Gallery Opening at the Arts Station by Tammy Marcer

Opening the latest gallery exhibit: Kootenays in Colours by Tammy Marcer

Opening night features a cash bar and complimentary nibbles, and a chance to chat with the artist about their work. All welcome. The exhibit will be on display in the gallery through May. 

Artist Bio

Tammy was born in Fernie and grew up in the south country known as Baynes Lake. Always a lover of the great outdoors in all its wonder and color. Fall is her favorite season with all the color bursting forth and the air cooling for long hikes and picture taking opportunities. Tammy spends most of the winter in hiding while doing art and keeping warm. she does not enjoy snow and cold. She lets her imagination take hold and soars off to new lands within her photos where she puts her digital pens and ink to work creating fantastic new places based on her best photos. A lot of her finished works are based off colors and places she's seen in games such as World of Warcraft, like the purple of Netherstorm or the greens of Nagrand.

All of her art is created using reference photos she took herself of the places she's been and seen. Her favorites still being right here at home in the East Kootenays. She loves to share her creative and fantastical depictions of her favorite places like a fishing spot, a place where her dogs swim, the vista from the top of a hill or the place she went hiking last weekend. When not playing games, enjoying the outdoors or creating art, Tammy works for CMHA Kootenays and spends her time with family and friends. I'm sure some of the local residents can recognize some of the landmarks used in her art. She hopes you enjoy looking at it, as much as she enjoys creating it.

Artist Statement

Each of my chosen pieces for this exhibit began as a view in my minds eye, whether a picture I took while fishing or just a mental image noted while out with my dogs. Every piece here is one I consider the best of what my work depicts in vivid color and holds a special meaning in my heart.

The Fishing Spot is where my dad took me and my sisters fishing when we were young. It is the bridge across a narrow bit of the elk river as it flows through Elko. The bridge leads to the forestry road on the opposite side of the river from highway 3. Used to be logging trucks only. My uncle Kay (Johnson) was killed at 12 years old while swimming near the Elko dam, very near where this bridge is. I still go there to fish from time to time, mostly I just sit and reminisce about when I was a kid and all the time I spent in Elko.

The King Charles Chateau is based on the Tutor House in Cranbrook. Used to be the old St. Eugene hospital where my husband was born, and then a low income housing before it tragically burned down in 2002. This once prestigious heritage building deserves so much more than what it has become in recent years. I remember it fondly and wanted to share that memory. I myself lived in the Tutor House for a brief period in 1987 when I first moved from Fernie and was "finding myself".

The Banks of The Kootenay is where I spend a ton of time. This is a little sandy stretch of heaven located at Haha Creek at Steamboat hill just outside of Cranbrook. My dad owns a large parcel of mostly undeveloped land here. There is a corral and a fence, the bottom logged to maintain a pasture for grazing, leased for cattle but used by a lot of elk and deer. It is so quiet and peaceful that I love to take my dogs out there for hours so they can run free while I enjoy the wide open beauty that is my home.

I could go on and on about every piece in this collection, the places and inspirations. However, I am really trying to get others to see this art for what it is to them. I know each one of these pictures gives me a special feeling when I gaze upon it. My hopes and dreams are that others can see them and feel joy or melancholy, elation or sadness. I believe that my exhibition is truly inspired by feelings! I hope each one of these pictures stir feelings within those that look upon it with something other than sight alone.

I believe this is what makes this collection perfect to be shown at The Arts Station for the first time. My works have never been shown, posted or seen anywhere. I want my art to be “born” in Fernie just like I was.