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It is billed as “edutaining, infotaining, and just plain entertaining.”
Local artists will explore the netherworld during the second annual Trap\door Artist Run Centre Psychic Fair & Artist Side Show March 19 at the Bowman Arts Centre.
“It will feature real psychics, pseudo-psychics and straight-out charlatans,” said Darcy Logan, one of the organizers who will also be running four booths.
One of the surprise attractions is an actual Fiji mermaid.
“They used to be a staple of travelling sideshows in the early 20th century,” Logan said. “People would pay their money expecting to see an actual mermaid.”
There will also be Ouija boards, mind reading, art alchemy, and even a cyclops.
All proceeds support the Trap\door artists’ collective.
“They are a collective without a home, but they have meetings and a board and they do programs to showcase their artists,” explained artist Aaron Hagan.
The collective is open to any artist, even those without formal art training including master’s students and others. Trap\door artists have exhibited at the Southern Alberta Art Gallery, Trianon, Yates Centre and the Bowman. Among the many programs they offer is an art residency in the Crowsnest Pass.
“It’s a really small version of what the SAAG does,” Hagan continued.
“But it’s for emerging artists — artists who aren’t established yet.”
Members create cutting-edge contemporary art, said Logan.
The collective emerged in the 1960s and ’70s as an alternative to more formal institutions, Logan added.
This year’s psychic fair has grown since the debut last year with the addition of new organizers such as Len Komanac.
Logan will run four booths: Aura cleaning, tarot card reading, i-ching and sin eating.
“Last year I did a little magic. This year I’ll be showing off some of my more esoteric abilities,” he said.
Among those abilities is predicting lucky lottery numbers. Another is sin eating.
“Sin eating is a technique that was popular in medieval times. People would put their sins into food, and the person who ate the food would take on the sins,” Logan said.
There will be at least 10 exhibitors plus a cabinet of curiosities, displays and a lot of other activities.
“There is a canteen and bar upstairs, and the curio table while all of the booths will be downstairs in the dance studio. And we have some people from last year and some new people.”
One of those new people is Nadine Duckworth, aka Indigo Iris, who will be giving participants a taste of art alchemy. She will be starting teaching a full class beginning March 28 at Nirvana Energy.
“Art alchemy is the process of expressing your creativity to develop your insight and intuition,” she said.
At the fair, she will only give a taste of the process, which involves the participant relaxing their mind and opening the door to visions and symbols. Usually it takes an hour, but in 10 minutes, she will be leading participants to their vision in five minutes and giving them another five to illustrate them. Even if you don’t draw well, the process will work, as the drawings don’t have to be professional. They only have to be good enough to recognize in a rough illustration and Duckworth will help interpret the vision and resulting drawing.
The actual classes will take much longer and lead the participants deeper into discovering their visions plus give them more time to draw.
“It is loosely based on art therapy,” she said.
She learned about art alchemy through studying for her master’s degree in art instruction and work with the schizophrenia society which is what got her interested in the subject.
“As part of my own personal journey of art and poetry, I took a class called expressive art education,” she said.
“It’s about eliminating negative and hurtful emotions. I’ll lead you on a journey and get you to relax and allow the visions to happen, to let you open the door and let you see something,” she said.
And if you want to know how Logan will cleanse your aura — “You’ll just have to some and see,” he said.
Admission is $10 which includes tokens for all of the booths. Talk to a board member or email
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The Psychic Fair takes place at the Bowman Arts Centre March 19 from 6:30-9:30 p.m.
More information is available online at www.trapdoorarc.com.
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