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Dancer moves paintbrush to music

A self-diagnosed obsession with fall leaves has led one artist to create a series of work that expresses her love for dance, painting and music.
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Ece Aydin with her acrylic painting, which was chosen as part of the Municipal Art Program to hang in the public spaces of The Blue Mountains town hall. Erika Engel/Collingwood Today

A self-diagnosed obsession with fall leaves has led one artist to create a series of work that expresses her love for dance, painting and music.

Ece Aydin has painted a series called Compleafed. Each piece begins with an autumn leaf carefully selected and preserved by Ayden.

One of these paintings has been selected to be part of the The Blue Mountains Municipal Art Program exhibit at town hall. The paintings are selected by a jury and hung in public spaces around town hall.

Aydin’s painting depicts a young girl in a flowing dress splashing in a puddle. The leaf is shown floating in the puddle. She said she was inspired by her daughter’s love of jumping in puddles, and by flamenco dancing.

Aydin is originally from Turkey. She worked in Turkey then Vancouver and Toronto as a professional dance teacher and choreographer. She has been painting all her life, but considers her artist career about four years old. She lives in Owen Sound, and was moved to tears by her first experience of autumn in rural Ontario.

“There is something about the colours of the leaves that is so beautiful,” she said. They remind her of a flamenco dancer’s dress, and she has found her Compleafed series also carries a flamenco theme.

“If there could be a nature version of dance, it would be flamenco and it would be autumn,” said Aydin.

She paints while listening to music and will often stop painting to dance. She said the music often inspires the colours that are most prominent in her paintings. While she painted the piece she submitted to the Municipal Art Program, she listened to Leonard Cohen’s final album: You Want it Darker.

“I have a lot of feelings I need to express, and painting helps me do that,” she said. “I never thought I could combine the feelings of dance and visual arts together, but painting has done that.”

Aydin also owns a visual arts company called Craftitch. She makes wearable and decorative art pieces.

Yvonne Hamlin, chairperson of The Blue Mountains Public Art committee also served on the jury to select the paintings for town hall. She said the jury looks for strong pieces of art.

“Each piece is so individual and different,” said Hamlin. “It’s a representation of our community and of Southern Georgian Bay.”

The art selected for the Municipal Art Program exhibit will hang in The Blue Mountains Town Hall on loan for one year. Some of the pieces are also for sale.


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Erika Engel

About the Author: Erika Engel

Erika regularly covers all things news in Collingwood as a reporter and editor. She has 15 years of experience as a local journalist
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