November Newsletter 2015

​It is sunny today, welcome after the heavy rains. The colours are shining and bright. It has been a very busy fall and much has been accomplished. The Centennial Square Parkade Mural project with the youth are completed and look wonderful. The team really came through. The panels will be installed in the stairwell of the parkade this fall and there will be a formal opening. I’ll let you know about the opening in the next newsletter as it is likely to be in December. There are some preview images on my website. 
Sidney Fine Arts has come and gone, courses are running, the municipal hall exhibition comes down tomorrow, so now is time to look forward to the next rush!
 
Ohhh and another result from the Francis King Park residency: Kem Luther and his book designer at Oregon University Press have chosen my ‘tree moss’ study for the cover of his new book called ‘Boundary Layer” which is all about mosses and lichens and their role in the ecosystem! I’ll send a link when it is published. (Looks like a fascinating read.)
 
In CaHoots opens this Friday and I think it will be a fun exhibition. Certainly the piece that April Caverhill, Dale Roberts and I created is good fun!  Then on November 14th I hang the bottled series up at Discovery Coffee Oak Bay and on the 17th the group show: Conjunction at the Gage Gallery Arts Collective opens.  Then it is a bit of quiet until my solo show at the Gage “300 Mason Jars”. More about that below.
 
UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS:
 
November 6 – 25, In Cahoots (Synergy) Exhibition at the Slide Room Gallery Vancouver Island School of Art on 2549 Quadra Street curated and organized by Efren Quiroz of Exhibit-V fame. There are about 30 invited artist groups creating things together. I am collaborating with April Caverhill and Dale Roberts (aka Dame Mailarta) to create a wonderful eclectic sculptural book about I-dentity.
 
November 14 to January 2- Bottled at Discovery Coffee at the Oak Bay location 1962 Oak Bay Avenue- just a block from the Gage Gallery on the other side of the street.  Beth has asked a couple of times for the Bottled series and since they are now out of the closet again at her last request I said yes.  There will be a few new smaller pieces for accessible Christmas gifting and some of the old faithful on display.  So if you missed the Many Faces of Silence exhibition at the Gage then you can see some of them there!
 
November 17 – December 5th –  with an artist reception on Thursday December 19th from 7-9 pm. Group show at the Gage Gallery on the theme of Conjunction.  Expect a wide variety of interesting works! I have created a new “book” sculpture for the show!
 
NOW THE BIG PLAN!
300 MASON JARS: an installation of paintings, artifacts and canning at Gage Gallery, 2031 Oak Bay Avenue.  December 29, 2015 – January 16, 2016.  
Artist’s reception (and talk) on New Years Eve 5-9 pm. 
Spoiler ALERT: I have been getting some great interest from the local media- watch for it!
And I’ll be at the Gallery every Saturday during the show, some other days as well.
This project is near and dear to me and many of you have asked if you can participate by bringing a jar of your own canning. The answer is yes.  If you want to bring it and not pick it up, I hope you will accept an art card in exchange.  Or you are welcome to bring it and pick it up at the end of the show.  I’ll have a surface ready to accept them so they can become part of the exhibition.
 
I have 141 paintings completed now. Still some waiting for this show so wish me continued energy to create them. (Last week I got the canning bug again and made quince marmalade which is fantastic. An unanticipated difficulty though is saving my preserves for the show. I had to go out and purchase canned tomatoes this week!)
 
January 9, 2016 “Take the Lid Off” your creativity and ‘fulfill those New Years resolutions about ‘making more art’. A free event. All materials supplied. 2-5 pm at the Gage Gallery, 2031 Oak Bay Avenue.