Sweetened Condensed: Tiny Tales of Wit, Wisdom and Wonder

 She knew she could do better –Noreen Lehfeldt. 

 2012, 33 x 39 cm, ink, gouache, acrylic, digital, collection of the artist

 My parenting is a chain reaction of generations –Ruthie Burritt. 

2012, 20 x 30 cm, porcelain, underglazes, collection of the artist

And she asked me over the fence, "have you ever met his wife? Is she still alive?" 

"Yes," I said, "to both questions" –Susan Penrose. 

2012, 33 x 45 cm, ink, gouache, acrylic, digital, collection of the artist

 

Sweetened Condensed is a series of illustrations and illustrated ceramics by Elizabeth Burritt based on a selection of one-line stories, each by a different writer. The project explores narratives that are restricted in length and convey only the most basic information, thereby leaving space for interpretation and exploration.

The stories were solicited from friends and strangers with the promise that those who penned the selections for the final project would receive prints of the illustrations in return for their efforts. The project created unique collaborations between writers and artists who used blogs to track progress and to allow viewers to witness developments.

Elizabeth Burritt is an artist and designer whose practice includes ceramics, illustration, jewellery and graphic design. Her illustration work is line-based and incorporates gouache, collage and digital mark-making while her ceramics are primarily unglazed porcelain pieces that feature decorations rendered in ceramic pigment and permanently high-fired onto the surfaces. Burritt’s education includes a diploma in editorial illustration from Sheridan College and a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from Emily Carr University of Art and Design. Originally from Ontario, she now lives in Medicine Hat with her husband and two daughters.

  

Exhibition Information

18 framed works and 5 objects in Plexiglas cases

1 artist

2 crates

50 running feet

The reception is this Saturday during Alberta Culture Day’s at the Yuill Family Gallery at Medalta 1-3pm. 

Curator Xanthe Isbister, Esplanade Arts and Heritage Centre, for the Alberta Foundation for the Arts Travelling Exhibition Program

About TREX

Each year over 300,000 Albertans experience a Travelling Art exhibition, known as TREX. These professionally organized exhibitions travel all over the province to schools, libraries, health centres and small rural museums or galleries. The program is unique, the only one of its kind in western Canada, and runs 12 months of the year, with an average of 7 exhibitions travelling per month. This year 112 exhibitions are scheduled to be on display at over 30 venues from as far south as Milk River to as far north as Stettler, and everywhere in-between.   

Since 1981, the Alberta Foundation for the Arts has supported the Travelling Exhibition program, and it has been organized in our region by the Esplanade Arts and Heritage Centre (formally the Medicine Hat Museum and Art Gallery) for the past 17 years. The program’s mandate is to provide every Albertan with the opportunity to enjoy visual art exhibitions in their community, supporting and promoting Alberta-made art, with each exhibition travelling for 2 years.