Doris Charest has been painting since her now-grown children were small.
“My kids, when they were little, they would say, ‘Oh, mama, you make a mess. And then you fix it,’ which is basically what I do. I start with an abstract and then I look for something – everything ends up being semi-realistic,” said Charest.
On May 22, Charest and the other members of the art collective, Devenir, opened mini art gallery art exchanges outside their homes. Charest, the only St. Albert member of the group of five, has her gallery set up at 4 Whitehall Cres.
The project is called Close to Home. Art is placed in the galleries and the public is welcomed – and encouraged – to leave a small piece of art, take a small piece of art, or exchange a small piece of art for art.
“We wanted to do something that involves a public. So, it took a while and a lot of discussion. And then we came up with this idea,” she said.
Every year the Francophone group does a project. Last year they did 30 paintings in 30 days. This year they decided to do something they could share with the community. The group is hoping the project will foster community involvement.
“We were all indoors with COVID and now we're starting to walk more. We thought this would be perfect. Like people can stop and have a look for a book on another block. Come here and exchange little artworks. Like make the walk interesting,” she said.
Charest said they did have some minor issues. They had to wait for the ground to thaw before they could put up the galleries. They also had to decide how tall to make them.
“The hard part was deciding how high to put it. But I thought, well, the average person was shortish like me, so we're going to make it my level. I think that's the safe choice. And then you want it so the kids can see a bit, too,” she said.
The group would like to have the galleries set up for a year.
“We'll see how it winters. But we'll give it a go. Yeah. And then if it's just doesn't work over the winter, we can take it down … and then put it back in the spring,” she said.
There is no limit to what sort of art people leave, apart from the size of the art. Charest said the art doesn’t have to be paintings. People are welcome to leave needlework, crochet, carvings, drawings, printmaking, sculpture, or any artwork they want to share.
“I find that people have different ways to have their creative outlets. Some like needlework, some like sewing, some like quilting, some men like to build things, more. Everyone's got a creative side, and it's just a matter of getting it out.
“We thought this way people can maybe find a reason to take the creative outlet out and try it. It inspires the community to also do art. So, we're hoping that's what happens. That would be really fun if we could help them.”
