Indulge your inner ’90s kid

If you can name every member of the Sailor Scouts, or you know the Samurai Pizza Cats Fan Club Oath off by heart, or you remember renting a VHS copy of Princess Mononoke and it blowing your mind, it’s probably safe to say you’re a fan of the anime of the 1990s.

These gems of Japanese animation mean a lot to the people who grew up with them, who were essentially the pioneers of anime fans in North America. Even though lots of those folks were inspired by these cartoons to take up art and animation themselves, you’d be hard-pressed to find an art gallery in Nova Scotia that treated their pop-focused art legitimately, and gave them a space on their walls.

Hard-pressed, that is, unless you happen to know about The Dart Gallery.

Jane MacDougald, the owner of The Dart Gallery on Portland Street in Dartmouth, recalls a time when she, too, would come home after school and watch some of these shows.

“I remember it being such a prevalent and popular [force],” says MacDougald. “It was interesting, being a kid, and all of a sudden, Sailor Moon and Pokemon are on, and it was a very different look compared to what we were used to seeing, in terms of North American animation. It was very different and very cool.”

Since opening the Dart Gallery in October of 2013, MacDougald has wanted to use the space to make art more accessible for the community of Dartmouth, since hers is the only commercial gallery around.

Part of that mandate included opening up the subject matter the gallery might cover to more pop-themed pieces, as she recognizes that it’s a hard market out there in Nova Scotia for non-traditional artists.

“I definitely have been sort of focusing on the pop art-type stuff, but I think a big component of that is, there is not really as much of it around in the Maritimes,” says MacDougald, who herself is mesmerized by rock and roll album covers. “We see a lot of Maritime, or fishing, our lighthouse imagery, which is great, but there’s less contemporary stuff for a younger generation to kind of relate to and enjoy.”

The Dart Gallery’s current exhibit, Anime of the ’90s, started out as a suggestion by local artist April Baird to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Sailor Moon cartoon, a show which heavily influenced the kind of art she makes today.

“I watched it growing up. It was definitely one of the main things that got me into art,” says Baird. “I would always draw Sailor Moon characters, and make up my own little stories with them. I think, without Sailor Moon, I probably wouldn’t be the artist I am today – which sounds cheesy, but a lot of my stuff is very pretty and feminine. So Sailor Moon was definitely a really big influence on my art.”

Expanding the theme to anime of the decade, MacDougald made a call to artists for submissions. Not long after, the exhibit was packed, with pieces that didn’t just represent lots of different anime, but covered a wide variety of styles and mediums as well.

“For me, I don’t draw in the anime style, with the giant eyes and everything,” says Baird, who drew Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask embracing in a more realistic style. “But I want to show my appreciation for it, so I do it in my own style.”

Other pieces include a 3D-rendered paper craft Sailor Moon print, a Pikachu-themed take on La Pieta, a Cutie Honey doll, and some anime-themed throw pillows, just to name a few.

“I’m impressed — there are even different kinds of pillows, rug hooking and cross stitch,” says MacDougald. “It was really nice to see a wide variety of submissions from everyone.”

Some artists, like local animator Andrew Power, got to play outside of their usual mediums for this exhibit, since MacDougald was giving artists like him a venue to show off their work.

“I don’t really work in traditional media very much,” says Power, who created a set of pizza boxes with Samurai Pizza Cat-themed logos on the tops. “I actually had to go buy paint and paint brushes to do that, which I have not done in a long time.”

“It was definitely an opportunity of, like, ‘oh, it’s a gallery show, but it’s for the kind of art that I’m actually interested in,’” says Power, who was inspired to get into cartooning and animation, in part, because of shows like Samurai Pizza Cats.

By the time this story sees print, the Anime of the ’90s exhibit will be finishing out its last week at the gallery, as MacDougald prepares for her next big pop art exhibit based on David Bowie. But as far as she’s concerned, The Dart Gallery will always be a welcome home for artists from the Maritimes who like to create art about subject matter other than lighthouses.

“That was a big goal too, was to get as many people as possible, to get their work out there” says MacDougald. “I think with any type of new art, there’s resistance at first, or people who don’t necessarily consider it ‘real’ art. But popular taste changes over time.”

“Art is art. It’s in the eye of the beholder, and something here would probably be far more valuable to the right person, and they would consider it much higher art than something else that may be more traditional,” says MacDougald.

All the pieces in the gallery are for sale, so if there are any anime and/or art buffs out there looking for something special to add to your collection, give The Dart Gallery a visit.