Gallery reels in unconventional artist
Black Diamond: Fish rubbing practitioner featured
Art so detailed it looks like a school of fish have been mounted on the walls of the Bluerock Gallery in Black Diamond.
Artist Mya DeRyan’s display at the gallery is a contemporary example of Gyotaku, also known as fish rubbings. Each piece starts with an inked impression on rice paper of an actual freshwater or seawater specimen.
De Ryan admitted it’s a curious art medium choice for a largely land-locked woman.
“When I was growing up I always had a passion for fish,” she said. “When most girls were playing Barbie, I was playing mermaid. I moved from Calgary to the west Kootenays about 17 years ago and started working as an artist’s technician and gallery manager for a couple of bronze sculptors. It was one of those artists that introduced me to this Japanese art of fish rubbing.”
DeRyan said she first cultivated the skill as a hobby. She was living on Kootenay Lake giving the avid angler an unending supply of fish to work with. Today with more than 15 years Gyotaku experience she accepts commission work with people sending her frozen fish they’ve caught to immortalize on rice paper as an alternative to taxidermy.
Throughout the course of her art career DeRyan estimates she has done works featuring close to 150 different species of fish. The uncommon art practice has also taken her to many parts of the globe where fishing is an integral part of the culture. This includes the Central American nation of Costa Rica where she moved up from her usual sports fish subjects like trout and salmon up to large-scale impressions of marlin and sailfish.
DeRyan’s Black Diamond show consists mostly of representations of North American sport fish but also features an image of a green sea turtle hatchling and another of a black bear paw.
Using her fish rubbing technique on a land animal, in this case a bear, is only one way DeRyan differs from others involved in her chosen art discipline.
“Gyotaku is not a new art form,” she said. “It dates back to the seventeenth century but my approach to the technique is very new and unique. I am the only Gyotaku artist I know of that actually paints the ink impression. So I take a black ink impression from the fish then I add the iridescent colours and the surface markings.”
DeRyan has also found a way to add uncharacteristic dimension to her work.
“By fluke of discovery I have figured out a way to relax and stretch out the fibres of the rice paper,” she said. “I do it in a way that allows me to create a relief or a three-dimensional image of the fish.”
Several of the artist’s pieces at Bluerock Gallery feature this added relief component which is created by her putting her own breath to the paper and pushing delicately from behind the original impression.
While DeRyan finds most people are fascinated by her work she has found children are particularly keen to get their hands on her scaly art subjects.
“When I have done fish rubbing programs with kids I find one of the first things they want to do is touch the eyes, lift the gill plate and feel the textures of the flesh,” she said. “It’s a beautiful thing to watch the kids discover.”
The artist’s work will remain on display at the Bluerock Gallery on Centre Avenue in Black Diamond through August 31.
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