Arts in brief

Nude Stephen Harper portrait sold

A nude portrait of Stephen Harper named ‘Emperor Haute Couture’ that is on display at the Kingston Public Library on Johnson St. was sold for $5,000 on May 24.

Artist Margaret Sutherland painted the piece for the Kingston Arts Council’s Juried Art Salon, an annual competition that’s judged by three professional artists.

The oil painting depicts the Prime Minister lying on a recliner in the buff with a dog at his feet. He’s also being served a Tim Horton’s coffee from a woman. The painting is meant to be a political satire of Harper’s cuts to arts programs in the country.

Sutherland’s body of work includes other nude portraits and more popularly, a demonic painting of Pope Benedict’s face.

The painting will be on display at the library until the end of the month.

— Savoula Stylianou

Awesome Kingston funds film project

Awesome Kingston has given a $1,000 grant to a Kingston film project that intends to make one movie a week for 26 weeks.

The venture is called 26 Shorts and will involve asking a group of Kingston filmmakers to shoot one movie every week using a Kingston cast, crew and location.

Eric Ferguson came up with the idea when he realized that local filmmakers spend more time sitting at the pub than out making movies.

“A lot of pints get finished, but not a lot of films,” Ferguson, ConEd ’11, said.

Ferguson went to an Awesome Kingston meeting and had 90 seconds to pitch his idea to the panel of judges.

“The idea is the antithesis of a normal grant procedure,” he said. “They gave me a paper bag filled with $1,000 cash and they don’t check in afterwards.”

The filmmakers are currently in the stages of scouting and planning the 26 short films that could range anywhere from one minute to 10 minutes.

Ferguson said he’s planning to start the project in August and finish by early February next year. The project is aiming to screen some of the films at the Kingston Canadian Film Festival in March 2013.

— Savoula Stylianou

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