Saskatoon artist lauded at Montreal Museum of Fine Arts exhibition

A Saskatoon art jeweler and goldsmith is getting some major exposure with one of her pieces on display at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.

A Saskatoon art jeweler and goldsmith is getting some major exposure with one of her pieces on display at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.

Mary Lynn Podiluk is busy working on her most recent commissions from her home studio, but it’s a teapot that she made over a decade ago that’s getting major acclaim.

Her piece, Metalanguage, is on display as part of the exhibit: Parall(elles) a History of Women in Design.

“I made it with the intention to bring aspects and concepts of language and linguistics into this body of work that I was building,” said Podiluk. “And it became the flagship piece, being one of the biggest pieces of the collection but also the one I put most of my efforts into.”

Podiluk originally went to school for linguistics, but she felt a creative urge to pursue a career in the arts. She enrolled at NSCAD University in Halifax, and instantly found her passion.

“I found out you get to use torches and hammers, and I was like, what?” Podiluk told CTV News. “I get to use fire, this is amazing, I’m hooked. All the other things, printmaking, painting kind of fell into the background.”

While she loved her new direction, her passion for language lingered. So she decided to blend her previous education with her newly developed skills in creating functional, conceptual art.