BIOGRAPHY | wheelervanlare

About

I was born and raised in Calgary Alberta Canada.

I have been drawing and painting since I was a child. I am primarily self taught, but have I've taken art courses in high school, and drawing classes at the University of Calgary. Oddly enough, art was not my primary study in University, I studied music and drama. I started showing my work publicly when I used to work at a dessert cafe back in 1991 and I sold my first painting in 1992.

I was given the opportunity to join an an artist’s collective and studio practice with fellow artists Tammy McGrath and Patricia Ashley, which was located above the old Cannery Row Restaurant and Warehouse building in the inner ciy of Calgary, between the years of 1997 - 1999.

I am extremely grateful for this opportunity because I got to work along side other local artists, whose influence has allowed me to

explore more mature themes in my art.

Over the past 16 years, I have produced many pieces of art, and I am happy to say that I have a fair amount of my work is held in private collections. I enjoy sketching and drawing and I love creating art that people are drawn to. I like make to make what I call "complicated landscapes" with lots of texture, layers and intense colours. I like incorporate the use of symbols, numbers and recurring patterns in my more abstract, and expressive paintings.

I have explored my craft side by producing a line of collectable mailboxes between the years of

2001 - 2011 which have been featured at The Glenbow Museum Shops, The Prairie Dog Dig, Cherry Four, and With The Times.

ARTIST'S STATEMENT

EDUCATION

1991 BFA

The University of Calgary.

Solo Exhibitions/Projects

2013 Private Showing September 13th 2013

41 Sage Hill Crt NW Calgary,

Exhibition: Eastern Star

2012 Floorscapes: Designer Showcase June 28th Calgary, Alberta. Exhibition: Alberta Series

2012 With The Times - September 1st – February 1st 2013 Calgary, AlbertaInstallation: Angels and Demons

2011 With The Times - May 1st – September 15th Calgary, Alberta Exhibition: Glacier

2009 Alberta Arts Days September 18th – 20th EPCOR Centre for the Performing Arts. Calgary, Alberta. Exhibition: Painted Mailboxes: Art, Form and Function

2008 EPCOR Centre for the Performing Arts: Visual Art Program Calgary, Alberta Installation: Be Kind to Each Other and Remember Me: A series of five landscapes; oil on canvas.

2005 With The Times Kensington - May - September Calgary, AlbertaExhibition: In the GardenLandscapes, Flowers and Mermaids.

2000 Private Showing - September 30th 1802 Ramsay St SE Calgary, Alberta. Exhibition: Sweet Jamie 8 “pop” paintings celebrating Jamie Sommers, The Bionic Woman through the eyes of an 11-year boy & super fan

Group Exhibitions/Projects/Reviews

1999 Warehouse Collective 319 10th Ave SW Calgary,Alberta.

Installation/performance: Conversations (Group showing; Brett Snyder, Tammy McGrath and Patricia Ashley)

1999 Warehouse Collective 319 10th Ave SW Calgary, Alberta.The Thirteenth Cabaret6 painting about events parties and conversations

1998 Break the Fast Café and Gallery Calgary, Alberta.Exhibition: Bending Limbs13 icons: Redemption and Renewal(Group showing; Tammy McGrath and Patricia Ashley)Reviewed: Artichoke Magazine.

1997 Garden Show Inglewood Saturday August 28th, Calgary, Alberta.Exhibition: An Artists Party7 sunflower paintings on wood(Group showing; Paul Mankelow, Stewart Bryden, Sibyl Birrel and Patricia Ashley)

Charitable Silent Auction Participation:

2006 Calgary Flames Alumni MasterBenefit Supporting VRRI

Allstream United Way Silent Auction2001 – 2004 Allstream United Way Silent Auction

1997 - 2003 “Small Change Big Change” Silent auction and benefit for the Southern Alberta Clinic: raising awareness, providing local funding and community support for those afflicted with HIV/AIDS

The process of making art is mystical one for me, my desire and ability to create I feel, is one of the highest aesthetics in the universe to aspire to. The Universe was created as a result of the big bang but what came before the big bang?

Recently, Physicists have discovered a tiny particle called the “Higgs particle” or “God particle” which they suspect to be the elemental building block in the process of making matter: universes’, planets and all life forms. The desire to create beauty and harmony is uniersal to the human condition. it is hard coded into my soul as a spiritual being.

Creating art requires a lot of self discipline, and it requires fixed attention and a long emotional investment. hours spent exploring visual themes and emotion and translating and communicating those themes on canvas and to the viewer. My art is 'expressionistic' because I infuse a lot of my own emotion and life experience into my work. The good and bad emotions and the dark and light of the human condition.

I like to create movement and energized spaces with heavy brush strokes, and dramatic mark making. Repetitive patterns that evolve into shapes, that form a dimension and viewpoint from which the subject matter evolves. I use colour to create a tension, and dissonance but also harmony in my work, and I like exploring dichotomy and juxtaposition of visual themes. I use symbols and numbers as metaphor, fantasy and mystical images, including flowers, crowns, shields and crosses, as well as the human form but in an abstract and highly expressive way.