It's a good thing for the Coast that Roberts Creek artist Eric Allen Montgomery has a restless nature. His primary work, what he terms his day job, is to produce custom made corporate work in sandblasted glass. Recently, he made an 18-inch glass salmon bowl that was presented as a gift to golfer Jack Nicklaus in June. He also works on what he calls his real art: making mixed media assemblage, better known as memory boxes, unique containers arranged with memorabilia much like a three dimensional photo album. Montgomery becomes bored easily, he says; he likes to try new things. One of his current ventures is the organization of a fine art show for the Coast, similar to a show he's mounted before in Vancouver during the Christmas season. ACE (Art Craft Excellence) Show and Sale will run at the Seaside Centre in Sechelt Aug. 12 to 14, to coincide with the Festival of the Written Arts. It will feature the work of 28 creators of fine art and craft, mostly from the Coast, in a huge selection of items from wearable art to resin-encased insect jewellery. The focus in this show is on design and quality, Montgomery says. "The artists will be there to show and talk about what we do," he says.
"I'd like people to understand the economic differences in quality work. Why would you pay more for this piece of glass, say, than you would pay at Ikea? What work goes into it? And what does it take to make all the pieces and put them together?"
Included in the invited artists' work are the wildly colourful ceramics of Frances Miller and the more sedate, functional work of potter Jack Olive. Graham Walker will be there with his children's music CDs and books. Gibsons' fibre artist Ursula Bentz is known for her felting work, and after her recent studies at a college program, she has advanced into fashion and wearable art. Jane Ford's landscape and floral paintings will be on show, as will Margaret Gabriel's paintings of gourmet dishes, fruits and berries. Cindy Cantellon and Marshal Mar of Earthly Creatures are two Halfmoon Bay artists who work in metals to produce copper sculpture, cast pewter garden art and jewellery. Chris Motloch of Molten Spirit Glass will display his blown glass items, and Roberts Creek metalsmith and jewellery designer Erin Dolman will present her jewellery and tiny, one-of-a-kind sculptures in sterling silver and gold. Woodturner Gary Kelly will show his bowls made from local wood. Gibsons' Will Cummer will bring his functional driftwood furniture, burl boxes and other crafted gift items. Halfmoon Bay's Pete Unger of Ironwood Creative incorporates wood into his iron garden furniture and architectural detailing. Suzanne Nairn is a Vancouver silversmith who also works in mixed media. Katherine Soucie of North Vancouver has an interesting passion for textiles. She deconstructs clothing, then remakes it into hand-dyed and silk-screened apparel and fashion accessories. The most unusual of all is the jewellery work of New Westminster's Mikel Lefler of Bijoux du Monde. A trained entomologist, she harvests insects of all descriptions and casts them in resin. The ACE exhibition was originally conceived in 2003 by Montgomery and Van-cou-ver's Audra Neil as a Christmas venue for eight artists, designers and craftspeople who exhibited through off-beat alternative shops and galleries and whose works didn't fit the template of traditional craft shows. Hours of opening at the Seaside Centre are Aug. 12 from 4 to 9 p.m., Aug. 13 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Aug. 14 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is a suggested donation of $2 with 50 percent of proceeds going to a local charity.
