Larry Reese invites you to watch his film about creativity — and then see the fruits of his own inspired labours.
His documentary, Mapping Creativity, and an exhibit of his visual artwork are both showing next week at the Welikoklad Event Centre in downtown Red Deer.
The Eclectic Eccentric is a display of Reese’s paintings, illustrations, sketches, sculptures that runs from 7 to 9 p.m. from Monday to Sunday, March 6, in the WEC gallery.
Those who come on March 4 or 5 can also see the 2012 film Reese made with fellow Red Deer College film instructor James Wilson. The 45-minute doc will be shown at 7 p.m. both nights in the adjacent movie theatre.
Reese believes that watching Mapping Creativity will add to the experience of seeing his art exhibit since the film searches for what inspires creativity in all forms.
Reese not only analyses his own inspirational process, he tracks down other artists to find how they find their muse. Mapping Creativity includes interviews with film director Francis Damburger, jazz legend PJ Perry, film star Kari Matchett, and others.
On Friday, March 4, a public reception will be held for the multi-disciplinary exhibit that will also feature jazz music performed by local musicians Craig and Corey Gomez and free refreshments.
Besides his teaching job at RDC, Reese is perhaps best known locally for appearing in some TV and big-screen movies, including Brokeback Mountain. But he’s also a long-time painter who produces landscapes, abstractions, illuminations and other interpretations of “all-encompassing life.”
Four distinct “categories” of his recent art are in this show: scenery paintings, including Northwest Territories landscapes painted while he was running a film workshop in Yellowknife; abstracted wood-panel paintings that he calls the “solid colour series;” paintings inspired by European art, and a fantasy series.
“I never get bored,” said Reese, who likes to experiment with brush and palette knife. “It feeds into my exploration of creativity, testing out new things… “
He hopes viewers will see their own stories in artworks that often try to convey a sense of hope. “I’m happy if (the paintings) give people a sense of serenity, of respite from all the tensions life presents.”
lmichelin@www.reddeeradvocate.com