Belgium lost an aspiring artist for the year when Florence Merken departed for Canada. Belgium will gain a fully realized artist when she returns later this summer. She earned her artist's wings by getting a solo art exhibition at the Studio 2880 Feature Gallery. It opens Thursday night.
Merken is in Prince George by random luck, as part of the Rotary International youth exchange program. She marked Canada as her first choice of potential destinations, but the final country decision isn't a guarantee. The 18-year-old from the pastoral village of Aubel (the closest city is Lige, about 90 minutes east of Brussels) luckily got Canada and she is thrilled that she also got assigned to Prince George. She hadn't heard of this place prior to arrival, but she was enthralled with the mystique of Canada's northern wilderness. Despite the unseasonably warm spring, she got everything she was hoping for here and as an added bonus, she discovered an arts community that encouraged her creative efforts.
"I left all my completed artwork behind in Belgium, so this art is all done here. I'm not as happy with it, because I like to take my time, but when they said I had my own show, I had to work at it to make it ready," said Merken. "It's the first time in my life I had to work with a deadline. It forced me to sit down at the table and work. That's good."
It all happened because she posted one of her pieces on Instagram, another Rotary exchange student in Prince George saw it, showed it to some local Rotarians, and the movement was afoot.
The Community Arts Council, proprietors of Studio 2880, readily agreed to help, once they saw Merken's artwork.
"We were able to rearrange our gallery schedule to accommodate her work," said Wendy Young, executive director of the Community Arts Council. "She is only here in Canada for a short time, so we did what we needed to do. We wanted the public to see her work. Rotarians promote young entrepreneurs and support the arts, and that dovetails perfectly into what we do with the CAC, since art is the fabric of our economy. We want to encourage the business of art in young people."
"This is my first real art show," said Merken. "I'm from a small village, so I go to our once-a-year artist's market, and most people who go there don't buy, they just want to look, but the mayor of my village bought one from me, a landscape, and it is in the room in the village where a lot of people get married and have meetings. I like that; I'm proud of that one."
She has tried out several mediums, and taken art lessons using different tools of the artists' trade, but her preference is pastel chalk.
"When I'm done, my hands, my skin, are full of colour and I love that feeling," she said. "When you use oils or watercolour, there is a brush between you and your image. I like this; it is more direct. And I like the black paper because of the colour contrasts. "
The two countries she now knows best are a study in contrasts as well. Belgium is one of Europe's oldest and most modern societies. It is highly urbanized, with 11 million people in a space that would fit within B.C. about 30 times. Its economy is based on transportation and commerce, and value-added products / manufacturing.
Like Canada, however, it is a sophisticated and highly educated society that is overshadowed by its more famous neighbour states.
One little difference that meant a lot to Merken was art class. There are none in Belgium, in school, only academic subjects. It was a pleasant shock that here in Prince George, art was a part of her school day.
"It's something Belgium should do. Everyone should be exposed to art, and learn basic art skills. It helps you to think better. It helps you imagine. It works with the academic things you have to learn," she said.
She admitted she "cried for three days" when she departed her close family and good friends back home, but "when I leave here, now, I will cry again for three days. I love Prince George. I want to live here."
She joked that her family might have to be convinced to pack up and come with her, once her university studies were complete, because she saw the chance here for a better future than what modern Europe could provide.
She will be at the Studio 2880 Feature Gallery (inside the CAC Gift Shoppe at 2880 15th Avenue) on Thursday night to show Prince George what creative impressions were unlocked in this place in the imagination of a rising art star from Belgium. Her artist's talk starts at 7 p.m. and the reception continues until 9 p.m. It is free of charge to attend.
Merken's Rotary Link
Florence Merken is in Prince George thanks to the arrangements made annually by the Prince George (Downtown) Rotary Club.
Rotarian Toni Stedeford said not every Rotary Club facilitates an international student exchange, or not on a regular basis at least, "our club always does - we put an emphasis on it. The students we get are always phenomenal young people, and we think the outbound students are great representatives of Prince George."
Stedeford said that "by coincidence we have an outbound local youth going to Belgium and it was that youth's parents who first took in Florence when she first arrived." That student, Josie Wendling, also happened to be placed in Belgium with a family only 15 minutes from Merken's village.
The application process for the Rotary Exchange program starts each September, with the involvement of the local secondary schools.
