Published in the Fall 2005 401 Richmond Update
Looking around artist Marian Wihak’s studio (Studio 278) it’s clear she has been here for a long time – it feels like home, settled, worn in, and full of creative memories. There is an intriguing collection of oil paintings in various stages of completion; more often than not they are somewhat haunting images that evade detection of beginning and end. They are what Marian refers to as nocturnes, lightscapes, and captured movement; “ an experiential collection of remembered images, sensations, moments, which by their nature are ephemeral." Marian is nestled in the east corner of the second floor in a lovely little micro-community. She has been in her studio, which started out as essentially a storage space in a large open studio, for almost eight years and over the years it has expanded as others have grown up around her.
Other than the tangible evidence of her creativity, there are few clues in Marian’s studio as to the second hat she wears as a designer. She has been working as a production designer in film and television for twenty years, with a couple of Gemini awards under her belt as an acknowledgement of her talent. However, her studio is a painting studio and she has worked to keep it quite separate from her other artistic world. Marian acknowledges that she, in some ways, made a conscious decision to keep her work as a designer separate from her more personal work as a painter. This is not to say they are not closely connected, influencing each other on many levels, but she felt the space should be reserved for Marian the painter with only very occasional crossovers like building the model for the stage play The Leisure Society. Marian’s dual endeavours are not so unlike those of many artists who are forced to seek out other professional avenues to support themselves and their artistic practice. She feels that there is a very comfortable balance between her two worlds; luckily she enjoys being a designer as much as she flourishes as a painter. “They certainly feed back and forth, and when I design films or theatre it’s probably in a painterly fashion, and when I paint, people often say you can tell that I design for film and theatre. They influence each other that way.”
As a child Marian always enjoyed drawing and painting and there was never any doubt that she would pursue this as she grew up. How she ended up in theatre design was kind of a “happy accident.” She was attending the University of Regina where and it was suggested to her that she might be right for theatre design. So she moved to Nova Scotia to finish her degree at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (NSCAD). After graduating from university Marian worked at the Shaw Festival and the National Ballet, making props and doing other design work. She then moved into film and television, designing at the CBC and eventually moved into the freelance industry. “I really enjoyed it and it suited me very well. But I was envious of my visual arts friends as I’d never really followed that as much as I thought I would.” So Marian began taking classes at the Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD), studied in Florence for a summer, and gradually started renting studios to explore being a painter. “As a creative career, an income, and a livelihood, I really enjoyed design but, incrementally I kept adding more and more painting time into my life. Now, it’s pretty much half and half – half of my creative energy. They both answer to different parts of myself and my interests. About six years ago or so there were less interesting projects in the Canadian film and television industry. I felt I really needed to expand creatively, and painting became that much more important because it answered a part of myself that wasn’t being satisfied.”
As Marian was facing a Canadian film and television industry in decline and the possibility that her professional life may have to change quite drastically, she had a number of opportunities arise: The Leisure Society was nominated for a Dora Award, she just finished working on a short project with an idol of hers, Montreal designer Fran çois S éguin (The Barbarian Invasions, The Red Violin), will soon be heading off to Newfoundland to design a film written and directed by Gordon Pinsent called HeyDay, and finally, was part of the summer group show at The Edward Day Gallery. “Without design, I’m not sure what I would do as a way to sustain my life – it’s a quandary. And that’s partially why my recent paintings are looking like they are. On a certain level I spent so much time getting anxious that at a certain point I just accepted the possibility of change. It’s funny how life works that way. At a certain point you just let go of things and embrace something else and then things start happening without any plan.” Both her painting and design work has flourished.
After being part of the inaugural group show at The Oneo Gallery in Prince Edward County last fall, Marian is continuing to expand a new series of paintings as she works towards her first solo show. “The paintings I’m doing right now are very red. It symbolically opened this whole new vein for me, it’s like I’ve gone inside to create more internal landscapes rather than the ephemeral, blurred exterior landscapes. I’m painting circuitry, and roots swimming in very saturated reds. The thin layers of paint and light coming up from behind are still there, but I think the works are quite different from what I have been doing. There is definitely an inward journey involved, so there is a bit of a bloodletting moment with these paintings.” Although there has been continued demand for Marian’s pieces from The Oneo Gallery since the group show, she is inclined to hold on to her newest paintings as she builds a body of work.
“I have never considered painting just a Sunday hobby. It was a creative safety net for something that wasn’t being answered elsewhere. But again, economically, because I didn’t need to rely on it, I didn’t. Because it started off as a personal meditative exercise I wanted to keep it as a balance to a very frenetic, pushy, business and wasn’t inclined to show my work to the world. So it took several years for my own acceptance to be interested in showing my painting to people. I’m finally reaching a point now where I want to make the balance more legitimate and have my paintings observed within a more critical arena. It’s been quite a journey.”
