Illustration by Virginia Boden/The Griff

This is my first year at MacEwan. Much like most first-year students, it’s been a big adjustment. 

I moved five hours away from my home and had to make new friends, all while navigating a huge campus and learning university-level coursework. It’s been stressful, to say the least. When I faced similar times of tension in high school, I’d turn to art. Whether it was painting, drawing, pottery, or sculpting, any form was my tried-and-true escape from the weight of academic pressure.

But it’s university, not high school. Free time is a foreign concept. With the newfound pandemonium in my life, I haven’t even been able to doodle, let alone paint. So, I jumped at the opportunity to attend the Mitchell Art Gallery’s Drop-in Art-Making session featuring artists AJA Louden, Garfield Morgan, and Elsa Robinson from the most recent gallery exhibition. A free, three-hour-long, drop-in event with snacks and supplied materials. That’s a broke university student’s dream. At the drop-in, each artist had their respective spaces, allowing attendees to choose from crocheting, painting, or an info panel about rugs. I chose to sit with Garfield Morgan, as his station featured paint, a medium with which I felt most comfortable. Morgan introduced himself and explained the steps to creating your piece. While he had a painting as a reference, he encouraged everyone sitting at the table to approach their canvases however they liked, and, most importantly, to have fun.

The first step in my process was selecting a template to trace for the base. I picked a drawing of a girl and some roses and copied it onto the canvas. Five seconds in, I was already unsure of my artistic abilities and what I wanted to create. I hadn’t made anything in months. With so many people around, I got self-conscious and worried I’d create something ugly. I was overwhelmed with embarrassment. 

“A free, three-hour-long, drop-in event with snacks and supplied materials. That’s a broke university student’s dream.”

But I chose to push through. 

The second part of my project involved adding fabric to the canvas. I could’ve covered the whole surface, but I really liked the idea of small pieces filling in the background. By now, I’d forgotten about embarrassing myself or the opinions of other people. I just wanted to create something, good or bad. I grabbed a simple, blue and white patterned fabric, traced it, cut it, and glued it down. I felt a sense of accomplishment despite completing such a simple step. I felt happy to create. 

The third and final stage was to paint the roses. I painted each of them, layer by layer. The further I got in this portion of the process, the less fixated I became on school, assignments, and upcoming midterms. I was immersed in the act of creation. I was mixing colours, shading, and checking perspective. I became so invested in my piece that everything went quiet. After I felt satisfied with the roses, I started shading the woman’s face. I absolutely hated it. I despise painting portraits. If I had fully committed to painting a person, it would’ve taken me hours to finish. So, I leaned into a simpler approach: light shading. After about 30 minutes of adding more details, I was finished. Although I didn’t formally “complete” my piece, I felt the art session had served its purpose. It was a mental and emotional escape. In the hour and a half I attended, I felt grounded and focused on something outside of the imposing stress of school.

After my experience at the drop-in session, I encourage you to attend in the future. It’s an opportunity to escape from the pressures of life, meet talented artists, and create something fun, all for free! Bring your friends, or go alone. Talk to the hosting artists and the people at your table. Take advantage of this resource, and, even if you’re not artistically inclined, you might have more fun than you’d think.

 The many stages of the creation process. Virginia Boden/The Griff