Press Release by DIMEC (E. Connie Munson).
While Christine Long is a driving force for the creation and ongoing presence of ArtTrendZ, an artist collective in Mississauga, she is continually facing outwards into the community beyond the arts collective.
On December 15 she will be interviewed by Anna Silgardo, Radio Show Host of “Heart to Art”, for CKAR FM, 88.7, The Bay, Hunters Bay Radio in Huntsville, in the district municipality of Muskoka. Their discussion will focus on why art is so crucial to Long and her recovery from a serious illness and her extensive activities to engage her community in the joy that art can bring to people’s lives.
Silgardo is the Founder of Artists in Momentum. During Covid she had invited Christine to join an international Zoom conference with medical persons discussing the topic of how the arts help people heal. In 2019, Silgardo was recognized by the Mississauga Art’s Councils with their prestigious Marty Award, Arts for Health.
Silgardo wants to share Long’s experiences and perspective on how working in the arts field has affected her life. She intends to focus on Long’s journey with creative expressive energy and how it continues to inform her life.
As a visionary, Long conceptualizes community engagement with broad strokes. These include the 2019 Waterfront Festival in Port Credit, five years of outdoor art shows and sales which began during covid called Art By The Yard and Fall Into Art, on-line winter markets, Gifts from The Heart in a Community Centre, and Neo Voce PhilharmonicChinese Choir Senior Artistry Day. Whether organized with or alongside of other groups or separate events closer to home, one constant thread weaves through all of these.
Community, a joyous coming together, underlies these experiences as both process and result. Christine Long is all about the sharing of creative expression and providing spaces for uniting people in these activities.
Her artistic practice can be viewed as her more intimate process of print making and acrylic pours but needs to include the larger canvas of relationships. This latter arena gives scope and dimension to the creative energy in the organic networking of people. Long is the hub around which these crystallized bursts of energy form. Working outwards, she shares the possibilities and makes room for a collective vision to emerge.
Communication and caring with the inspiration of creative expression are a potent force and focal point. The serendipity of Long’s visioning truly is a work of art in and of itself. Because she shares space with other groups and can meld other people’s ideas into events or projects, the freshness and vitality of these many creative impulses continues to permeate the experiences.
Life affirming, building on the creative spirits and energy within groups, and nurturing any project along its path out into the larger community, these are a vital part of Christine Long’s palette and artistic tools.
Podcast date for the interview will be forthcoming and slated for before Christmas.
For more information on Anna Silgardo and Hunters Bay Radio CKAR 88.7, The Bay.
Or FB: AIM: Artists in Momentum
www.artistsinmomentum.com
IG: @artists_inmomentum
More about Christine Long’s work may be found at:
FB: ArtTrendZ an Artist Collective
@christinelong6620 @pouringartmyway @arttrendzcollective
Contact: long@rogers.com
website: www.christine-long-art.ca
