Free Artist Panel Event in the Gallery: Exploring Process, Practice & Transformation

Join us for a lively and thought-provoking Artist Panel discussion featuring the four artists of ‘Loops, Layers, Shapes and Shadows’: David Brown, Heejung Shin, Laurie Skantzos, and Michael Stecky –  moderated by painter, writer and Professor of Art, John Kissick.

This conversation will peel back the layers of each artist’s daily practice, inviting audiences to explore how art is made, why artists push beyond the familiar, and what unfolds when creativity becomes an act of risk, renewal, and discovery.

What can people expect?
Expect an engaging dialogue about experimentation, materials, habits, and the often unpredictable path of artistic evolution. Kissick will guide the artists through discussions on routine, intuition, hesitations, breakthroughs, and the deep internal shifts that inform their current bodies of work. Guests will hear firsthand how each artist navigates uncertainty and arrives at transformation through making.

Why should you come?
This is a rare chance to connect directly with four accomplished artists who have stepped boldly outside their established practices and expectations. Whether you’re an artist, a student, a curious maker, or someone who simply loves learning how ideas take form, this panel offers insight, inspiration, and a deeper appreciation for creative process. You’ll leave with a richer understanding not only of the exhibition, but of the broader ways creativity touches daily life.

Context: About the Exhibition
‘Loops, Layers, Shapes and Shadows’ brings together four artists—from Toronto and Guelph—who have each ventured into new creative territory. Working with materials such as Hanji paper, beeswax, birch plywood, reclaimed cardboard, and thrifted puzzle pieces, they challenge habitual methods and embrace the unknown. Their works become both artifact and evidence—records of curiosity, courage, and the willingness to transform.

Through geometric reimagining of the human form (David Brown), the reconstructed traditions of Hanji paper (Heejung Shin), the elevation of discarded packaging into sculptural paintings (Laurie Skantzos), and rhythmic colour-driven puzzle-based compositions (Michael Stecky), the exhibition reveals how meaning emerges through process. Ultimately, these pieces celebrate change—of method, material, and the maker themselves.

As you listen to their conversation, and participate, consider how process shapes your own creative life, and what might unfold if you allowed yourself to play, reinvent, and begin again.

This event is free.  No sign up required.   

For more information about the artists and their exhibition in the gallery at the Elora Centre for the Arts, please click here.