Curt Shoultz says that a large canvas and an open-ended opportunity gave him the freedom to explore his own interests in producing a series of works on display this fall at the Brandon University (BU) Tommy McLeod Curve Gallery.
Shoultz, a prominent Brandon artist, says that the challenge of working for himself on a tight deadline was freeing.
“After many years of working for thousands of people in community organizations and commercial businesses, I decided to be my own customer,” Shoultz says. “I organized a one-person search party for art directions.”
His new show, “Search by Sketch by Shoultz” opens Wednesday, Sept. 14 at 7 p.m. in the Tommy McLeod Curve Gallery, on the second floor of the John E. Robbins Library at Brandon University.
The show was proposed by BU professor Kurt Noll, who selected Shoultz to be the final display under his tenure as Curve Gallery curator.
“Curt is, and has been, a dominant creative phenomenon in the Brandon community,” Noll says. “Over the years, our city has seen Curt’s creativity on the streets, in the newspapers, in art galleries, and in publications, including the comic books he has produced. Curt Shoultz is one of Brandon’s gems, and this show gives us a chance to celebrate his delightfully disorienting perspective on the world.”
Shoultz says that opportunity to create his own works was appealing right from the start — although the scale turned out to be daunting.
“When Professor Noll offered the challenge/opportunity of a show space and a deadline, I sprang into action,” Shoultz says. “Well, six months later, when I realized I only had a year of spare-time hours to fill a 112-foot wall with artwork.”
He says that deciding to work quickly ended up being somewhat liberating.
“I followed my own interest in subject matter, design and choice of medium in these spare-time sketches,” he says. “Using a large paper format in that tight a time frame kept me moving quickly and loosely — there was no time to lose energy in perfecting a finish or researching endlessly.”
The results will be on display in the Curve Gallery until December. It’s free and open to the public whenever the library is open. Through the fall, the library opens at 8 a.m. from Monday through Friday, and 1 p.m. on the weekends. It closes at 11 p.m. from Monday through Thursday, and at 5 p.m. from Friday through Sunday.
“It was great fun and I am pretty happy with the results,” Shoultz says.
Curt Shoultz is a teacher and artist who has lived in Brandon since 1975. He works at Assiniboine Community College as a Senior Academic Advisor and all over the map on various projects.
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