Bittersweet Gallery celebrates Collection Twenty/Fifteen
Open house features designer's latest collection and supports Burnstown Ovarian Cancer Canada Walk of Hope

Gallery owner, Cheryl Babineau, is once again planning to showcase the popular designs of jeweller Anne Marie Chagnon with a spring trunk show featuring her latest new works. Collection 2015 marks twenty years of design for the Montreal artist and Bittersweet gallery is celebrating fifteen years representing Canadian artists and artisans hence the moniker twenty/fifteen. Cheryl is grateful and proud to remain standing in the wake of other fine craft gallery closures over the past few years. She is especially grateful to loyal gallery patrons and to the over 50 artists who have entrusted her to represent their work with due respect and reverence for their craft.

The event will also feature new works of the gallery's stable of artists and introduce some new ones. Sculptor Richard Gill will open his studio where visitors can preview some intriguing current works in progress. It's a good opportunity to discuss custom work or sign up for a workshop in clay-relief.

The seasonal spring open house marks the 4th annual event in support of the Burnstown Ovarian Cancer Canada Walk of Hope to help raise awareness of the organization’s goals and objectives.

Cheryl is collaborating with Burnstown resident and walk chair Denyse Campeau, who will be present to answer questions and raise awareness of Ovarian Cancer Canada’s goals and objectives.

Refreshments will be served and there will also be door prizes of an exquisite Chagnon piece as well as a relief sculpture by Richard Gill and painting by resident painter John Robert Bradley.

As in the past, Bittersweet will donate 10 % of Chagnon sales to launch the 2015 Burnstown Ovarian Cancer Canada Walk of Hope which will take place on Sunday, September 13, 2015 in the Bennett/ Lindsay labyrinth on gallery grounds. Participants of last year’s walk raised more than $12,000 a 50% increase from 2013.

About Anne Marie Chagnon

Cheryl recalls her first encounter with Chagnon's work when scouting for original designs at a show in Montreal 15 years ago when she was conceiving Bittersweet Gallery along with her husband, sculptor Richard Gill. It was actually Richard who first spotted Chagnon’s designs - Cheryl embraced them and believes she was the first to represent her work in Ontario. Bittersweet Gallery now boasts the largest collection of the designer's work outside of Quebec.

Anne Marie Chagnon’s work is prolific. Every year Chagnon conceives & manifests an entirely new collection that merits a celebratory launch.

Blessed with a bountiful imagination and trained at the Fine Arts Faculty of the Université de Québec in Montreal, Chagnon shapes materials instinctively while achieving a playful harmony of form.

Her "Collection 2015" combines organic and rectangular, colour and absence thereof, opaque and translucent : engravings weaving themselves as fabric, adorning the metals they assail carve, sculpt; an invitation to touch, to play with light and shadows, to feel perception; fluidity, colours dissolving while bowing with grace or appearing as fog on the landscape.

With the search for authenticity at the heart of her approach, her signature style is unmistakable, recognizable at first glance. All handmade in Montreal this alliance of beauty and independence of spirit will appeal to wearers who value their own uniqueness.

In her own words...

“While this collection has invited me to abandon everything familiar to me, it rests upon the foundations of my very origins. It pays tribute to what has moulded me in the past and to what drives me today. Each piece bears the name of people who are part of my history, even if there are many more people dear to me than there are pieces in this collection. Twenty years of creation, inspiration, encouragement, pitfalls, and successes - an epic journey of which I am proud.”
− Anne-Marie Chagnon

Why Ovarian Cancer Canada?

In Canada, approximately 2,600 women are diagnosed with ovarian cancer annually, and 1,750 lives are lost each year to it. Currently, there are 17,000 women living in Canada with the disease.

It is also very important to note Cheryl and Richard’s personal commitment to this cause with Richard’s daughters genetically at high risk.

Ovarian Cancer Canada is the only registered Canadian charitable organization whose mission is to overcome ovarian cancer, providing leadership by:
- Supporting women living with the disease and their families
- Raising awareness in the general public and with health care professionals
- Funding research to improved treatment and, ultimately, a cure.

With more than 250 cancer charities in Canada, Ovarian Cancer Canada stands out for its notable efforts to reduce duplication, focused and strategic implementation of the mission, as well as a collaborative and partnering philosophy.

The Walk is the largest one-day event in Canada that raises awareness and money solely for the fight against ovarian cancer. The Walk of Hope began in 2002 by Peggy Truscott, an ovarian cancer survivor. Peggy planted the seed for what is now known as the Ovarian Cancer Canada Walk of Hope. The Walk has since sprouted across Canada and has raised more than $17 million for ovarian cancer support, public awareness, research, and education for health care professionals.

Collection 2015 opens at Bittersweet Fine Craft and Art on June 6- starting at 11am to 5pm at 5 Leckie Lane in Burnstown. The Bennett/Lindsay Labyrinth will also be open to visitors to explore.

For more details call: 613-432-5254 day or: 613-433-9990