Local artist Cat Sivertsen has been inspired to create art in front of an audience as local entertainers perform during the The One Song B.C. Spirit Festival art reception and grand performance Feb. 26 at 6:30 p.m. at the Coast Inn of the North.
The artist and art teacher and former Two Rivers Gallery fund development officer will paint as music inspires her during the show.
"An artist could respond to those live performances as individual performances and combine them to create one piece," said Sivertsen.
So as not to distract from the performers on stage, Sivertsen will be beside the stage and will be video taped and shown on a big screen.
"So people can look and listen and feel it all at the same time," she added. Sivertsen has a logistics plan for her artwork, taking three canvases and working on each piece during each performance. But not hearing the piece before hand will be key to the spontaneity of the piece she is seeking.
"The art is probably going to be non-representational," said Sivertsen. "It's going to be an emotional/physical response to the performances - without thinking about it because when we think about it too much I think the little guy on our shoulder starts going 'well, you know, that doesn't look like a dancer to me!' And doing the three pieces then putting them together in a landscape-type format will show that although these were individual performances they all came together, which is part of the One Song theme."
Sivertsen said she finds people who do live performance fascinating because they are 'on' and if they mess up, they're accountable.
"I think it will be very interesting for the audience to see the process of a visual artist - splashing paint around and grinding into it and just being totally at one with the act," said Sivertsen. "It's almost going to be like the audience will be the fly on the wall in the artist's studio because most artists work in isolation."
Because Sivertsen was asked by the symphony to do the performance art, the piece will most likely go up for auction as part of a fundraiser for the orchestra, she added.
Tickets for the reception and performance is $22.50 plus HST and are available at the PGSO office, Studio 2880, and Books & Company.
