The Pearl Company

DOORS OPEN Hamilton! Saturday & Sunday, May 3 & 4. 11 to 4pm
3^rd Annual Ladybird Spring Fair! The fine musicians and human beings who make up the Ladybird Sanctuary (Melissa McLelland, Lisa Winn, Janine Stoll) will fill the place with music, food, and fun. Come on out and enjoy. All to benefit Ladybird Animal Sanctuary and the rescued animals in their care!  The fair was great fun last year and absolutely packed with people, happenings, food, crafts, and entertainment. Bring your family to the fair and help Ladybird rescue animals in your community! Donations are: “Pay What You Wish”. www.ladybirdanimalsanctuary.com
Dave Gould will be presenting his unique and uniquely fashioned musical instruments.  Based on the fact that you can make music with just about anything, Dave lets his imagination and his musical skills run riot.  Seeing – and hearing – will be believing
Tours will be provided showing off the three floors of the exciting and distinctive building that is The Pearl Company. Comprising the Concert Hall that is considered one of the acoustically-finest rooms on the planet; the unique tiered black box theatre-in-the-round that is getting so much attention these days; the art that is hung in the three galleries; the ambiance which is so often called ‘New York’ and valued as almost impossible to find any more!  It’s here; in Hamilton.  Come visit.

Ladybird Fair Performances: 

• Saturday, at 1:00pm and 3:00pm, features the highly-touted ensemble, The DoneFors, showcasing an eclectic style they term ‘Canadiana vanguard’, which incorporates jazz, pop, rock, world and roots elements. Singer/songwriter, (and Ladybird) Janine Stoll with her expressive versatile voice, and her band pump out a brilliant sound. http://www.thedonefors.com/
• Sunday at 1:00pm and 3:00pm, local solo roots artist and singer/songwriter Mimi Shaw will entertain with The Highnote Ramblers. Deeply influenced by Canadian folk and Americana roots artists, Mimi creates a sound that evokes characteristics of both styles. Her band was voted one of CBC’s top 10 picks for Hamilton’s Supercrawl 2012. http://www.reverbnation.com/mimishaw

December 6: Grand Opening of Art in “The Pearl District”! 7:00 pm. to ? No Charge. Gerardo Mansang, has set up Casa Mansang featuring art and artisans from South and Central America in one of our storefronts at Steven and King. Art on the walls includes Gerardo, Dora Restepo and Zunayme Romero.  Great gift ideas and just in time for Christmas!
St. Jacques Photography: will be open. Joanna St. Jacques is a welcome addition to the arts scene creating itself here in “The Pearl District”.
Members of the Hamilton Sculpture Guild will be here with their winter show in the main gallery in The Pearl showing us their work and how they put it together….
Our regular Pearl Company artists will be hanging in our other gallery spaces too. Snacks, beverages, fun!
More information to come….

The Hamilton Sculptors’ Guild (HSG) Fall/Winter Exhibition: Opening Sunday Nov 17th, 3pm to 8pm. Join us for an exhibition of works in stone, wood, metal, clay and more from some of the finest sculptors in Hamilton & area. Participants: Lia Van Pelt Ridell, John Tice, Sandor Monos, Vida Cegys, Naomi Frohlich, Carolyn Lehmann, Monika Minnis, Malcolm Cumming, Bruna Sbranchella, Joseph Sawicki, Stone Carver, & Jennifer Wilson-Bridgman.  Exhibition runs thru Jan 12th, 2013

Diane Beatty-Wearing: “AMBITIOUS”. Thursday, September 26. 7:00 to 9:30. No charge. Diane Beatty-Wearing brings a visceral perspective in her “Ambitious” Hamilton series. “Starting small and working to large, symbolic of the end result of ambition in any chosen direction. Hamilton has moved away from the reputation of manufacturing steel small c culture, into the culture driven multi media of arts production. Quite a large group now entertains this idea. It is the thought that counts. We are working towards a tipping point.”
DBW explores Hamilton with an eye towards the aesthetic. The architecture, abundance of trees and green space, Breathtaking scenery, community gathering places. There is a lot to draw from.
DBW has left the mainstream workforce to freelance as an artist and art educator.  High ambitions, fraught with challenge and bursting creativity.  Opening up the right-brain and following the feeling, DBW makes it up as she goes. “We are what we keep telling ourselves.  I AM Hamiltonian; I AM an Artist; I  AM.  And now to paint.”

