Artist selected for competition

Community member Owisokon Lahache has been selected by the Global Art League to present her art piece at the Montreal Art Centre and Museum. The Global Art League is an art competition, with an exhibition of selected works beginning on July 19 and finishing on August 2.

Lahache is one of 100 participants to have their art be shown off in this art exhibition in Montreal.

“I took a picture of all of the names in the top 20 and most of them are European, so I feel blessed to be in the running,” said Lahache.

The competition is international, with people from all over the world showing off their art skills. Lahache felt pleased to see her name in the running, knowing that many people submitted globally.

Her piece features a tobacco plant.

“It’s actually a cultural piece. I did a picture of a tobacco plant, and I chose the most difficult applications of colour, which is green. Everything is green, but it’s different colour greens because that’s one of the colour combinations that’s hard to master,” said Lahache.

Lahache uses her culture and knowledge of the craft to paint a picture that even people who don’t know the significance of tobacco can enjoy.

Lahache has been honing her art skills since she was a child. She entered Expo 67 and presented her art at the “Indian Pavillion.” Later on, she was a part of the Howard S. Billing’s art show, which was her first-ever exhibition.

Since then, she has been involved in many art competitions.

“What happens is, when I get asked to do, or decide to do, a piece for the competition, what it does is it makes me really examine my skills and what I want to present, and how I want to present it, and then also the message that I want it to have,” said Lahache.

In her own words, she enjoys doing art competitions but it’s not the only time she paints. People from all over Canada commission her to make artwork.

For someone who has been drawing almost as long as she’s been alive, she has encountered a problem artists go through - art block. “I did have it (art block) after my son passed away. I didn’t do any artwork for 18 months,” said Lahache.

“And again in 1990 when it was all the trauma that was being imposed on us. I did a few drawings, but I didn’t do any finished art pieces, and most of them were centering around violence against us. It was really to work through my emotions,” Lahache continued.

But it was this slump that aided Lahache in her journey of becoming a better artist. She said that the art she made during these times were very dark, but through time and working on her pieces, she learned to put light back into her art.

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