CALLANDER – Beautiful women in armoured breastplates, hooded sorcerers with jewel-topped wands, creatures with wings and scales and trolls with eyes like large black agates are all part of the current exhibit being shown at the Callander art gallery located in the Callander Bay Heritage Museum.
The alluring and compelling graphite drawings are the creations of Callander artist Sentry Wolfrunner and spring from an inner fantasy world that she has been cultivating since she was a young girl.
“I’ve been into gaming since I was a kid, in particular Dungeons and Dragons, and that’s what took my artistic career in this direction,” she said. “I love creating fantasy. It allows me to leave the ordinary behind and enter an extra-worldly place where I don’t have to worry about bills or work, but where I can become someone else.”
Part of the allure for Wolfrunner is “you put part of yourself in each character, yet you can do outrageous things like ride on the back of wolves or charm dragons.”
Wolfrunner’s mother, Marie White of Sundridge, says she is not only proud of her daughter’s accomplishments as an artist, but feels she can take some credit for the eerily charming artworks.
“She was exposed to this type of fantasy very early,” said White, “From the time she was a child we read The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings together, so I guess her gaming pursuits and now her art just come naturally to her. I also admit to a personal love of dragons.”
A graduate of graphic design from Canadore College, Wolfrunner said she soon realized that her desire to be an animator was overshadowed by her need to create depictions of her fantasy worlds.
“I just didn’t have the patience to do all the repetition required in animations,” she said. “I want to see something completed, no have to redo it over and over.”
Raised in Burk’s Falls, the Almaguin Highlands Secondary School graduate put off an art career in favour of marriage and family, and now at age 34 has been creating fantasy artworks for five years. While she may be the artist, her inspirations come from her husband Tim and three sons, Jean Luc, 15; Allan, 14 and Michel, 11.
“We’re all into role playing games, and the boys are really into Dungeon and Dragons,” she said. “In fact, two of the works on display are of my husband and I in fantasy form, and the trolls are depictions of role playing characters created by my sons.”
Currently Wolfrunner’s art is in private collections, but she admits she is interested in having her work published in gaming magazines.
Wolfrunner’s art is part of a new gallery exhibit called Graphite and Pastel, and her shades of grey works have been dramatically juxtapositioned with other well-known Almaguin artists including Marg Cunningham’s soft pastelsof lakeside scenes. The exhibit captured an array of emotions and effects that the two mediums can bring out, as Doreen Wood’s pastel animals jump boldly from the frames as do Arleen Johnstone’s bright colours and strong images. The careful realistic detail in all of the pastel works, both compliments and highlights Wolfrunner’s intricately created fantasy graphite depictions.
The gallery is open Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
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