THE JACK STREET SHOW: THE LAST CALL: The Memorial Wake & Celebration of the Life & Work of the late local Artist & Story Teller. Monday, September 16. Doors at 6:00, show at 9:00. Pay what you wish at door. Join Jack’s wife LLLLaura, his family of friends, and his dog, Gonzo in celebrating the man’s life and work. At 9:00 the show be launched with bagpipes and we will showcase the eclectic parade that was Jack’s life: his poetry, his stories, his musical collaborations, his artwork (the retrospective he was working on before he passed away)..  Jack`s favourite music will accompany LLLLaura`s photo slideshow. Bob Ezergailis’ videos of Jack on stage, taken over the years will be projected on the big screen of the main floor theatre. Suggested attire is Gypsy/Hippy/Jack Street style. There will be spirited libations, merriment, great gobs of food, remembrance and lively conversation, all the things Jack loved the most. Truly a multi-faceted, entertaining, and interesting evening not to be missed. A good old “Knees Up” as Jack would say! Pot luck offerings welcome!

The Art Bus is Sponsored by Judy Marsales Real Estate Brokerage:

First 2 Fridays of every month! Check out Hamilton’s unique and constantly evolving art scene!  Call Barbara (905.524.0606) or email (hamiltonartbus@gmail.com) to reserve your seat.  Next dates: October 4 & 11.  Cost: $15/$10 students/artists.  Start: 6:30 from The Pearl.

• September 6:
  The L’Arche Community Art Studio:  This favourite stop for our Bus patrons is an international family of communities for people with learning disabilities and those wishing to share life with them. Participants produce colourful paintings and works in clay as part of their programming.
  Ottawa Street Stroll: Earls Court Gallery: Currently showing the very painterly ‘Alla Prima’ with artists Dara Aram & Jan Yates.
  AllSorts Gallery: A co-operative art gallery and gift store with 38 local artists and artisans including: ceramics, glass, textiles, wood, and jewellery.
  337 Sketch Gallery: Opening Reception of  ‘My Way’ – a collection of work by Anne Becker influenced by her pilgrimage through Spain (Camino de Santiago), and Italy (Via Francigena).
  Arts 4U Studio: A gallery, studio and a classroom with a collection of 19 artists and artisans showing and teaching. Artist in Residence Mary Simms hosts.
  Montmartre Gallery: Rob Laffier, John Stirling, Don Graves
  Nathaniel Hughson Gallery on John Street North is dedicated to representing artists in their early and mid careers. We will be previewing gallery artists Christina Sealy’s , “Small Paintings and Studies”.

Explore Hamilton’s exciting Art Scene on the Art Bus!
•    Starting at 6:30 from The Pearl Company
•    Reserve a spot via email or phone, and purchase your trip ($15/$10 students/artists) when you arrive
•    We finish at The Pearl for an après-tour wind-down, either a tour of the building or admission to that night’s event
Call Barbara Milne at  905-524-0606 or email hamiltonartbus@gmail.com to reserve your seat. The Art Bus has been called ‘The Best Deal in Town’, ‘A great way to catch the Art Scene in Hamilton’ ! Meet new people and/or bring your own party. Group Tours arranged.

Art Opening: Abrazos: Saturday, August 10. 7 – 10 pm. No Charge. Cuban artist, Zunayme Romero is a graduate of the San Alejandro Academy of Fine Arts. She has chosen oils on canvas as her medium and the human body as her preferred subject; in particular the bodies of contemporary dance artists, whose art is to present the many facets of human expression.  Romero, in creating her images from live models, not only captures the reality of the naked form but also delves deeply into her subjects, revealing much more.  Her subjects seem locked in a quiet struggle, contorted, enraptured and at times as if in enveloped in pain. The emotions and entanglements often morph into the abstract leaving us to unravel the mystery.  Abrazos is Spanish for Embrace.

