Artist Karen Parker was never a rave girl. She admits to having attended a few events, most notably one in Africa while she was on her honeymoon, but she is by no means a regular on the all-night-party circuit.

Her inspiration for the acrylic paintings and multimedia animations in the fit, funky, and aptly named Ravegirls: Swallow the Soul Capsule, showing at DV8 until June 2, came not exclusively from ravers, but from the energy of dance, at a rave or elsewhere.

"It's that whole feeling of girls when they go out dancing and you're just so caught up in it; you're the dancing queen when that spotlight's on you, but you feel anonymous at the same time," said Parker, 30 on the phone the morning after her show opened. "you get more caught up in the way you feel, when time just keeps on going and it's suddenly 4am and you're still dancing. Whether you're a girl from the 60s, or the 80s, it's that feeling of dance that's universal."

Parker a graduate from the Alberta College of Art, raises the rave drug issue in the show's name. The title, she suggested should be taken as a mild admonition against drugs. "The soul," said Parker,"should come from the music, the energy and the feeling. Anybody from any generation can remember that high of dancing to the music withought having to be on Ecstasy."

The works in the show, each one inspired by Parker's real-life girlfriends, certainly have soul. To bring substance to the RaveGirls, a short biography accompanies each of the paintings. "Taniesa", who has dark features, and dreadlocked hair, is said to like goat cheese, be 5'11" and have a trinidadian father and Scottish mother. "Sarah is a "spontaneous princess, known for her dramatics", who hails from New Brunswick.

The portriats are blurred by large brush strokes that depict movement. The subdued facial features of the girls are overwhelmed by the exaggerated arm motions and oversize hands, the positioning of which is crucial to Parker. She uses the upper extremities to signify that the girls are not in a static pose, but have been captured in a single moment of a series of dance moves. (In the multimedia pieces, the painted figures actually move to a beat of their own.)

"I was thinking about when you're dancing and the strobe light just flashes you and it's that moment when you're caught for a second and might be in an awkward dancing pose or a cool one," said Parker. "that's what those paintings are about, just capturing that snapshot."
To complete the experience, a RaveGirls rave is in the works which will take the girls back to the environment they were imagined in. This party project is being designed to incorporate the atmospheric elements of a rave — the smoke, sweat, lighting, music and dancing – with the RaveGirls canvases, the white backgrounds of which the artist left blank.

"I used a lot of white space because people can imagine they are dancing outside, dancing at a club, or dancing anywhere. It's just about the communication of the figure, that feeling of that person at that moment."

Parker moment is now, as interest in the show continues to grow. The next stop after DV8 is John Fluevog Boots and Shoes on Granville Street, where the RaveGirls will be on display in July. Then it's on to Nevermind, and then Fly and the Rave in Montreal.

The success of the show has Parker preparing to expand on the same theme; she's thinking of a RaveBoys collection would be the perfect accompaniment to her girls.