Clay artist Liz de Beer uses a variety of techniques and natural products to achieve intriguing decorations on her earthenware vessels.
Her unique art work will be on display along with many others this Saturday night at a fundraiser for WaterCan at the Gibsons and Area Community Centre.
The event starts at 6:30 p.m., with desserts and wine, songs of Africa with the Song Circle and an auction. Tickets are $20, available at the Gibsons Public Art Gallery, Wood's Showcase in Sunnycrest Mall and the Habitat for Humanity ReStore in Sechelt.
"The use of quills on my pots not only provides a functional design element, but also stirs memories of Africa that are very close to me," said de Beer on why she chose porcupine quills for the lid of the pot she donated to the fundraiser.
Porcupine quills have long been a favourite ornament and good-luck charm in Africa, but for de Beer, quills recall a childhood of learning the importance of water from her dad.
She grew up on a ranch in the arid North Eastern Cape province of South Africa where the annual rainfall may be as little as 50mm. The only source for drinking water on the 2,000-hectare farm was one squeaky wind pump clanking away at gusts of wind to draw water from the depths of the earth. de Beer recalls the desperation that would set in following weeks without rain, the farmers issuing a call and Sundays dedicated to prayer for rain. She recalls thunder and lightening sweeping over the landscape, the smell of water in the air before the first drops fell, steam rising from hot tin roofs and muddy play puddles left behind. As she fixes a quill onto the lid, de Beer remembers her father walking through the fields, picking up porcupine quills and turning them into writing instruments.
"While the roots of my soul are still embedded in Africa," de Beer said, "I have been sprouting roots on the West Coast."
The fusion is evident.
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