Efforts to bring attention to underrepresented, "invisible" women has led Carol Schlosar to the national spotlight.
The Sicamous artist's portrait, Vivian Lindoe: A Fierce Female Artist, was selected to show in the upcoming ) biennial competition and exhibition of Canadian visual art.
From around 2,000 submissions, Schlosar's was one of 53 pieces chosen by judges for the exhibition, which runs Sept. 27 to Oct. 19. As a SSNAP finalist, Schlosar is in the running for numerous prizes totalling $52,000. The prize winners will announced on Oct. 18 at a special event on the island.
This is the first visual arts competition entered by Schlosar, a former teacher and musician who, while "kind of new to the art world," has been making a name for herself, having had exhibitions of her work in Armstrong and Sechelt, with another planned for Revelstoke in January.
"I'm still kind of in that emerging artist phase乌鸦传媒�," said Schlosar. "It乌鸦传媒檚 kind of new for me to do it, but I乌鸦传媒檝e been really lucky in the last little while.
"The things that I like to talk about I guess other people like to talk about too."
One of the things Schlosar likes to talk about, and has made a focus of some of her work, is women 乌鸦传媒� talented yet under appreciated and underrepresented women, such as Vivian Lindoe
"I stumbled on talking about older women乌鸦传媒� the women that I was surrounded by, talking about how their feelings of invisibility had started, so I started doing artwork surrounding that," said Schlosar, whose painting of Lindoe was created for In Dialogue with the Collection: Fierce Female Artists, a recent exhibition at the Salmon Arm Art Gallery. Schlosar's response to the challenge was a portrait of Lindoe wrapped in a cloak inspired by the 20 works of Lindoe's in the gallery's collection.
"I wanted to actually respond to her as a person because of the underrepresentation issue," said Schlosar. "What乌鸦传媒檚 the best way to do that? You create a portrait. A portrait is about power, about recognition and longevity乌鸦传媒� I decided I wanted to use a Queen Elizabeth Armada (portrait) stare, and I wanted to use a乌鸦传媒� Braveheart cloak that included all of the artwork she had done."
Schlosar credited former Salmon Arm Art Gallery/Salmon Arm Arts Centre curator Tracey Kutschker for her ability to "identify things that are really community connected for the exhibition乌鸦传媒� and how she supports artists to make things like that happen, for all of us to make those connections."
Kutschker, however, said the Lindoe portrait was "100 per cent Carol," who was "so excited by Vivian's life and her work."
"I乌鸦传媒檓 so very proud of Carol because she really did take this story and give it some rocket-booster power in her incredible painting and it乌鸦传媒檚 so impactful," said Kutschker. "It made the show."
Fierce Female Artists wasn't the first local exhibition to feature the work of Lindoe who, in 1977 held her own exhibition of her silk screens in Salmon Arm.
According to Calgary's Glenbow Museum, which also has a collection of Lindoe's work, the late artist settled twice in Salmon Arm, the first time with her artist/husband Luke Lindoe in 1945, and again in 1966, following the end of the Lindoes' marriage.
"Around 1966, Vivian Lindoe built a home in Salmon Arm, on a hill that overlooked Shuswap Lake, and she lived there until the mid 1990s," reads the Glenbow's 2023 . "Soon after moving to Salmon Arm, she began work on an important series of prints, experimenting with silk-screening."
The Glenbow feature was written after Kutschker and the Salmon Arm Arts Centre organized the 2022 exhibition, In Dialogue with Vivian Lindoe. Prior to this, Kutschker said little was known about Lindoe, who passed away in 2006.
"Apart from a blurb on the Glenbow website, we knew almost nothing about her," said Kutscker, noting her first Lindoe exhibition was made possible after the gallery received a donation of 11 of Lindoe's works, bringing the gallery's collection up to 20. "It made it possible for us to really focus in on her work乌鸦传媒� it also promoted this idea where artists would actually do some research. It helped us dig out more of the story of Vivian乌鸦传媒檚 time here in Salmon Arm because artists are curious people and they want to know the background of who it is they乌鸦传媒檙e responding to."
The exhibition also brought out people who knew Lindoe and were able to help fill in more of her story, including about her time in Luke's shadow during his rise to fame as painter and sculptor.
"It was the era 乌鸦传媒� the men had the name and the women just did the work 乌鸦传媒� and she was a big part of his art practice but that was not recognized at the time," said Kutschker.
"I think we乌鸦传媒檙e helping to bring to light the story of a pretty incredible artist that was otherwise not very well known."
For Schlosar, painting is a way to talk about things, to "ask people about things that I want to talk about," and she is grateful her work has been given a national stage on which to be seen and heard.