Amanda McIntyre: From Abstract to Figurative. On the walls now! We will have a “Closing Party” for this show, May 23.  Amanda is an emerging Hamilton Artist. She has an Honours Bachelors Degree in Fine Art, Studio Visual Arts, from York University and has made it her goal to show the world her art. For the past two years she has been part of 11 group shows and 10 solo exhibits. She has curated several group exhibits, commissioned to complete over 30 commissions and sold another 80 pieces. Amanda tends to dabble in all types of mediums from intaglio and woodcut printing, to painting of all sorts, and photography as well. The themes of her work change as often as her choice of medium, ranging from social comments, to contrasting religion and society, to pure abstraction. This exhibit, at the Pearl Company, will be a display of paintings from abstract to figurative. www.amcintyreart.ca

Keeping the Dream Alive! Support The Pearl! Saturday, February 16. 7:00p.m. Give What You Wish. (From a Toonie to a Tune.)  To the numerous well-wishers and supporters who sent love and offers of help, who passed on their dismay, distress and outrage and who have asked us what they can do, we have never needed your support more. This particular event, being pulled together by ‘Allies of The Pearl’, will be a mini-support-and-funds-raiser to help us get past both the trauma of the horrendous events last week (we need lots of hugs and hand-holding…), and to help get our feet back under us financially. Feb.16th was to be DJ (former VJ) Michael Williams’ Dance Party and Michael has graciously agreed to still be here with the dance music, but this is the only possible date we have until the end of March and we need to use it. Much will be added over the next while; art, music and contributions of… (do you have something you would like to share?) If Gary can manage it, he too will play. We would normally have food, but we are looking for help with that as well. It would be great to have a potluck!  We are inviting all who can to drop by for 5 minutes, an hour, the entire evening, just to show your support and concern for a plight that was as bizarre as it was violent.

Over the years we have put our heads and our hearts on the line. We have insisted on keeping a wonderful, ambiance-laden structure that seems to have been built for powerful acoustics and warm gatherings, and the dream has been to keep it as a voice for the arts! The Pearl Company has filled a number of necessary roles in its neighbourhood and its community. It is a stage for budding, mid, and realized talent in the music, theatre and visual arts fields; it is a place for community gatherings and celebrations; it fosters numbers of creative undertakings from gutsy new ideas to rehearsal space to festivals.  And, it could be so much more!

There is another simple answer if you can’t make it on the 16th: Continue to support by coming to events; tell your friends, your neighbours, your co-workers.  Thank you so much. Hope to see you soon, Barbara and Gary

“Eclecticism”: Five Diverse Women: Opening Saturday, January 26 @ 7:00 ‘til 9. No charge. Grace Loney, Sandi Ewasiuk; Renate Min-Oo; Callie Archer, Ruby Lockett. These talented local women have it all.  Colour, texture, variety; it’s a visual feast of acrylic, encaustic, fabric, found objects, decoupage. Grace Loney uses acrylic, oil pastel, water colour, and painterly mixed media to create depth in abstract expression. Her paintings are intuitive and alive with colour and rhythm. http://www.graceloneystudio.com; Sandee Ewasiuk specializes in exploring everyday scenes turning them upside down, backwards and sideways. Vibrant reds, yellows, and blues are used to create tongue in cheek landscapes populated by puckered lips and gravity-defying hair where fantasy and reality merge. http://www.s-ewasiuk.ca; Renate Min-Oo is an award winning textile artist who combines geometric forms, colours, contrast and different fabrics to create new designs. As an equally accomplished potter she also brings Raku and textile together to enhance and complete her highly original works. http://www.renate.ca Callie Archer paints with watercolour and acrylic; she’s a colourist with a loosely representational style, who is particularly sensitive to the shapes and textures of landscape, capturing the light, the calm and the ambiance. Ruby Lockett is a local landscape artist painting in acrylic and specializing in waterfalls; her work pulls the viewer directly into the composition.

Opening followed at 9:00 by “Down The Rhodes“ A musical and visual tribute to the Fender Rhodes electric piano.

