“I had a clear vision of what it could be, had a concept, knew it had to be large and realized that CNC would be the perfect location to display it -- it has to be at CNC,” said Kovacic.
Photos by Andrea Johnson
CNC instructor gets funding to create historic painting
For release on February 24, 2010
Prince George artist and CNC Fine Arts instructor Betty Kovacic has been awarded $19,500 from the Canadian First World War Internment Recognition Fund to create her largest piece of work ever.
Besides teaching full-time at her home and at CNC’s fine arts program, Kovacic will spend much of the next two years working on a 6 feet by 16 feet painting, tentatively titled “Shadows of the Past.” The painting will commemorate and recognize the experiences of ethno-cultural communities affected by Canada’s first national internment operations from1914 to 1920.
“It’s a great delight and honour to receive this gift of funding,” said Kovacic. “It’s going to be in four sections, created in acrylic and mixed media. It will have some narrative qualities and incorporate my imagery, colours and process. I will use archival images obtained from various museums around Canada. I’m going to learn a lot by doing it.”
During Canada’s first national internment operations of 1914 to 1920, thousands of Canadian men, women and children of Ukrainian and other East European descent were branded as “enemy aliens.” Many were imprisoned at various locations across Canada and forced to do heavy labour in the country’s hinterlands such as Banff National Park and Spirit Lake camp in the Abitibi region of Quebec. They were stripped of any wealth they had, disenfranchised and subjected to other state sanctioned censures not because of anything they had done, but only because of where they had come from and who they were.
In May 2008, representatives of the Ukrainian Canadian community reached an agreement with the federal government providing for the creation of a $10-million endowment fund to support commemorative, educational, scholarly and cultural projects intended to remind all Canadians of this episode in our nation’s history.
Much of Kovacic’s art work of the last 20 years has dealt with social issues and injustices, such as her exhibit on the missing women of the Vancouver Eastside, titled A Roomful of Missing Women. Her largest piece to date is 5 feet by 9 feet, titled “Pages,” which celebrates the life of senior citizens is hanging at Jubilee Lodge.
“I deal with the human condition and with voices that need to be heard,” she said. “I can express many meanings and possibilities through my work. Seniors and many others are often overlooked and voiceless don’t have a voice. A great deal of my work deals with issues that need to be expressed and experienced in a different manner.”
“I can identify when a person loses humanity and dignity. They become objects. It happens over and over again”
The First World War Internment Recognition project was only natural for Kovacic, who heard about it from a friend and did her research and completed the submission package for funding in just three weeks to meet the application deadline.
“I had a clear vision of what it could be, had a concept, knew it had to be large and realized that CNC would be the perfect location to display it -- it has to be at CNC,” said Kovacic.
The application process was complicated and intense. She completed two essays outlining her project’s goals, feasibility and explained how it would contribute to a better understanding of Canada’s first national internment operations of 1914-1920. She provided a concept and working drawing, proposed budget, a resume and professional references as well as a letter from CNC president John Bowman, stating the college’s overwhelming support for not only the project, but Kovacic.
She sent the package to Winnipeg in October, 2009 and when it was returned to her Dec. 30 she thought she didn’t make the cut. Packages usually aren’t returned to those who are successful. She was surprised when the package confirmed she was accepted to receive funding to create a piece.
Word has since spread to Kovacic’s students and the art community about it. And she’s excited to get to work on it in her home studio where she’s sure she’ll not only learn something from it, but the entire community will too once it’s unveiled at the college.
“Art has an inherent quality that allows for learning,” she said. “Art speaks to us where written form does not. Colours, forms and images touch us on conscious and subconscious level. It has the ability to invoke compassion in the viewer. Art opens up the possibility of broad interpretation.”
Once completed, Kovacic will loan the mural to CNC and it will be exhibited in a location that provides easy viewing access.
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