Introducing Eddie McColgan!

Meet Eddie McColgan, one of our amazing student-artists!

Eddie has been working in the painting studio at AFH for the past four years, and this year, his skills earned him the mighty responsibility of taking on 20 chairs to paint for our 11-11-11 Have A Seat Gala! Since the summer session ended, Eddie has been working tirelessly in the painting studio. While he's had guidance from mentors during the process, the project was entirely an independent and impressive endeavor, and really showcases his talents.

Eddie's recently been working with shapes in his sketches, locking them in together, and finding patterns within the form and structure of the shape. Painting mentor Laura Keane noticed his shapely drawings in his notebook one day and pushed him to explore it further. "She said it reminded her of Aboriginal artwork," Eddie recalled, and he became intrigued with the idea of contrasting the spiritual and naturalistic Aboriginal-inspired art with the industrial-looking, metal chairs, generously donated to us by Industry West.

After about a month of work, and many paint-markers later, the ten-chair set was completed.

Eddie's second set of chairs were inspired by the travel, lost children, gutter punks, and the grit of city streets and the accidental artwork that happens everyday by city workers leaving spray-painted notation on the pavement. His focus was on bringing attention to the fact that our culture is fixated on how quickly things can be done, and not thinking about how pleasant the finished product looks.

For the past three weeks, he has been using acrylic paint on wooden chairs to create pale backdrops before layering crunchy shapes and contrasting colors over it.

To see more of Eddie McColgan's original artwork, please join us on 11-11-11 when all the hand-painted chairs will be showcased in all their glory!

Buy tickets NOW before it's too late!