As a junior-high art teacher, Kelsey Nowaczynski Baker has learned how to stretch a budget — how to get the most out of the materials you’re going to use in class.
And she’s taken that philosophy and applied it to her art. Into the Light, now showing a the Wild Skies Art Gallery inside the Renaissance Hotel at the Edmonton International Airport, shows off the work of an artist who can work in three dimensions. The art feels like it’s coming off the wall, with mixes of paintings, flowers and found objects, to lightboxes that interact with the viewer’s smartphone. Connect with the lightboxes, and you can control the colours and patterns.
“As a junior-high teacher, I am always trying to find cost-effective ways of working with different things,” Baker says. “I love floral, but I am not phenomenal at painting it. So, I really started playing with floral elements during the pandemic.”
Baker got a $10,000 grant from the Edmonton Arts Council, which allowed her to stock up on materials and “really play with my ideas.” But, being stuck at home during that time of the pandemic when we all, well, stayed home, created a drive within her to create art that took her to new, fantastical places.
“I was under house arrest, I couldn’t leave, so the lightboxes and installations came from the viewpoint of ‘How do I take myself out of this environment?’”
She brought the lightboxes into the classroom when schools reopened, and it gave the chance for her students to engage with them and offer feedback.
“They’re very much a part of these works,” she says of her students at Kisêwâtisiwin School in Mill Woods.
She says the notion of showing her work at the airport is freeing, in a way.
“At some galleries, there’s almost a sort of discrimination when you walk through the doors, if you don’t look like you can afford the works. Sometimes, you’re not welcome. But galleries like this, even when they are unmanned, give people the opportunity to engage with these types of things, and explore them without any pressure. I love the fact it’s at the airport, where you are tired and you’ve been flying all over the place or you’re on a layover and you’re heading to the hotel. All of my works are about pulling you out of your environment and making you stop and pause.”
In fact, when she was mounting the show, some flight attendants stopped and watched as the art was being hung. She said they were amazed that a gallery could be found at the airport, and were looking forward to returning the next time they were back in Edmonton.
“It’s really about resiliency and exploration and taking a moment to stop and pause.”
Into the Light
Wild Skies Art Gallery at the Renaissance Edmonton Airport Hotel
Opening Party, Sept. 21, 2-5 p.m.
Runs till Oct. 25
