Lögberg-Heimskringla - 20.04.2001, Page 4

4 • Lögberg-Heimskringla • Friday 20 April 2001
The purpose ofthis column is to encourage is what I do” format. Contributors will be now making significant contribution to the us bio notes and a photo. Ifyou don’t have
and enable people of Icelandic descent invited to provide photos. Icelandic/North American community. bio notes available, let us know and we’ll
throughout North America to exchange This column recognizes people of Please let us know if there is someone spe- arrange an interview.
information about their careers, in a “this Icelandic descent who have made or are cial you know who should be featured. Send
Don Martin: Gimli artist in Iceland
Don Martin, Gimli artist, has been invited to
exhibit his paintings at the Vesturfarasetrið in
Hofsós this summer. He has been working on
the exhibition all winter, and has completed thirty
paintings, which depict the New Iceland area, both in
historic context and current. One is of the Icelandic
River in 1870, before the arrival of the settlers. His
show opens June 9, which coincides with the opening
of the Vesturfarasetrið’s season. It will hang for two
months.
Don has done many large public paintings in
Gimli. For instance, the murals on the stage at Gimli
Park, each sixteen feet wide and eleven feet high,
were all painted by him. They depict Dyrhólaey,
Gullfoss, Þingvellir, and Glaumbær. It was his sug-
gestion that the Pier Wall be decorated with paintings,
and he worked on several of them himself. His first
large painting was the backdrop for the Armstrong
Gimli Fish and the Gold Field in the Visitor’s Centre.
Don, who is largely a self-taught painter, has
been involved for the last twelve years with the Gimli
Art Club, which has two shows per year, one coin-
ciding with the Festival. Although he was always
interested in drawing, he began painting seriously in
1982 when he ran a hobby craft and art supply store,
Harbour Hobbies. During the quiet times and winter
months he developed his talent. Three times he has
been to the Arts West program at Camp Wanakumbak
at Riding Mountain. There he has had the chance to
paint from dawn til dusk and have his work critiqued
by the instructors, who are university professors. He
paints with acrylics, and normally works from photo-
graphs.
He made an impression on Valgeir Þórvaldsson at
the Vesturfarasetrið, when he sent, as a gift, a paint-
ing of the harbour in Hofsós. When Valgeir saw his
paintings of Iceland at the opening of the New
Heritage Museum in the Waterfront Centre, he
approached him about doing a show for them in 2001.
Don will travel to Iceland to set up the show and will
stay for the opening.
His forebears come from Grenjasaður east of
Akureyri and from the east side of the country. His
parents, both born in Hnausa, were Guðrún
Sigmundsson and Gunnlaugur Sigurður Martin
(changed from Marteinsson).
Don, who speaks Icelandic, has been instrumen-
tal in reviving the Icelandic language school in Gimli.
Bom and raised in Hnausa, he ran a real estate busi-
ness in Brandon for many years, and retumed to
Gimli in 1975. He is married, and has two children in
Gimli and two in Winnipeg, ten grandchildren and
three great-grandchildren.
Karma Repair
Don’t judge Sweetness Machines by its cover
Caelum
Vatnsdal
Music Reviews
WlNNIPEG, MB
Sweetness machines
Karma Repair
The jokey band name, the
hideous cover art and the
Smashing Pumpkins-ish album
title steel the listener for fifty-five
minutes in audio hell. Fortunately, the
music on the disc belies the packag-
ing to some degree by proving some-
what melodic, occasionally intelligent
and at times outright enjoyable.
Fronted by Winnipeg-born
Western Icelander Mackenzie
ICristjón, who writes all the lyrics, the
outfit is filled out by Norwegian gui-
tarist Bonar Björkland, bassist Gerald
Taylor (quite possibly a descendent of
the Icelandic immigrants’ patron mis-
sionary John Taylor) and drummer
Dave Bukta. Karma Repair call
Guelph, Ontario, their home base.
Sweetness Machines is the band’s
first release after five years of exis-
tence (the details of which are frankly
and touchingly revealed in the diary
section of their website: www.karma-
repair.com). The album is made up of
ten songs, almost all of them drawn
out and overlong, and produced by
the band with perhaps too high a
dependence on sound effects.
Kristjón’s vocal style recalls that of
Devo’s Mark Mothersbaugh, or per-
haps Oingo Boingo’s Danny Elfman;
not a bad thing in itself, but, coupled
with the six-minute running time of
many of the songs and the gimmicky
sound eflfects, it wears thin before the
record is half over.
As reported, however, the eflfort is
not without strengths, including a
high degree of professionalism in the
playing and a regular incidence of
lyrical clevemess. A special treat for
Gimli residents is the occurrence of
ambient sounds recorded in the Home
of the Gods itself during the 2000
íslendingadagurinn. If this sounds
good to you, then by all means look
Karma Repair are based in
Guelph, ON. Image courtesy of C. Valnsdal
for Sweetness Machines in a record
store or go to the aforementioned
website to order a copy directly from
the band.
<m ih riii* um m' 'n&wi m n w&ikk .nht'iwn ^ nm \ m wwinift