations would be as an artist. At the time, he was looking for a space to do mosaic art, and made recommendations based on what he had seen done at other facilities hosting artists.
And so, through his ongoing involvement with the foundation, Spoeth has become the first artist in residence with the foundation. A room, painted bright green, is now filled with small pieces of glass - the main material Spoeth will be using to create his figurative mosaics.
Small tools take up space in drawers near a table that is filled with plenty of colour and ideas.
When he speaks about how he became involved in mosaic art, Spoeth goes back to time spent travelling in Europe, specifically some of the Mediterranean countries. He noticed that many of the floors made from mosaic artwork were still intact, hundreds and hundreds of years after they were created.
The other key piece to his involvement in exploring mosaic artwork takes place a little closer to home.
On a piece of land located only a handful of miles from St. Paul, sits a small chapel. The chapel was built by the Spoeth family, with Eric's father using his bricklaying knowledge to help out. But, Spoeth acknowledges there really wasn't a lot of references to help guide the project along, making it a challenging construction project at times.
Once it was built, the family started talking about how they would decorate the chapel. Spoeth says he has taken some training in stain glass, and completed a workshop on mosaic art. Stain glass offers more opportunity for injury, he explains, adding his arms would be covered in bandages when he did stain glass.
Mosaic art is a bit more friendly, and Spoeth is planning on offering some workshops in the art form to local children, while he is the artist in residence. He describes mosaic art as "the process of taking bits of glass or stone and sticking them onto a surface."
He notes there aren't a lot of mosaic artists in Canada, and even fewer who create figurative mosaic work, like Spoeth does.
Creating mosaics for the small chapel, offered even more unique challenges, since the freeze-thaw cycle is much more harsh in northern Alberta, when compared to the Mediterranean climate, for example. Spoeth has to use a special type of mortar to complete the mosaics.
Being an artist in residence at the foundation will allow Spoeth a unique artistic freedom, since he is not creating the work for a specific client.
"This is kind of my own passion project," he says. Spoeth further explains that he is influenced a lot by Byzantine mosaics, which was a popular art form during the Byzantine Empire from about 330 A.D. to the fall of the empire in 1453.
People attending the Maggie Porozni Foundation for the Arts building during the building's grand re-opening on Nov. 8 could sneak a peak inside the room that Spoeth will be working in, and speak to the artist about the work involved in creating mosaics.
Re-opening
The Nov. 8 grand re-opening of the arts building also included local art on display, along with performances by young musician Lyric Brynn, Justin Locke from Second Son, and a special appearance by the Sugar Plum Fairy from the upcoming Nutcracker performance.
Newly elected board chair Ryan Stinn was happy to welcome people into the space. He explained that new lights had been installed, along with sound panels, and a reorganization of the front area of the facility also took place.
The foundation also has a new mortgage for the building, which will help out the organization financially.
