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Visual Arts by Anne Severson Shelley Ouellet’s life is a work of art. Philosophically a painter but technically a mixed-media installation artist, she lives and communicates as a creative person involved with the community she supports and believes in. Ouellet first crashed the Calgary public art scene when she was the director of Stride from 1991 to ’95. That’s when I first met her, and her everyday life exhibited a consciousness of the imaginative freedom of the artistic process through her distinctive style of dress, hair and lifestyle. Her tongue-in-cheek but still critical art led to large site-specific objects like Bunnies, where two individual orange bunny portraits emerged from the collective whole of 424 orange, pink, blue and yellow plush toy bunnies in a gridded illusion. This, according to Ouellet, was the first in a series of installations exploring mathematics and multiples. Inspired by dot matrix printers and the wares of a bulk novelties store, it was her first three-dimensional drawing. Who said art and science can’t mix? The power of numbers seemed an appropriate counterfoil for her love of tacky glitz that is part of her Silver Screen Installations, featuring four-centimetre black-and-white sequins installed with pins. The shimmering, glimmering 120 by 216-inch Rita Hayworth installation was first exhibited on the entrance wall of the ambitious 1996 survey of the Alberta Biennial of Contemporary Art opening at the Glenbow. These contrasting portraits "flip between abstract and pulp print images... and the motion and reflection of the sequins." When she walked into Alberta Bingo Supplies and saw vast buckets of novelty items – like toys, baubles, trinkets, sequins, fish line, pins and throw-aways – she purchased 2,458 bright Crayola-coloured rubber bugs for her Entomology installation. This eight-feet by eight-feet by 14-feet suspended bug first opened at Truck in 1994. The bugs have travelled across the country from the Edmonton Art Gallery to Victoria to Halifax until the piece was recently purchased for the Alberta Foundation for the Arts collection. Ouellet says the structured assemblage process of her binary pixilated grand site-specific images "rely as much on modern technology as I do on old fashioned community spirit and support." She uses this language and technology to draw, paint, sculpt, write, archive, research and publish. Ouellete’s life reflects the contradiction of the structured computer and the freedom of artistic licence. Her creative production, her life, affirms that there is freedom within limitations. Community involvement has always been a key issue for Ouellet. The assemblage process is "mind-numbing, labour-intensive work" that uses large groups of volunteers working, laughing and talking in a communal potluck style ambience. As an extension of her belief in individuals and their relationship to the collective whole, the installation is completed with a production line of friends, family and the gallery community. It’s a relaxing and bonding experience within the local public art population. How does Ouellet organize all this? Her Hints from the Hostess can be accessed at www.vanitygallery.com. This unique razzle-dazzle Web site is her latest project – since 1996 – with "an online portfolio of her work for the diverse audience of the Internet users," bios on other vanitygallery artists like Chris Cran and Arlene Stamp, and even a list of curators. Information includes an opportunity to "meet your hostess" and helpful hints to throw successful dinner parties for 40 volunteers. Her household hints include the wise adage "Be sure to anticipate the unexpected." (So this is how she copes with real life.) Ouellet also gives something back to the supportive community. Actively involved as a board member for Stride and Calgary Allied Arts Foundation, she is a role model of a passionate artist who believes in not only "the right for the artist to be heard," but a sense of "obligation" to her audience. Ouellet will lecture on her work at The Nickle Arts Museum on the U of C campus, Friday, March 31 at 9:30 a.m. Check with the Nickle at www.ucalgary.ca/~nickle for more information on the Visiting Artists lecture series hosted by the department of art. Image: Rita Hayworth, 120" x 216". Sequins.1996. Alberta Biennial. Photo credit: Anita Dammer. Mike: I will bring in this image on Monday afternoon.

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