With winter weather around the corner, Dr. Brian MacKinnon has set up a pop-up art show that will benefit the Out of the Cold shelter in Fredericton.
“This building was my ill-fated election headquarters,” said Dr. Brian MacKinnon.
MacKinnon ran as a PC candidate in the provincial election for Fredericton South garnering 30 per cent of the vote.
And now he’s putting the building to good use selling art he’s made over the last three decades.
The Out of the Cold shelter in Fredericton takes in men and women who can’t get a spot at the homeless shelters in the winter months.
“Personally I’ve been affected by it, with people who have been homeless from mental illness in my family,” said MacKinnon.
The art installation is a mini-retrospective including drawings paintings, relief, plastic sculptures, paint sculptures and MacKinnon says he’s excited to show it to the public.
The art is priced from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand, and MacKinnon is already making sales.
Andrew Russell bought a piece called ‘If a man falls in the forest.’
“I just love the colours in the piece and I love the fact that it can mean so many different things to so many different people,” said Russell, a Fredericton resident.
“I think at a time like this in 2020 during this pandemic the shelter needs more people like Dr. MacKinnon to step up,” Russell added.
“That piece there with the soldier cradling the child really speaks to me, I had some experience as a solider overseas,” said Brian MacDonald, another potential customer.
MacKinnon said the amount he’ll donate is dependent on how much he sells.
The physically distanced pop-up art show is happening at 150 Smythe St. until Dec. 13.