Shelley Senior has been thinking of Colette Urban a lot lately.
Tuesday would have been Urban’s 67th birthday and Senior’s thoughts were of a birthday seven years ago.
Of course, there was a big dinner party to celebrate, but to do something just for herself, Urban went zip lining.
“She was an adventurous person,” said Senior, the tears welling in her eyes being replaced with a smile.
Adventurous is perhaps a good word to describe Urban, a visual and performance artist who ran the Full Tilt Creative Centre in McIvers.
She died of cancer on June 16, 2013 at the age of 61.
Urban has been described by many as eccentric.
“There was nothing that was too bizarre for Colette,” said Senior.
“She was a very unusual woman, but she was fascinating. Her art was who she was.”
And so, Senior believes her friend of nearly 20 years would be very pleased to know that some of her work will be displayed at The Rooms in St. John’s.
The posthumous exhibition — At Full Tilt: Colette Urban in Western Newfoundland — will be on display from Feb. 8 to April 21.
Senior said she met Urban through mutual friends, and after moving to McIvers herself their friendship grew.
“She was lovely, she was absolutely lovely,” said Senior.
“She was fascinating. A really, really interesting woman with a very, very creative and open mind.”
Urban knew artists from all over the world and was respected across the country, and Senior said her friends in the Bay of Islands were just as close to her as any others.
“She loved the Bay of Islands,” said Senior.
“The beauty of the place and also the beauty of the people.”
When she became sick, there was no talk of returning to her home in Colorado.
She wanted to stay here.
Senior said she died in Blanchard House, “looking out on that water.”
The home she restored is one of four properties she bought on the north shore.
Baxter Brake helped her look after those properties for eight years, and still looks after and gives tours of her heritage home in Meadows.
“And every time I goes in the house I sees her there. And I sees her for sure when I go to the boat house,” he said.
It’s there that a full-size picture of Urban hangs.
“And that brings back a lot of memories.”
He’s sure she’s watching over him.
“If there’s any closer to heaven she can get, she was an angel. Because everybody loved her.”
Brake was part of a movie she made, and he helped with props for some of her other projects.
While some of her work may have been considered a bit strange, she was also a wonderful painter, Brake said.
“She was a lovely lady,” said Brake.
“She’d think the world of it,” he said of the upcoming exhibition.
