Currently, there are a couple of Jasper ravens two-steppin’ in a French museum. They didn’t end up there by chance, rather they were delicately shipped at great expense.
Last month, local mosaicist Claude Boocock brought her sculpture, A Two Steppin’ Pair, to the Musee des Augustins in Hazebrouck, France to be displayed as part of a two-month mosaics exhibit.
The sculpture, which she created for her 2014 show, A Raven Folly, is of two birds dancing around each other. The two sculpted ravens sit atop a pair of high heel shoes adorned in black glass and moulded medal.
Boocock’s mosaic, the only Canadian piece in the Biennale Mosaïques en Nord exhibit, is amongst 100 others and will be on display until Jan. 4, 2016.
“It’s kind of cool. I’m representing Canada and Jasper and Franco-Albertans,” she said, noting that although she is from Montreal, she’s been in Alberta for more than 40 years and considers it home.
To be included in the exhibit, Boocock sent an application to the museum. She said that isn’t ordinarily something she would do—applying to showcase her work all the way in France—but she had received the exhibit director’s contact information from a friend and he encouraged her to apply.
So she did and shortly after she was accepted as the exhibit’s only Canadian artist.
With a trip to Europe already in the works, Boocock packaged up the sculpture, flew it overseas and hand delivered it to the museum ahead of the exhibit.
Boocock has been creating mosaics for the past five years. Her first was made for one of the Jasper Artists Guild’s upcycle events, where the guild’s artists were encouraged to recycle odds and ends to create a brand new piece of art.
Since then, she’s made 30 more, some of which can be seen in Mountain Galleries at the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge.
Boocock’s signature style often includes the use of shoes or mannequins, but her latest piece is different—it harkens back to another of her age old inspirations: glaciers.
In the past, Boocock has created a whole series of paintings depicting glaciers and now she’s bringing that muse into her mosaics, creating a large piece out of turquoise, blue and white glass and ceramics.
The piece is called Vanishing Beauty and should be completed soon.
Nicole Veerman
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