MOOSE MOUNTAIN PROVINCIAL PARK - Alexandria Blatter lives with her partner Tyrell Barkway in Burgis Beach, a small hamlet on the shore of Good Spirit Lake.
Born in Lethbridge, Alta., her family moved several times when she was a child, which brought them to the grasslands of Alberta, then to the chilly Baffin Island of the north and eventually to Fort Qu’Appelle.
Blatter graduated from high school in Lipton and then returned to Alberta to get her education degree to become a teacher.
Blatter is a full-time teacher who looks forward to teaching the Grade 5/6 class at the Fort Qu’Appelle Elementary Community School, but she is also a part-time artist.
Always maintaining an interest in art, Blatter viewed the world in a unique way, and her parents were always supportive in the things that set her heart on fire.
Being a perfectionist, it limited her growth in the art department, but life experiences changed this and improved her ability and her love to create.
In 2017, her interest in art really took off and she has not looked back since.
When Blatter sits at her drawing table, she has one thing on her mind and that is the piece she will work on, and she allows the idea to take over her mind. Blatter wants her pieces to tell a story that her viewers might see, and this is her ultimate goal.
Her classroom and home reuse, upcycle and recycle many items, and this is applied to her art.
Her favourite medium is the stylograph pen and anything natural like skulls, birch bark or old wooden ores.
The art she creates is all done freehand and has extensive detail when it comes to flowers, nature, bison or fish.
All her pieces are framed in items found at local thrift shops. If they look good, she leaves them alone, but if they are rough looking, she will sand them down and give it a coat of paint to bring them back to life.
Blatter and her business Forever Awry will attend the Artist Colony of Moose Mountain Provincial Park from July 2-8, and this is her first time at the cabins.
She had attended the art show at Kenosee Lake last summer as a vendor and this is when she was asked to come to the colony this year.
“Camping and art are right up my alley,” said Blatter.
Having spent many summers hiking across Canada, up to the Yukon and sleeping in her van, her family teased her about being on the move or wandering.
“I just followed my heart,” she said.
Being forever a wander, she incorporated that into her name as Forever Awry.
She is looking forward to the excitement of the artist colony and being able to meet many people.
