August 1 – August 21, 2024

SUZAN MARCZAK | Watershed (mixed media)

MEET THE ARTISTS: Opening Reception Saturday, August 3rd, 2pm – 4pm

Watershed explores the primal landscapes of high mountain passes and headwaters, illustrating the awe inspiring yet fragile nature of these water towers and emphasizing the need to protect and preserve them. As life giving water falls as rain or snow it slowly accumulates in mountaintops as glaciers, gathering on the passes to flow as rivers, or collecting in alpine basins to feed small tarns and rills. These are watersheds, barren lands of little value for timber or human habitation, but absolutely vital to the preservation of water systems, our ecosystems, and our lives. Through acrylic paintings and 3D models Marczak finds a beauty and poetry in these small beginnings where life-giving water falls and life starts. This process of transfiguration from snow to river, however, is changing. Glaciers are shrinking, basins lose their snowpack earlier, and passes dry out in the heat of summer as less and less water flows into the rivers and wetlands. The Sunshine Coast is particularly vulnerable, and Suzan has included dioramas and paintings of its’ watersheds from the Tantalus range, Tetrahedron, and the Chapman Lake reservoir. In the watershed, it is a watershed moment of changing climate and adaptation. In this exhibition both the function and the incredible beauty of watersheds is recognized with the aim of changing perceptions and creating action to protect them.

Suzan Marczak has exhibited her work in solo and group exhibitions throughout the Lower Mainland and in Quebec. Marczak holds a Bachelors of Fine Arts from Emily Carr University and a Diploma in Studio Art from Capilano College. She is an avid hiker based in Vancouver who is creatively guided by the changing seasons, the light, the amazing forms and shapes, and the cycles of life in the backcountry.

Check out our YouTube channel for a video of this exhibition.

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