Currie channels passion for art into signs

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This article was published 18/12/2018 (2524 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Retirement has given a Manitoba artist the chance to focus on her hobby — creating unique handmade signs from pieces of old wood.

“Now that I’m retired, I’m able to devote more time to the arts,” said Tracey Currie, who lives near Pilot Mound. “I’d say over the past couple of years I’ve been able to really do more pieces.”

Some of the wood she uses is new, but the majority of the signs that she designs start as simple pieces of wood she has found on the farm where she lives. They have an old elevator on their property made from red wood that she uses, and sometimes she will also use cattle shed fencing.

“That’s always neat to work on, and then it has meaning because it’s from the farm,” she said.

The signs she creates have different sayings on them, including “Silent Night” and “Merry Christmas.”

Art has always been something Currie had an interest in, she said. Over the past few years, she was able to take a variety of different classes — painting, folk art and sketching — to help hone her skills.

“It’s very relaxing to do art of any type,” she said. “I do most of it just for family and friends. It’s useful for decorating when we have our family Christmas and our family gatherings and things like that.”

She used to work out of her house on the kitchen table, but recently, her workshop was shifted to a barn on the farm where she lives. She said that this new workspace has allowed her the room she needs to be creative.

“It’s a real luxury to have a workshop and be able to go out there and have a mess and not have to worry about cleaning it up,” she said.

Each piece is created using a similar routine. She starts by picking out the wood. Then, she puts either a layer of paint on it or a layer of stain. Afterwards, she paints the saying on the piece of wood and sands the edges to rough it up a bit “to make it look a bit more rustic,” she said.

“It’s a very simple process, and if you like the simple old-fashioned rustic look, then that’s the look that it is.”

The pieces Currie creates are all unique, as she paints them by hand. Creating them is a personal process she said you won’t find in a mall.

“If you want something more precise and stenciled, then you buy it in a store. But if you’re looking for that old-fashioned, simple, back-to-roots kind of a look, then the wood pieces that I make would fit that (description),” she said.

Although making money from the signs would be nice, she creates the pieces because she loves the work, she said.

“It’s something that I enjoy. Making money would be secondary to it.”

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