Two galleries open and a book launches for well-known Regina-based creator

The past week has been a busy one for a Regina-based sculptor.

Victor Cicansky is opening two art shows in the Queen City and he recently celebrated the launch of his book Up From Garlic Flats.

Cicansky opened his gallery "The Gardener's Universe" at the Mackenzie Art Gallery on Friday night. His second gallery, "Sexing the Garden" opened at Slate Gallery in Regina on Saturday.

"The Gardener's Universe" is a retrospective gallery that's been years in the making.

"I walked through the Mackenzie when the work was in storage, they had it all set up and they wanted me to see all the pieces that came from across the country and elsewhere," Cicansky told CBC Radio's Saskatchewan Weekend.

He said he hadn't laid eyes on some of the pieces for 50 years. Reflecting on his work, he said it shows the progress and changes he's made as an artist through the years.

"The ideas developed in an interesting way too, because I played around with a few little ideas, but those ideas eventually keep growing and growing until today," Cicansky said. "I've created this body of work and these ideas and I seem to be a slave to it all."

He said his work has basically taken over his life completely since he's basically working every day, but he enjoys what he does, otherwise he wouldn't do it at all.

Cicansky said a lot of the work he's done is derived from some kind of lived experiences.

From a small child who picked up rocks he found interesting, to a man who found an interest in the shape of bones, he found he expressed his interest through his art later on in life.

'I'm not a writer, but a storyteller:' Up From Garlic Flats a collection of memories

Cicansky was quick to point out he's not a writer when it came to talking about his book.

"But I'm a storyteller. My dad is a storyteller, and I got his craftsmanship genes, his storytelling habits," Cicansky said.

The book is a collection of stories he's told for decades at parties or dinners with friends—essentially a personal history.

"I figured it was important to write them down because things have changed so dramatically since then," he said. "In some ways life was simple and basic and healthier in a lot of ways."

He noted things like gardening were really important back then, but of even more importance in this day and age because often people don't know where their food is coming from.

'I don't create these ideas, mother nature does'

Sexing the Garden, which opened at Slate Gallery in Regina on Saturday wasn't exactly a brainchild of Cicansky's.

The show features photographs of veggies that look a bit... naughty.

"It's one I have had a whole lot of fun with," Cicansky said. "First of all, I don't create these ideas, mother nature does."

He was inspired back in 1987 when a show featuring a lot of nudity and female genitalia premiered in Edmonton. It sparked a national discussion and according to Cicansky many people were not in favour of the concept.

He decided he wanted to have fun with it.

"Sometimes when you're working in the garden and you dig something up, you can't believe you just dug up a potato or a couple of carrots snuggled up," Cicansky said. "I figured, you know what, we're going to do a show."