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29 |Thursday August 3, 2017 | OAKVILLE BEAVER |www.insidehalton.com Marta Marychuk Reporter mmarychuk@oakvillebeaver.com Artscene by Marta Marychuk O akville Beaver S ta ff "ConnectedtoyourCommunity" Oakville ardst takes part in international exhibition Oakville artist Joanna Turlej will be representing Canada at the HUMAN RIGHTS? #H 20 exhibit in Rovereto, Italy at the end of September. Turlej will be one of 161 art ists from 30 countries selected to communicate about water and its value at the exhibition. The Associazone Internazionale Arti Plastiche Italia (AIAPI), which is the Italian equiva lent of the organization called Canadian Artists' Representa tion / Te Front des Artistes Canadiens (CARFAC), organized the exhibition. The United Nations Educa tional, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is a major sponsor of the exhibi tion. The exhibit asks artists to speak about water as a primary human right and everyone has an urgent duty to understand, through images, the sacred re spect for water, which creates life. When Turlej was offered an opportunity to participate in the exhibition and saw the title, she fell in love with the theme. Turlej has submitted her paint ing, entitled Arctic Beauty , a pa per collage painting. The artist statement that goes next to the painting says: "Due to global warming, the Artic ice is melting at an alarming rate, threatening the livelihood of people, plants and animals. But, she thought mothers know best, so Turlej enrolled in the University of Ottawa to study pre-medical science, ffalfway through her degree, she started having vivid dreams and realized her sub-conscious was trying to tell her something -- she should be an artist. Turlej studied art at OCAD University in Toronto and graduated with an honours de gree and received the George A. Reid Award of Excellence. After graduating, Turlej ini tially worked as a graphic de signer, but always "kept one foot in fine arts" until she made the transition to a full-time fine artist in 2005. Since then, Turlej has been busy with numerous exhibi tions including: Nuit Blanche, with the Red Head Gallery, in Toronto; the 2016 and 2017 Artist Project International Art Fair, also in Toronto; and Art in the Park, in Oakville, on nu merous occasions. Although Turlej previously dabbled in collage, incorporat ing it with other media, such as watercolour, acrylics and mixed media, it wasn't until she took a collage workshop she realized: "This is up my al ley." Since then, she has special ized in collage. "I am so honoured to rep resent Canada on this inter national stage and am looking forward to seeing in person our Canadian flag among 30 other flags," Turlej says. Joanna Turlej "As a Canadian, I feel strong ly motivated to support the rights of indigenous peoples living in the Arctic and the habitat they rely upon. My paper collage painting Artic Beauty reflects a great need of water for vegetation to sustain its role in a food chain. It shows a desperate adaptation for the vegetation to reach it through a crack in the ice, by growing an extra-long root to achieve its goal." Turlej loves Canada Originally from Poland, Turlej came to Canada in 1969 at the age of 19 to flee the com munist regime. When she ar rived in Canada, she fell in love with the country. "I love Canadian nature," she adds. "Through my art I plan to preserve it." Ironically, her original career path did not include becoming an artist. "My mother said to me please don't be an artist," says Turlej, although her mother was a photographer and her fa ther was an art professor. Joanna Turlej's paper collage painting Artic Beauty reflects a great need of w ater for vegetation to sustain its role in a food chain. | submitted photo Brian COX lirnnda RICHARDSON John SLATTERY filmca cinemas 905-338-6397 www.film.ca @Filmcacinemas C H U R C H IL L 171 Speers Road (at Kerr) Oakville facebook.com/filmca THE Da r k To w ER (14A) A u g u s t 4 th THE NUT JOB 2: NUTTYBY NATURE (PG) AUGUST 11th LOGAN LUCKY (PG) AUGUST 18th th e h itm a n ' s b o d y g u a r d (stc ) AUGUST 18th CHURCHiLL (PG) COMING SOON