EUGENE
CONTRERAS
Eugene Contreras in 2004
Growing up with artistic skills, Eugene Contreras took
a different route than acting.
From
Eugene:
I
started carving stone in 1996, when I was teaching in Salluit,
a small Inuit community in Nunavik, Northern Quebec. The
carvings that various people brought by our door to sell
intrigued me, and I bought a few. Although I had never really
done anything in the visual arts before, other than molding
plastecine figures, I was curious about the process of making
a carving, and wanted to try it out for myself if possible.
I asked the closest resource I had available at the time,
my students, what it takes to get started. One of my fourth
graders, Adamie, was quick to offer a piece of stone that
his father "wasn't using".
It
wasn't long before he and his younger brother took me to
the Co-op store and pointed out the basic tools I would
need to carve: a hacksaw, a set of three chisels, a rasp,
and two or three files - all of which I still use. I got
to work on the stone that evening in my living room, planning
to follow a popular genre in Salluit - a seal on a rock.
I enjoyed the task, and the tiny piece of stone turned into
a lizard on a rock in about two and a half hours. After
that, there was no turning back; I got the carving bug,
and had to continue. I used the rest of Adamie's stone,
and then was given a large piece by a friend, Mark Alaku.
Along with a piece of raw soapstone that I noticed being
used as a doorstop by a fellow teacher, I had enough material
to make several carvings.
When I came back "down
South" and finished up the large pieces of Salluit
stone I began looking for other sources, and, with some
research and good luck, found stone that I could work with
within driving distance of my home in Aylmer, Quebec. Along
with some stone that has been given to me by friends and
family, I now have a nice variety of colour and hardness
of stone to work with. Collecting stones from as many different
places as possible gives me the ability to choose the shape
and colour of stone that fits an idea I have, and the variety
in itself opens up possibilities and ideas to me.
My
early work was very much inspired by Inuit art, focussing
on wildlife themes, although the wildlife I was familiar
with differed from the Arctic landscape. As time goes on,
I have been experimenting with different techniques, inlays,
bases, and so on, as well as with different themes. My more
recent work is based on human relationships, and with the
balance we need to find with each other and within ourselves.
This work is heavily influenced, of course, by my own experience
as a father and a teacher.
