The Open Door Access to Art program is opening doors for Central Saanich artist Angelica Iverson. The 17-year-old student at the School District 63 Individual Learning Centre has a world of her own created on paper. When she took her artwork to class, a teacher felt it was perfect for the program at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria.
The show offers 24 people in the region an opportunity to hang an art piece at the gallery.
“It’s just happened so fast,” Iverson said.
Pencil, pen or even whiteout, anything that leaves a mark can create a character.
“I like pen and ink, I can get a little more depth and detail,” she said.
All the 500-plus people in her multiple sketch books are named. Many are Tim Burton inspired, though the occasional flash of anime or video game animation will appear. “It really depends on the day,” Iverson said.
“I don’t really need inspiration, I just get that vibe that I’ve gotta draw,” she said. A foursome of one-wheeled robots were inspired simply by seeing a guy on a bike while she was riding the bus. “I thought ‘oh my city needs robots’.”
Alice and her band of crazy characters are portrayed multiple times throughout the sketches. Through the Looking Glass is among Iverson’s favourite books.
“It doesn’t tell you how it should and shouldn’t look so you can have it any way you want,” she explained.
Her pictures run the gamut of superhero to macabre — at times a combination of the two — and she’s as protective of them as if they were her children.
“It’s easier to relate to them because they’re so weird,” she said. “They say, ‘This is me, deal with it’.” The Central Saanich teen, who can often be seen in costume whenever she can get away with it — she has two Mad Hatter hats and wore a Sweeney Todd look for the opening of that film — has a game plan for her characters.
“I want to be a game maker so I have all my countries made up,” she said. “I have so many characters and I have this whole world … with games you can keep adding.”
For the Open Door Access to Art program, Iverson was to create something inspired by the works at the Victoria Art Gallery.
“There was a lot of stuff in there which made it difficult,” she said. “I realized they all had religion.”
All the religion or belief systems include an evil or bad guy, and the ruler in her world, Esproc, happened to fit the role. So she created a version of him. The exhibition at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria runs until May 29.