Calgary Herald Article

What do we really, really want?

Jacqulynn Mulyk's art exhibit starts the discussion

Yvonne Jeffery, Calgary Herald

Our city is taking a few knocks these days. We're accused of getting too big, too quickly. Our environmental footprint is the largest in the country, we rely on cars instead of walking, and even our homes are growing instead of downsizing as they're beginning to in other major markets.

But Jacqulynn Mulyk isn't buying into these generalizations. The 34-year-old artist has stood on the streets of New York City and Vancouver to paint the streetscapes there, and now she's done the same thing for her adopted hometown. The result is Big City Living -- from the eyes of a downtown resident, an exhibit currently at Inglewood's Artpoint Gallery.

 "When I moved to Mission, the buildings around there and the businesses really affected me," Mulyk says. "I believe they gave me a sense of peace and excitement. Then, as I spent more time there, I realized it wasn't just the buildings. There are a number of things that contribute to your sense of place, and that's where this series of paintings came from -- from trying to communicate those different elements."

Her paintings -- collages of paint, photos and even fabric -- provide glimpses of the cities: vibrant splashes of colour and movement in New York, flowing expanses of blues and greens in Vancouver, and in Calgary, a sense of space, set against a framework of skyscrapers and rivers.

"I love architecture," she says. "I think it plays an important role in our lives, and (the art) puts that into context with the other things around it, like the trees on the street, the river, the natural spaces, the air quality, the energy."

That last element is one of the most important.

 "We all contribute to that sense of energy," she says. "How we drive, what we drive, which businesses we support, which kinds of activities we do or don't do outside, our arts and culture, diversity, clubs -- everything contributes to the energy in a city."

 She's concerned that many of those energy sources can be overlooked in new developments, particularly given that most people have -- or at least contribute -- little or no influence over what gets built in particular spaces. She hopes her exhibit, with its paintings, journals and video of downtown streets and construction gets people talking about where the city -- which she likens to a pre-teen -- is going.

 "We're still a young city and we've grown so much so quickly -- you get all kinds of growing pains," she explains.

"We all, as citizens of Calgary, influence the way Calgary is going to grow and what type of adult it will one day become."

 She mentions walking down a Vancouver street that boasts lots of small shops, markets and people. "It has a very rhythmic energy to it, a low but steady rhythm of people. In Calgary, you get quite a bit of dead space, I find, or you get jolted."

 To boost the flow of energy on our streets, she'd like us to think about what we want to surround us.

 "That's why I have a number of elements in the exhibit," she says. "I want people to look at them, study them and explore them . . . but beyond that, I want people to think about the story and formulate their own stories and add to it."

 She suggests that starting the discussion at home by surrounding yourself with ideas is one step.

 "You create energy in your home by the way you bring things in, by what you surround yourself with, just like on the street. The energy I like to have in my home is one of ideas, one of openness and excitement.

 "For me, when I have original work on my walls, I feel like anything can happen in this space."

 yjeffery@theherald.canwest.com