Mariam: Tell me about yourself! What do you do and what are some of your accomplishments?
Doris: I am a mixed media landscape painter. I love experimenting with new media or seeing what will happen when different media are mixed together. I think I should have been a scientist but this is way more fun. I work out of a studio in Riel Park in St. Albert. The space used to be an empty room above a carpentry shop and they rented it to us artists because we didn’t want any renovations and liked it as it was. The rooms are basic and the floors are bare wood. This way if we spill paint on the floor, it doesn’t matter. This is a great work space and I love it. We used to be three artists but the owners have opened up another room so we are a total of 11 artists.
I have work at the Art Gallery of St. Albert, Cava Gallery in Edmonton and the Candler Art Gallery in Camrose. I am also a member of the Alberta Society of Artists and the Federation of Canadian Artists. Between all those venues, I am busy. A few francophone artists got together and we formed the group Devenir. Together we have shown all over Alberta and even have one booking for Salmon Arm. Making art and showing art is my first love and I look for opportunities whenever I can.
I grew up in a small community called Falher. This town is part of a larger francophone community in the area of Peace River. I went to a francophone school and did not really use English a lot until I went to University. I could write well in English so I thought that I was bilingual. I learnt to be bilingual in my first English University class. I have always kept in touch with my francophone roots and my children speak French as well. The Cava Gallery is my link to the francophone artistic community.
In both the Francophone and English community, I have taught art techniques to both children and adults. I now teach art to teachers at the University and Faculte St. Jean as a sessional instructor.
Artist of the Month: Doris Charest
- An interview with Mariam -