Western Canada's art magazine since 2002
4 June 2019 Vol 4 No 12 ISSN 2561-3316 © 2019
From the Editor
Portia Priegert
I hopped over to Salt Spring Island for a short getaway last week. I stayed in a century-old log cabin beside the outdoor sculpture garden at the Duthie Gallery on the outskirts of Ganges.
It's an idyllic setting. The land is cosseted by tall trees and the air is filled with bird song. Without a computer, or even a radio, I had time for wonder. One day, I bicycled in a warm bath of sunshine around the north end of the island, stopping for lunch in Vesuvius. It felt like a continental crossing.
And, of course, I looked at art. I didn't have to go far for a couple of my favourite pieces. Near the cabin are three figures carved from red cedar by Denman Island sculptor Michael Dennis. Grouped as if in conversation, they stand in front of a hollow tree trunk woven from willow branches, a lovely piece by Vancouver artist Ken Clarke.
Small islands make you think about ecological limits. For one thing, there's nowhere for stuff to go. Any poisons you flush eventually end up in the water table. It makes one cautious.
In this regard, I'm pleased to report that Salt Spring now has bus service. I took a Victoria bus to the ferry terminal for the crossing. The connection was seamless on the other side, where the passengers included a woman who was dressed like she had just stepped out of Tolkien. It was fun to eavesdrop and easy to savour the reduced carbon footprint.
Recent research out of UBC points to adopting a car-free lifestyle as one of the most beneficial actions individuals can do to lighten their impact on climate change, along with having fewer children, reducing air travel and switching to a plant-based diet. These are changes that go far beyond recycling, switching light bulbs or using cloth shopping bags.
And, as we show in this issue of Galleries West, many artists are working on ecological themes these days. On the Prairies, Gabriela Garcia-Luna has been exploring ecological fragility in the Saskatchewan River Delta. Various Northwest Coast artists consider the vital role of water from an Indigenous perspective in Womxn and Waterways at the Bill Reid Gallery in Vancouver. And the environment has long been a central concern in the work of Manitoba artist Don Proch, the subject of a new book by Patricia Bovey.
This issue also includes stories about Martin Bennett, Hashim Hannoon and Ruth Scheuing.
I'm scrambling now, after my getaway, to catch up the next issue, but expect reports on the latest art auctions in Toronto and exciting new work from Canada's North at the Esker Foundation in Calgary.
I'm not much of a shopper, but picked up two souvenirs on the beach. One is a square pebble with a small mark that looks like a heart. The other is almost heart-shaped, with concentric lines that look like a cross-section of a tree. At its centre is a small square.
Part of the reason for my getaway was my birthday. It was a big one, as they increasingly are, the years leap-frogging like a fire in an abacus factory. But I hope these pebbles remind me how life continually shapes us, rubbing down our corners year after year, preserving what's essential, but also revealing new discoveries.
Until next time,
CONTRIBUTORS THIS ISSUE: Dick Averns, Beverly Cramp, Amy Gogarty, Sandee Moore
