A Peek at the Canvas: September 2024
by Frank Caracciolo
The most recent episode of The Blank Canvas with Frank Caracciolo is out now. Released on September 17th, the episode features a conversation with artist and educator Beverley Ann Landry.
Frank Caracciolo: Good morning, Beverley. Thanks for coming on the Blank Canvas podcast today and starting our season 5, how are you today?
Beverley Ann Landry: I’m really well. Thank you so much for having me, Frank. It’s a pleasure.
Frank Caracciolo: It’s great to have you. I want everybody to know about what we’re doing in, in the schools and what you do especially. But can you just tell us a little bit about your background at Lester B. Pearson and what you’re working on?
Beverley Ann Landry: Wonderful. I’m actually very privileged to have many different opportunities to do different things within the school board. Currently, I work a few days at John Rennie High School as a community and cultural animator, where I get to do wonderful things between the students and the community. We highlight a lot of the senior citizens that we work with. I do a lot of art projects with them. We hold special High Teas the during the season. I get to do a lot of art with the CFER group, the life skills, the balanced day kids, and I get to plan a lot of events, activities and assemblies. I also get the opportunity of working at different schools like Allion and Verdun Elementary, most recently doing some murals, which is what I’m currently occupied doing for many days of the week.
Frank Caracciolo: Yeah, I know. I got to do that one with you in Verdun, which was a blast…
Beverley Ann Landry: That was a fun day, Frank.
Frank Caracciolo: Yeah, and the kids… what I really want our listeners to to grasp with you is what the experience is like for the students who work with you and when they go by, because I know that my experience was… we were working together and students would go by and their just reactions, so you just expand a little bit about how the students are with you when you’re doing your roles and working with art in the schools.
Beverley Ann Landry: Well, First off, I have to say it’s very good for the ego. I don’t really operate from the ego a lot, but I do have to say when I walk into a school and many, many kids throughout the day go, Miss Beverley, you’re such a great artist or Miss Beverley, it’s so fun to watch you paint, it’s actually very heartwarming. I love it a lot. One of my favorite aspects of mural painting is in fact bringing in the students, so when I get to work with students who often get chosen to work on the project based on if it’s a cycle project, so if it’s a legacy mural that it’s like grade fives and sixes, we’ll have certain groups come and paint. Sometimes the students that get chosen to paint with me are students that have already demonstrated an innate artistic ability, so they have been… many times we’ll highlight, you know, students that are very academically strong or, you know, are very good athletic. And so this is a great opportunity to take the students that have shown an artistic ability to come in and paint many times. Teachers will choose students to come and paint that have shown, you know, real determination throughout the week to, you know, slogging through something difficult for them. They’ve gotten over that hill and then they will be allowed to come…
(barking)
Frank Caracciolo: Ohh we have a another guest on…
Beverley Ann Landry: Yes, we have a little, a little Shih Tzu guest, my apologies. The other the barkier one is upstairs and I left him upstairs for that reason. But it’s mostly when they walk by and they see the paint. What I appreciate is the fact that they have an appreciation for the process so they see the beginning, the outline, sometimes it’s a free hand drawing. Just like free hand, big strokes, big marking. Sometimes we use that beautiful old fashioned projector that my friend Sonya at CFER procured for me, which is my most invaluable best friend. My scaffolding and my projector, my two favorite things… And so students will see the beginning from the outlines to the drawing, and then, you know, the ugly part of the painting that I always call it, you know, that background when you get that mass shape and or the mask color. And sometimes they’re critical when they walk by because they’re like, how is that going to be nice? And then they see the days or the weeks and in some cases it’s months, depending how often I can get back to a mural and then they’ll see the process and they’ll see it blossom and bloom, and then it’s very exciting.