“Compilation” Art Opening: Friday, November 30. 7:00 to 10:00pm. No charge. Curated by Amanda McIntyre. From watercolor, acrylic and sculptural paintings, The Pearl Company is hosting an exhibit of 10 talented artists. The exhibit “Compilation” will be on display from November 30th (opening night) until mid January. Artists include; Elizabeth Gosse, Robin Pulver-Andrews, Danuta and Kasia Niton, Amber Aasman, Amanda Immurs, Heidi Perron, Beverly Sneath, Callie Archer and Amanda McIntyre. Come check out these talented artists and maybe find something special for someone on your list.

Art Opening: Women of Fire, Women of Snow: Friday, October 19, 7:00pm. No charge. Three Women; Three Points of View: The Pearl Company & Mansang ArtStudio invite you to an Art opening by Colombian Artists Eddyth Gaviria, Idalid Parra and Dora Restrepo. Giving artful expression to their many memories and dreams on canvas, their works present a polychromatic mirror of imagination, sensuality, poetry and music bordering on the mystical. These three Columbian women, now living and making their vibrant, personal art in Hamilton, display their different visions of the world around them. 

Roxanne Potvin: Saturday, June 9: 8:00 pm $15 / $10 students/artists: When last at The Pearl, Roxanne blew the audience out of the theatre with an utterly delightful and eclectic display from her talented self. With her latest album “Play”, Potvin has achieved something that few artists ever succeed in doing – she’s expanded her style and grown as an artist while still keeping the grit and authenticity that is so appealing about her music.  Her smart and sassy new album Play, finds the Montreal-based artist pushing new buttons and continuing her evolution from a stylish, bluesy guitar slinger to a more tuneful pop-orientated performer, free-spirited and varied.  Steve Dawson encouraged her in her decision to shift direction and helped her keep the songs on “Play” ambitious, while never losing the loose limbed joyful feeling that inspired them.  She says about her aggressive, energy-driven hooks of Play, “I had been listening to all different types of music and learning to approach writing as a discipline. I found myself going back to the Beatles and Beck.”  Roxanne can rock with the best of them when she wants! www.roxannepotvin.com

Alignment: Saturday, May 12, 7:00pm start! $15 at the door: A multi-disciplinary event brought to you by PENTA (People Engaging and Networking Through the Arts), Nationless Minds, and the Burlington Slam Project: Hosted by the dynamic Greg “Ritallin” Frankson, Alignment  converges on 2 floors of The Pearl Company and brings you a stellar line-up of performers and artists exploring where various artistic expressions intersect and align with spoken word.  Spoken word is getting more attention all the time. Performers like Ian Keteku are at the forefront of this movement and PENTA is happy to have him join their first installation piece “Alignment”. The night will be filled with inspiring talents like Truth Is…, Prufrock, Shadowrunner, Hyf, Brad Morden, Electric Jon, The Burlington 2011 Slam Team, and Komi Olafimihan.  Being a PENTA show, these poets will be surrounded by photography, music, film, movement… What better way to experience a painting than to see it made from beginning to end while hearing the influences around it?  PENTA fills beautiful spaces with all the senses. Tickets: Available in advance at various spoken word events throughout April in southern Ontario, or contact PENTA at: we.are.PENTA@gmail.com for online purchase. http://www.wearepenta.com

Stephanie Vegh: Revisions: Gallery Opening: Thursday, April 12.  (7pm to 10pm) No Charge. Respected Hamilton-born, McMaster graduate, artist and writer Stephanie Vegh has an MFA from the Glasgow School of Art.  Her body of work has been shown from Toronto to Leeds, England. Her playful, drawn interventions into history books are both humorous and unnerving. These drawings are both a direct creative response to the book’s contents and a subversive act in which the status of the book as inalienable fact is undermined by the interpretation of the reader.  While playful in the spirit of the idle student’s textbook scratchings, Stephanie Vegh’s  interventions into history books reveal a serious stake in civilizations defined by their conquerors. Her labour-intensive drawings of diminutive subjects at an excessive scale in relation to their illustrated environments refuses the logic of these books, forcing a fusion between their history and another, more fantastic possibility.  www.stephanievegh.ca
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