PEI

A is for Angst: Charlottetown doctor opens 1st art show

After setting a challenge for herself, Dr. Jenni Zelin is ready to open her first solo art exhibit featuring different art pieces that represent an emotion for each letter of the alphabet.

Show depicts art based on words of various emotions

Jenni Zelin opens her first art show, A is for Angst, at The Guild. (Matt Rainnie/CBC)

After setting a challenge for herself, Dr. Jenni Zelin is ready to open her first solo art exhibit featuring different art pieces that represent an emotion for each letter of the alphabet. 

The show is titled A is for Angst. 

"I love the word angst and I like riffing on it artistically because I think it's got a little bit of melodrama to it," said Zelin.

"It's obviously a negative connotation, but I think artistically you can have fun with it and all the other words that are used here." 

Zelin told Island Morning's Matt Rainnie that she wanted to take the negative emotion to a comical extreme. 

Daily challenge

The artist, who is also a family doctor in Charlottetown, said the idea for the show developed over time and started a daily challenge in the winter of posting 26 art pieces depicting each letter.

Jenni Zelin created different art mediums to feature the words in her show. (Matt Rainnie/CBC)

After getting a good response, Zelin applied to do a show at The Guild but then had to get to work on improving the art pieces. 

"I spent a few weeks just doodling and cutting out newspaper and magazine pieces and then making a multimedia collage with as many angsty connotations as possible." 

Zelin describes that as the signature piece of the show because it captures the full theme. 

After coming up with a word for each of the 26 letters, Zelin said she then had to create art to match. 

"I really wanted to challenge myself to make every word a different medium and that took a little creativity."

A is for Angst opens Wednesday at The Guild at 7 p.m.

With files from Island Morning