Whyte Avenue Art Walk celebrates 30 years: bigger, bolder than ever before
It was the summer of 1996, a twitchy time — with Rage Against the Machine's Evil Empire a frequent flyer on CJSR, the goofy Independence Day exploding at the box office, and Dolly the cloned sheep having us wondering how soon we'd see multiple copies of ourselves walking around.
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But over in Old Strathcona, 24-year-old local artist Ian Sheldon set up his first-ever booth at the second annual Whyte Avenue Art Walk — brainchild of The Paint Spot's Kim Fjorbotten.
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'I missed one year, the year my dad died, right before,' Sheldon says. 'But otherwise, yeah, 29 years — not counting the pandemic break, of course.'
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For years now at the annual sidewalk and park sprawler, which turns Old Strathcona into a gigantic, non-curated art fair, Sheldon's booth sits inside a cluster of 15 or so longtime vendors at the fest's core in Dr. Wilbert Mcintyre (Gazebo) Park.
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'I moved to the park from Whyte Avenue a long time ago,' he explains, 'and I kept telling them, 'You gotta come!'
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'And they were like, 'No, no, no — it's not on the avenue with all the people.' And then they moved over,' he laughs, 'and were like, 'Wow! Why didn't we come earlier?''
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There's absolutely a gonzo appeal to the front-facing 82 Avenue bustle: a wild, kaleidoscopic slideshow of tens of thousands of random creative impulses pulsing as you walk by the activated street.
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But at 53, Sheldon would rather not compete with the permanent stores and yelpers spilling out of the bars onto those singalong keg cycles.
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'In the park, people are super civilized,' he says, 'and they're there to enjoy the event specifically.'
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Now, if you've ever been down, you'll likely recognize storm-chaser Sheldon's big oil paintings. Rainclouds letting loose in the distance, often over canola fields, it's a wash of familiarity within which you can almost feel the wind hitting as the air pressure changes. Roadside nirvana.
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The artist has a degree in zoology, a master's in protected areas and wildlife management, which, in terms of his art, 'told me how to be experimental in my approach and learn fast.'
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'So summer is my storm chasing season. Any chance of a road trip — a field trip, a business trip — I just hope for really good weather.
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