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Immigrant artists at Eastside Culture Crawl Nov. 18-20

By Noa Glouberman
November 17, 2011

The doors to hundreds of artists’ studios in East Vancouver will be opened to the public during the Eastside Culture Crawl, Nov. 18-20, 2011, and among the painters, photographers, sculptors and other visual artists participating this year are a large number of Canadian immigrants.

Here, we preview the main event with our own “mini crawl,” featuring some tremendously talented newcomers.
Beata Kacy: artist with a splash

First up was Beata Kacy, who fell in love with sewing and knitting as a child growing up in Poland. After moving to Vancouver to pursue an arts and film education, Kacy gained an interest in making jewelry and, in addition to the soft, woolen textiles of her youth, began to use a range of harder materials like wood, metal, stone, glass and even concrete to create her wearable works.

“Every time you step out the door … the way you personally express yourself is always on full display,” she explains. “As humans … we are drawn to coveting the human form and are enthralled by watching other people to see how they dress or accessorize themselves.”

A talented underwater photographer to boot, Kacy’s former work as a rescue scuba diver comes in handy in keeping her subjects safe during their photo shoots. She also runs Octopus Studios, a 3,000-square-foot workspace at 393 Powell St., where she offers classes in metalwork, felting, soap-making, and other arts and crafts. “Whenever I learn something new, I try to pass on the skills,” she says.

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In the cutthroat world of Vancouver artist studios, these Crawl participants are cool with  sharing close quarters

Recently, an unlikely group of people sat around a table in Octopus Studios at 393 Powell Street, discussing their work and shared artistic headquarters. Among those present were a pro wrestler, a university administration assistant, and a game designer—as well as a couple of jacket-sporting Chihuahuas. A scene out of the homogenous sitcom world of Friends, this was not.

But in the cutthroat world of Vancouver artist studios, where space is at a premium, diverse groups of individuals who might never cross paths otherwise are sharing close quarters—and making it work.

“As artists, it’s tough to get your stuff out there and it’s tough to find affordable space,” notes part-time painter Travis Watters, who has rented a studio at Octopus for the last six months. A tanned, beefy guy who also makes a living as a pro wrestler under the stage name Ladies Choice (slogan: “the man with the plan and the golden tan”), he quietly sips a cup of tea as he describes his experiences of working in the Vancouver art world. “We’ve got to have strength in numbers,” he continues. “And it’s good people here, you know? It’s nice to have a kind of a space where you can meet and see other people’s work.”

Watters is one of the 12 artists at Octopus Studios who will be participating in this weekend’s Eastside Culture Crawl. But as Beata Kacy, the part-time multimedia artist and full-time software designer who runs the studio with her partner, leathersmith Nik Palmer, explains, there are 18 individuals in total working in the 3,000-square-foot space.

“We started five years ago with eight—that’s why we called it Octopus,” notes the Poland-born artist, who works in jewellery, textiles, and photography. “But then the recession was kind of happening and we noticed that people started asking if they could share spaces with other people to cut the cost. So most of the time we do have spaces with two people.”

According to Jeffrey Boone, executive director of the Crawl, the days of the solitary artist working in a spacious, light-filled studio are fast becoming history in Vancouver. “There’s been so much change, and there’s pressure on real estate in the city from every sector,” he observes. “As always, artists kind of get into the cheapest available real estate, and that is the stuff that’s being bought and flipped.…We keep hearing of people who are sort of subletting space in order to, I guess, reduce their own costs or to make ends meet.”

Wanting a space of her own to work in is what spurred Kacy into taking over the small building that became Octopus Studios, and while she initially worried about her ability to fill it, she’s found it to be in great demand from artists such as Luchia Feman, who joined the studio six months ago.

Feman, a painter working in a variety of materials, says she was forced out of her space at Georgia Jackson Studios at 505 East Georgia due to a renoviction.

“It was a great studio, but we had to move,” she recalls. “I looked at, I think, five other places.…And I came here and Beata said, ‘Oh, you know, it’s first come, first serve, we don’t get into this process.’ And I was like, ‘Right on!’ I don’t want to have anything to do with these elitist groups who are checking you out and seeing if they like you or if they want to be with you. I just want to be able to do my thing and basically be left alone, you know?”

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