The 2024 Call for Artists Winning Piece Showcases the Many Moods of Jazz
It was challenging to pick just one masterpiece submitted in the 2024 Call for Artists, but we're ecstatic to present this year's deserving winner!
Artist and Fort Langley local, Molly Gray, leaped out of her comfort zone when she brought our theme, "For the Love of Music, Art, Culture and Community," to life with her digitally-designed piece. Her diverse work is often influenced by animals and nature, so designing something related to jazz music was an unexplored venture for her and required tenacity and creativity, which she brought to her creation with full force.
Molly has been a full-time artist since 2016. Her current work, Avifauna, features to-scale, mixed-media birds created with linocut relief printing and watercolour. She is excited to start making metal sculptures using the skills she learned in the 2023 "Women of Steel" welding program at the University of the Fraser Valley.
"When I read the criteria, I was like, wow, how do you fit all of that together cohesively? It was such a vast challenge, and that's what drew me to submit," says Molly, who received a $750 honorarium and will have her design featured in all Festival branded materials, including posters, programs, T-shirts, and more.
"Molly's original piece was selected by the festival art committee for its creativity, originality and bold colours," says the Festival's Artistic Director, Dave Quinn. "Her layering of instruments and colours gives the piece depth, and we're excited to use it in our materials."
Embracing the process is one of the things Molly loves most about making art. Among her many artistic talents, printmaking has been her primary focus for the last five-plus years. She even gave a printmaking demo for Festival attendees in 2022! "With printmaking, you have to go with the flow. You never know what you're going to get at the end because it transforms with each step."
Molly is now enjoying the process of converting her digital piece into a physical painting. "It's a reverse situation where the original is digital and now I'm painting it. It's such a fun challenge and something I've never done before. It's really good practice for my colour-matching!"
Molly also loves that making art is a personal journey. Her sentiment is a down-to-earth reminder for seasoned and aspiring artists alike. "The joy of art is that you can always get better. It's not about comparing yourself to others. It's about where you started, where you are, and where you're going. Looking back even five years, I can see such a difference from what I was making then to what I'm making now. You can make leaps and bounds in a short time just by continually working at your craft."
Molly drew inspiration from her niece, a young jazz musician and Langley Fine Arts School music student! "Hearing my niece and her boyfriend talk about their bands and how the different instruments blend together was a big help. I conferred with her a lot," says Molly. "We have them over for game nights and play jazz music sometimes. We enjoy very different jazz styles. They like an upbeat tempo, and I like easy listening, slow jazz. The colours in my piece are supposed to represent that. They were inspired by the different moods that jazz creates."
The Festival's social media pages and website also guided Molly in the right direction. She says, "I don't know what it was, but the feel of the Festival's Instagram posts made something click. It was like a light bulb went off, and all the elements fit together."
"We thank all of the artists who submitted for the Call for Artists,” says Festival Executive Director, Karen Zukas. “The quality of submissions was outstanding, which made it challenging to select just one art piece that worked across all mediums and platforms.”
Check out Molly's work by visiting her website or following her on her Instagram pages! (@mollygrayart and @mollygraysculptures).