Being able to think outside the box at an Okotoks high school helped a young artist earn a prestigious scholarship to help pay the bills at an elite Canadian art school. Anna Luth (nee Forseth), a 2013 graduate of the Alberta High School of Fine Arts at the Foothills Comp, received a Queen’s Jubilee Award for Arts, it was announced last week. “I would consider myself to be a multi-disciplinary artist,” said Luth, who is entering her fourth year at the Emily Carr University of Art and Design in Vancouver. “I am kind of all over the place — I like to dabble in a lot of things. However, I would say my favourite mediums to work with are ceramics and painting.” Her ceramics leans to the sculptural side while her paintings are acrylic and oil. “I am generally overlapping between representational and abstract,” she said. “I will take familiar and recognizable things and change the perspective to try to evoke a different meaning and context.” A press release from Alberta Culture and Tourism described Luth’s work. “Anna’s artwork often includes the decontextualization of recognizable objects. Conceptually, Anna explores our understanding of value, both in the physical and intangible sense.” She was encouraged by high school of fine arts teacher Janie Zwack to push a few boundaries. “She gave me a lot of freedom to explore different techniques and subject matters,” Luth said. “She was really a huge inspiration to me and motivated me to keep pursuing the arts.” That was the feeling that permeated throughout the school, well, most of the school. “I loved the facility — even though I felt the emphasis was a lot on football at the school — but I was impressed with the different studio spaces, the arts room was massive and full of crazy things created by students from the past.” She said music teacher Nicole Hounjet was also a mentor. “I loved my experience at the school,” she said. “It was a smaller group and you really got to know the more artistic students.” However, long before she got to the high school of fine arts, Luth had the artistic bug — likely since the womb. “My dad, Dwight Forseth, has been quite involved in the Town of Okotoks scene,” Luth said. “He has done some of the sound with the Town and as a musician he has played at quite a few events. “My parents, Dwight and Lisa Forseth, still live there and I have so much to thank them for. My parents are both creative, and have been a constant encouragement in my life.” She wasn’t able to attend the Queen’s Jubilee ceremony in Calgary, because she was busy not being a starving artist. “I am doing an internship right now at the Port Moody Arts Centre as a gallery assistant,” Luth said. “I wasn’t able to make it.” The $5,000 scholarship is nice, she will use it to get through her studies. “It’s a prestigious award coming from the Alberta Foundation of the Arts,” she said. “It (the money) will be put towards my education at Emily Carr.” Luth attended the Alberta College of Art and Design before enrolling at Emily Carr. Her long-term goal is to combine the things she learned at ACAD, Emily Carr and from Zwack and Hounjet. “My big vision is to have an arts collective that bridges the gap between music and art,” she said. “I am really passionate about people being inspired and learning in creative ways… I know I have to have faith and keep pushing forward. This (the Queen’s Jubilee Award) is a huge encouragement that I can do this.”
