They’re young, in love and their art is bringing them closer together.
Katie Morton and Mike Chmil, both 22, have combined their artistic talent for Plutocrat, an art show that features their bold and eccentric art - in a big way!
An opening reception took place on Friday night and the show will be running every day until December 6 at The Other Side Studio, behind the quilt shop on Main Street.
This is not the first time Morton or Chmil have shown their work but it is the first time they’ve teamed up for a joint show. And so far, the two are pleasantly surprised by the support they’ve already received.
“There are so many awesome artists and helpful people in the community who have been showing their support and helping us to get the word out,” says Morton. “It can be hard to get people’s attention sometimes even about something like this that we are super passionate about.”
A plutocrat is defined as a person whose power derives from their wealth, and the pieces highlighted in the show depict modern day interpretations of wealth, fame and self-image.
Morton and Chmil are each displaying large-scale pieces, mostly acrylics on wood, and manage to blend their different styles in a unique and complimentary way.
Morton describes her work as mostly being of strange and brightly coloured ladies. She draws inspiration from anecdotal parts of life as well as the Internet and pop culture.
Chmil, on the other hand, often combines geometric abstraction and realism.
“I’m inspired by shapes and lines in architecture,” he says. “I think our work complements each other most through bright and flat colours.”
Chmil grew up 30 minutes north of Huntsville and has a lot of memories of the Huntsville area. He spent a lot of his youth skiing and snowboarding at Hidden Valley. Morton moved here with her family six years ago from Keswick, Ontario, when her dad got a job at Huntsville High School teaching media arts.
We are definitely most excited to see the reactions of the viewers and to see all our hard work come together.Katie Morton
For as long as she can remember, art has been the only thing Morton’s ever wanted to do. She’s a mixed media artist who recently graduated from Ontario College of Art and Design University, majoring in drawing and painting.
“I love it and I pretty much can’t do anything else,” she says.
But for Chmil, tapping into his artistic ability is something fairly new.
“Art wasn’t really something I was super passionate about until about two years ago,” he says. “Snowboarding and skateboarding were the only things I knew but recently I’ve been taking my creative side more seriously and it’s opened my eyes to lots of new things.”
Chmil and Morton have also collaborated on 7-17, a small 20-page booklet of their art that contains all their best and most recent artwork with each page documenting two different interpretations of real life events.
Plutocrat is runs daily Monday to Thursday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Friday to Sunday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
For more information or other inquiries, email Katie Morton at [email protected].
Don’t miss out on Doppler! Sign up for our twice-weekly email digest and get some of our top stories delivered right to your inbox.
* indicates required
0 Comments