Proutopia’s Fall Migration

August 19, 2019

Proutopia’s Fall Migration

End of summer is the time when all the pretty birds gather themselves up and start making plans to head out to their winter homes. Proutopia is the last hurrah of summer, and the perfect place for a hen (and rooster) pre-flight party and market. A few birds are even taking on an early “migration” to be here for the fun.

As all fans of Proutopia must know by now we have the lovely Gigi Chen making her way northward from the Big Apple. But we also have three other special birds making their own flights: one from the west and two from the east.

Dan Bogdon

Dan works from his home-based artist studio in Melville, Saskatchewan. He stumbled onto Proutopia last year when the call went out for submissions for our Rick Made Me Do It show. Heidi was amazed by his body of work and knew he’d be a great fit at Proutopia - so help us welcome him into our flock!

His medium of choice is oils but he also works with acrylic, water colours, charcoal and even pen and ink. He loves to explore a wide variety of subjects and he is especially drawn to animal and human portraiture, which moves him to the deep joy and fulfillment of expressing and sharing his own rich, internal life.

Margaret Webb

You may not know Margaret Webb but you might have seen her extraordinarily owlish bedhead on our social media feed. While Margaret isn’t one of our artist-vendors, she’s an art-inspired fan and enthusiastic contributor to Proutopia’s online community ... so much so that she’s making the pilgrimage to Proutopia all the way from Ottawa, Ontario! Margaret is deeply engaged in her own personal artistic practise, so Heidi has asked her if she would lead some of our live model sketching sessions at Proutopia. How great is that? She’ll get to meet all of you and all of you will get to meet her - owl hair and all!

Jodi Pilon/Espanola Fibre Fest

Heidi first connected with Jodi Pilon when she gave a presentation at Espanola Fibre Arts Festival last year. After discovering a shared love of the harp and all things textile, they realized that Jodi’s natural love of community engagement would nestle right in at the festival art market.

Jody is a mixed media and textile artist, passionate about protecting the environment by using recycled and discarded materials. Her conserver lifestyle is reflected in her arts practice and she works exclusively with found objects, paper, vintage and discarded textiles to create items of interest and beauty. Over the last 10 years, she has explored various textile arts including weaving, bobbin lace and most recently traditional Japanese styles of sashiko and boro stitching. She believes everyone can create, and "making together" builds meaningful connections locally and internationally.

Meet them all at Proutopia on August 31 and September 1. Get your tix below!