Painters work on their spooky specter paintings at the Lethbridge Polytechnic Halloween Paint and Sip Night on Oct. 16. Photo by Maddie Gillam.
Students slowly started to file into the cave at Lethbridge Polytechnic on a chilly fall evening to begin the Lethbridge Polytechnic Students’ Association (LPSA) Paint and Sip night. The event has been going on for the past three years and is hosted by Kendra Sala, a former student of Lethbridge Polytechnic. Sala owns and operates Yellow Dot Co. where she mainly conducts paint nights to encourage more of her network to embrace their creativity through a canvas.
Sala says she enjoys teaching these paint nights as something fun to do outside of her full-time job of doing contract art.
“This is always my favorite group to teach because the students are laid back, they’re fun, they’re easygoing, and I really enjoy it,” Sala said.
The night started with a short introduction from the instructor and then got straight into painting. Sala quickly and competently explained how and what to paint on the canvases. Students eagerly followed along. As the session continued, the quiet room slowly started to lift with the sounds of chatter among students, which slowly blossomed into full-on conversations of people beginning to make friends.
“I absolutely am terrible at art, but I love doing it,” said Ben Boyd, the LPSA organizer of this event. “I think anybody should go to it. If you’ve got the $10 and you don’t know what else to do on a Thursday night, then absolutely. Overall, there’s nothing to be afraid of.”
Boyd says Sala makes the process fun and easy, even to the point where people who wouldn’t consider themselves artists would be able to make something they could be proud of.
Boyd says it’s not the only reason to enjoy the event, as it creates a great opportunity to meet people.
“It was just kind of fun to spark that conversation and just be able to just chat. And it’s not a huge event. With Sexy Bingo, there’s 200 people there. With this one, there’s less than 30. You’re able to just sit beside a stranger and then strike up a conversation.”
This event isn’t just for fun either, it can also be a great way to relieve stress. Sala had previously graduated from the Polytechnic taking therapeutic recreation focused on gerontology and tries to focus that into her work as an instructor at these events.
The therapeutic aspect is also true for Keely Koch, a current nursing student at Lethbridge Polytechnic says art and painting are great ways to relieve her stress.
“For me I’ve always been an artist. I’ve always been very creative, and it’s always been an outlet for me, especially when it comes to stress. As everyone knows, nursing can be stressful. So, I said to myself, I really want to actually implement a balance in my life.” Koch states. “So that’s where art is that stress outlet for me, essentially. You don’t think about anything. You just focus on what the task is at hand”
The LPSA tries to host three paint nights a year, this one took place on Oct. 16 with the next one on Nov. 26 starting at 6:30 p.m. in the cave. You can register by signing up in the LPSA office in room CE 1350.
