Monica Viola — The Sweet Music of Creativity

Monica Viola — The Sweet Music of Creativity - theHumm September 2019

By Sally Hansen

Art… and Soul

The idea of a solo artist gallery is one of those challenging concepts that requires a very special combination of ingredients to produce a gourmet feast instead of an overdose of variations on the same theme.

At MonSky Creations Gallery, located in the heart of Merrickville’s blooming arts enclave, Monica Viola succeeds in serving up a delicious banquet of originality. Her eclectic art works are constantly displayed and refreshed as she continues her unfinished symphony of endless creativity.

The first and biggest surprise when you enter this one-woman showcase is the range of talent she displays. The vibrant colours of her fused glass pieces contrast beautifully with the more muted tones of her ceramics and clay works. Her wall pieces and a wide variety of unique decorative objects combine media in a delightful and always original manner.

The main ingredients behind this captivating medley of objets d’art are Monica’s unfettered imagination combined with her mastery of a wide range of challenging techniques. She stirs a wonderful mix of emotional tones into her intriguing, sometimes phantasmagorical subject matter. If you are looking for something whimsical, delightful, fanciful, surprising, thought-provoking… you will love browsing among concoctions like her Mad Hatter tea pot set, and should probably urge a friend to join you the next time you drop in to check out her constantly updated creations.

For those with more conventional tastes, Viola’s fused glass pieces are simply stunning, and many of her functional pieces such as bowls, dishes, vases, wall planters and other accessories will complement any décor. A lovely three-minute YouTube video youtube.com/watch?v=aEiLXtUp3uk truthfully states: “Sometimes her work is elegant, simple and functional, very imaginative.”

It goes on to mention that she also creates pieces that are surreal, whimsical or magical. This too is not fake news. Her candle holders sport a full menagerie of critters, and the art on her plates and platters ranges from humorous to beautiful to Gothic. Who would have imagined an angel casserole or a fat cat pottery candle holder? It really is hard to believe that everything in the gallery is the result of one artist’s constant flow of creativity.

A Landscape Artist

Her explanation is simple. Monica says her drawings and paintings and the derivative clay and glass objects based on them is how she explores her emotions and inner feelings; they are expressions of her “interior landscapes.” She loves the unexpected connections she makes with people through her art.

She was born in Santiago de Chile, and studied Art at the Universidad de Chile, Facultad de Bellas Artes, graduating in 1983 as an Artificer specializing in Metalwork. Just when her parents decided to emigrate to Vancouver, she won a scholarship to study ceramics in Ecuador. Six years later, just as her parents decided to return to Chile, her brother sent her a ticket to visit him in Vancouver. She met her husband, Gary Viola, almost immediately, and that was it.

Like many female artists, Viola put her own career on hold while raising the couple’s two boys. In 1999 she took a pottery class in Vancouver and fell in love with clay and functional pottery. Once a year she held a big show in their home, and she participated in group pottery shows. On their 25th wedding anniversary they travelled to Italy to celebrate, and the experience triggered an epiphany. “I saw art everywhere, and I suddenly burst into tears. I realized I had to do what I always wanted to do. I had my talent, but I hadn’t ever had a chance to really do what I knew I could do.”

As soon as they got home the couple started looking for a property near Gary’s aging parents in Brockville. They knew they wanted to live in Merrickville to be part of the thriving arts community they had visited so many times, but they ended up buying a rural property in Lyn where Monica now has two kilns (clay and glass) in her garage. Gary commutes to Merrickville daily to man the MonSky Creations Gallery. He is as good at what he does as she is, and he thrives on the interaction with customers. After many demanding years as a motion picture camera operator, he has a skill set that is ideal for displaying, promoting and selling Monica’s diverse art works. It is a great arrangement. She is “free to create and do my own things. Now I can play all day long while my husband works!”

In 2012 Viola added glass fusing to her artistic repertoire. Always fond of drawing and painting, she has worked as a goldsmith, as a potter and clay artist, and now has expanded her artistic vocabulary with another language to further her abilities to explore her interior landscapes. She credits her Chilean cultural inheritance with her urge to imbue her pieces with a playful quality, and her mastery of many diverse and challenging media allows her to give free range to her imagination and continuing artistic growth.

Understandably, her work attracts attention. In 2017 she was invited to exhibit in the Florence Biennale, an international exhibition of contemporary art that happens every two years in Florence, Italy. The work of over 400 artists from over 70 countries was displayed, and Monica Viola was one of only twelve Canadians tapped for prestigious exhibition in this city of the arts. Each July she participates in the Fantasy in the Forest Art Show south of Westport; she is represented at the O’Connor Gallery in Gananoque, the Perivale Gallery on Manitoulin Island, and she has just been invited to appear in a joint exhibit at St. Lawrence College in Brockville.

On September 28 & 29 and October 5 & 6, Viola’s MonSky Creations Gallery will be Stop 10 of the Merrickville Artists’ Guild MAG Autumn Studio Tour & Sale. It’s a beautiful time of the year for a drive in the country, and a great chance to meet and see the art of over thirty area artists at 21 different stops within a ten-mile radius of Merrickville. I highly recommend Stop 10 for your viewing pleasure and your chance to meet Monica and Gary. Check the back of her Artist Trading Card above for more particulars.