Artist at work
Painter, sculptor turns old community hall into her studio.
For Sharon Moore-Foster, a dedicated studio to pursue her life’s ambition came after a marriage counsellor suggested to her then-husband that the professional artist needed a space to work. He followed up by contacting a moving company hoping to find a garage to move onto the 28-hectare property where the family home was, outside of St. Albert in Sturgeon County.
Moore-Foster recalls the mover saying, “I have the “perfect thing:” a 1,300-square-foot, half-log house for $6,500.
The early 1950s community hall was originally used as the Old Timers Cabin and by organizations including the Canadian Athletic Club, Edmonton Motorcycle Club and Boy Scouts of Canada.
Moore-Foster remembers watching as the clubhouse was winched off the flatbed truck and rolled on metal pipes laid on the concrete foundation.
“I will never forget that moment,” she says, smiling. “The grasses were blowing in the wind and a chorus of men were tapping the pipes to steer it. It was like watching a symphony conductor orchestrate the movement of the clubhouse onto the wall and the tapping created a bell-like musical sound. … It gave the feeling of a symphony in the field.”
Once the power and water were hooked up, everything worked — lights, kitchen appliances and bathroom fixtures.
“It was like a beginning, a new life,” she says. “There’s my art career starting. All of a sudden I had a place to work. It was magnificent.”
Since receiving a bachelor of fine arts degree at the University of Alberta in 1968, MooreFoster has studied sculpture, printmaking, photography; attended a residency in Madrid, Spain; and became an art educator with the Red Deer College art series and Harcourt House. She teaches sculpture, drawing and painting in her studio and, since 2004, has been the gallery co-ordinator at Visual Arts Alberta Association.
Exhibiting since 1976, her work is represented by Art Beat Gallery in St. Albert and held in collections including the Alberta Foundation of the Arts.
There is no question that Moore-Foster’s studio is a working space. It’s chock-a-block full of goodies, wonderfully rich in both inspiration and serenity.
Shelves are lined with clay sculptures and found objects — skulls of a horse, cow and beaver, a bison pelvis and various jawbones. Three kilns sit in the furnace room. Canvases hang or lean against the wall. Tables designed and built by her father allow students to switch from a painting setup with an easel, to a flat surface for shaping clay.
In the centre, a bed stacked with pillows is ready for a model to pose for life drawing sessions. The bed has also doubled as a sleeping spot for the artist. Even though her house is just metres away, convenience prevails in the wee hours.
Windows on four sides allow ambient light to traverse through the space, highlighting the model the cool, the warm, summer.
“I like atmosphere,” clinical that the
the model and the work with the cool, blue light of winter or the warm, yellow light of late summer.
“I like the homey, community atmosphere,” she says, “it’s not clinical and clean. I like the fact that the floor is wrecked already so I don’t have to try to keep it clean.
“It invites the mess of creativity — you aren’t going to ruin anything. My loosely organized chaos works for me, it is a hotbed of creativity.”
Decorative lights dangle from the ceiling and a garland trim frames the kitchen gallery, remnants of a New Year’s Eve party. In fact, Moore-Foster’s studio has continued as a gathering place for birthday and Halloween parties, baby showers and weddings.
“I like the fact that so many events happened here,” she adds. “I believe in sacred places and that some places have really wonderful energy. This place has serviced humankind for over half a century and I am lucky to be in it. It feels like this is where real life happens.”
Outside the studio, bones, objects and clay works lie among the tall grasses, along with drums for firing raku pottery. The back door (actually the front of the house) opens up onto a large field with a grove of trees and a creek, an area visited by woodland creatures including deer, fox, moose, owls, hawks
“I like the fact that so many events happened here. I believe in sacred places and that some places have really wonderful energy. This place has serviced humankind for over half-a-century and I am lucky to be in it. It feels like this is where real life happens.”
Sharon Moore- Foster
and woodpeckers.
She enjoys looking out at the trees and the sky — at how the weather exists all around her.
“Anything that is happening of the Earth, goes through the filter-of-Sharon and into my work, it is part of my process.”
Moore-Foster’s art honours the figure and its connectedness to the Earth. Her unique marks are evident whether she is working with paint, clay or steel. Life, bodies and energy infuse her work. The figures are visceral, organic — muscles are striated and a sense of the underlying bones is present. The viewer is offered a privileged peek within.
“I like the life force — it can’t be daunted. Life finds a way. I love human beings because I am searching always for myself.
“This place creates a beautiful balance for the artist to meet the mother and the teacher,” says Moore-Foster.
For more information go to sharonmoorefoster.com.