Dear Editor
I have just paid another visit to the Salvation Gallery in Paynton, which is also Marianne Taubensee's studio. For the past two months she has opened her studio space to the public in order to exhibit "SalvaImagination," the art works created during the week of the "Alien Invasion" in early May.
Marianne and Ellery Russell were the instigators of the Alien Invasion and responsible for bringing the ReArtCycle Group Inc. to the area for a week of noisy, playful, messy, mind-expanding pandemonium.
Now Paynton has a Spaceship. It's low tech and fun, welded together from materials found in the scrap piles of the area. It was created by the group's pooled effort, a challenge in itself as artists tend to work alone. But in combination something as large as a spaceship can be built in a week. Eat your heart out, NASA.
Last year the ReArtCycle Group assembled Jack the diving fish, now on display outside of the Chapel Gallery in North Battleford.
Alien Invasion offered a good theme, opening up lots of possibilities for the making of sculpture and for having other events that stretch our usual ways of looking at things. The hypnotist evening was good entertainment, but also left us a bit dazzled at just how the mind can be ever so eerily manipulated into its own alien territory .
The ReArtCycle Group Inc. also contributed to an afternoon Junk Jam where kids of all ages were helped to assemble instruments from found materials, and then later combined their efforts to create original music. My own attempt at a percussion masterpiece fell apart miserably, but assemblages by some of the children were brilliant.
During the week, each artist constructed at least one additional work, sculpted in metal or other material which ranged from rubber tire "road-kill" to synthetic plastics.
This is the last week that the "SalvaImagination" exhibit is on at the Salvation Gallery. It is well worth a visit.
I think I speak for other members of the community when I extend words of gratitude for the gift of creative activity given to Paynton and area by the ReArtCycle Group.
And special thanks to Marianne Taubensee and Ellery Russell (with the support of their partners Dave and Rob) for organizing the Alien Invasion.
Also, for their many other initiatives in the community. Our lives are all enriched by their efforts.
Velma Foster
Paynton
