Catherine Paleczny, Sculptor and Gem of the Arts Community, contributes to KWAG and WCAC

Waterloo (Ontario), June 8, 2009 – Catherine Paleczny only recently returned to Waterloo this winter to share her talents with the community where her first interests in sculpture were nurtured. She is a living gem in the arts community that is contributing much in the way of visual arts.

At the moment Catherine has an exhibit on at the Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery (KWAG), “Sumus Quod Sumus” (May 15 – July 5), featuring 700 works in ceramics.

“Though her practice is rooted firmly in ceramics, Paleczny's work often suggests the archeological remnants of past civilizations… She creates a volume of forms using traditional hand-building techniques. Each object, though crafted as an ambiguous, individual form, is integrated into a collective and perceived as part of a larger shape. Paleczny's "swarms" speak of movement, repetition, spatial tension, and our constant search for order and belonging in the world around us.” (http://www.kwag.ca/en/exhibitions/OnView.asp)

Catherine Paleczny lives and works in Waterloo. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Waterloo and a Master of Fine Art degree from the University of Calgary. She has studied at the University of Michigan and the University of Western Sydney Australia and most recently earned a Master of Science in Education degree from Niagara University. She has been a resident artist at The Banff Centre, the International Ceramic Centre in Denmark and the Ceramic Sculpture Symposium in Poland and the Experimental Ceramic Work Centre in Jingdezghen China... To learn more about Catherine Paleczny, visit www.paleczny.net.

The Waterloo Community Arts Centre (WCAC) is pleased to begin working with Catherine, and her colleague Becky Webster, to develop a large piece of public art to be installed at the front of the Old Button Factory, home of the arts centre at 25 Regina Street South. Catherine’s sketches show her intention to honor the history and heritage of the building, formerly a factory that produced buttons made from shells and nuts until 1944. Her work is a testament to Waterloo’s arts community and demonstrates a standard of excellence that is expected of the public art produced in our creative city.

The community’s ownership in the development of this piece is important to WCAC. The organization invited community members to participate in a fully funded press-molding workshop as part of the recent SpOtlight Festival (June 5-7), where they created the ceramic buttons that will be fixed to the final piece. WCAC hopes the finished piece will become a landmark for Waterloo’s arts and culture, and that all community members will relate to it.

WCAC is waiting for approval from the City of Waterloo for the installation before Catherine and Becky can begin assembling the sculpture on the Button Factory property. The land and building are owned by the City of Waterloo, and therefore all public art must be approved by the City before installation can occur.