By Sarah Rae

Artist brings hometown inspiration to the Battlefords

Oct 2, 2016 | 8:56 AM

A local artist who left the former Yugoslavia more than 15 years ago to move to Canada is sharing a piece of her home with the Battlefords.

Battleford resident Ljubica Fa-Hardi’s new exhibition at the Chapel Gallery was inspired by a visit to her home village Ruski Kerestur last year.

In her exhibition Wrapped in Velvet, Fa-Hardi layers portraits of family and friends with photographs of old buildings in Ruski Kerestur.

“There are a lot of houses that we have there that are over 100 years old,” she said. “They have lots of layers of different paints, plaster, different materials and over time they start to peel off and create wonderful shapes with cracks and different openings and I just love those textures.”

Fa-Hardi placed her pieces on different materials such as paper, canvas and wood and added even more texture to some with clay.

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She said the cracks and lines in the building walls represent many different things to her, from pathways home to roadmaps and blood vessels.

The portraits are personal memories for Fa-Hardi, as they are of her family, including her children, and were taken on what she said is a rare trip home.

“I wanted to preserve what I saw. It might not stay like that forever,” she said. “To me it’s very special. That’s where I grew up, that’s what I saw growing up and I wanted to bring it here.”

Wrapped in Velvet runs at the Chapel Gallery until October 30th.

Sarah Rae is battlefordsNOW’s court and crime reporter. She can be reached at Sarah.Rae@jpbg.ca or tweet her @sarahjeanrae.