No mental block for these artists

KNYSNA NEWS - The Knysna Art Society hosted their annual meet and greet event at the Old Gaol Museum on 26 January, creating an ambiance for art lovers to get lost in the live music, mingle with artists and draw inspiration from the works at the gallery. It was also an opportunity for existing and new members to register and find out what the committee had in store for them ahead of the upcoming exhibition titled "Unblocked".

As with Unblocked 2018, all the participating artists are given the same "canvas" to produce their work: a small block of solid wood. Participant can choose any medium to adorn their blocks – from crochet to oil, acrylic to collage, clay to Perspex to wool, sticks, paint, charcoal, plaster, etc. – as long as it is in alignment with the theme "Living in coral". The completed works will be exhibited together during the Unblocked 2019 group exhibit.

Guest speaker and artist Deon van Mullem spoke about the significance of space and his experiences in different aspects thereof and how different works of art intrigued him and affected him because of the space they were in.

"There is value in having a visual community space and this thing that says you need to know how to swim before you swim is nonsense. Come out of isolation, use the space to connect on a different level where even your own existence will be enriched," he explained.

Society chairperson Ricardo van Lingen encouraged the artists to think out of the box and challenge themselves. "Our current membership is standing at roughly 290 members. We have five open sponsored memberships for underprivileged artists. We sold roughly 100 blocks to about 70 artists," he said.