A pair of new exhibitions at the Gibsons Public Art Gallery highlights the mesmerizing synergy of gathering and weaving. In the case of Marney-Rose Edge, a New Zealand-born artist working in charcoal and cold wax, her focus is the deft interlacing of birds’ nests. For printmaker Marie Price, of North Vancouver, etchings and mixed media collage merge influences as varied as French saints and Greek minotaurs.
Both artists launched their respective series at a public reception held by the gallery on May 3.
Edge’s The Quiet of the Nest is Where Dreams Come True occupies the main gallery. Her black-and-white studies are a reprise and an expansion of work she showcased at the Sunshine Coast Arts Council in 2024. The shape of nests — exuding both geometric integrity and nurturing succour — has fascinated her for more than a decade.
“They really do come from very deep within me,” she said. “These are spiritual. And in a way they’re emotive, a lot of things to do with home and family.”
Edge’s tongue-in-cheek titles reflect the down-home comforts of avian nesting. In My Nest is a Mess and I Love It, a round substrate encircles the mass of grass and twigs that overflows toward the viewer. In Room With a View, an expansive nest disappears past the upper limit of white background, its vastness carried on by the imagination (“this show really stretched me in that I could do much larger pieces,” Edge observed).
Although the majority of her works (including an enormous representation of a clifftop eagle’s nest from the Yukon) are represented with the austerity of charcoal, in a few canvases Edge uses oils to depict habitats in nature’s viridescent palette. In Spring Fever, forest hues form a muted vortex stirred by spiky contours of the nest’s seductive void.
“I just fell in love with texture,” Edge said, “and am always blown away by the fact that little birds and big birds make these amazing nests just by picking up materials around the environment.”
In the Eve Smart Gallery, Marie Price’s On the Face of It depicts a different type of environment. Price amasses ideas and images from history to assemble two-dimensional perspectives on shifting social landscapes. In Contemplating the Demise of Discernment, profiles in silhouette and a figure en face stare blankly over a flower pot’s spartan stalks: a sense of distraction and disconnection is palpable.
“The main theme is the human condition,” explained Price, “and the conditions seems to be deteriorating as we speak. It pertains to the political situation and the social situation that we are enduring right now. It sometimes feels like the earth is moving underneath our feet. It is a time of tumultuous change. But there is hope in it.”
Her impulse to stitch together elements may be linked to Price’s original vocation as a post-operative nurse. Today, as a longtime educator and working artist, she telescopes global influences into graphic narratives. Inspired by travels through Egypt, she created a series titled Troubled Vision, a reflection on the extreme circumstances of women: some who achieve notoriety and others who recede behind sartorial customs like burkas. The third work in the series depicts a deconstructed rendition of Hatshepsut, the first female ruler of Egypt. By tradition, Hatshepsut is shown with a narrow beard to confer masculine authenticity on her regal role.
“Here she is, the ruler of one of the largest countries in the world, and yet she still has to appear almost in camouflage in order to be considered authentic,” Price exclaimed.
In Mindful of the Minotaur, she transforms the labyrinth-bound beast of Greek legend into a metaphor for universal capacity for violence (the bicorned creature is eerily human-like). In her portrait Jeanne d’Arc, the enigmatic icon’s mouth is constricted by a cowl-like covering (Joan was condemned, in part, for wearing men’s clothing). Fleurs-de-lis rise like embers from a pyre.
“Even 700 years later we haven’t quite come to grips with the multiplicity of genders,” Price said, “and what’s appropriate for one person to wear and someone else not to wear. It’s a reminder that we still have a very long way to go.”
The Quiet of the Nest is Where Dreams Come True and On the Face of It continue at the Gibsons Public Art Gallery until May 25. On May 21, Marney-Rose Edge will lead a workshop on creating still life works with oil paint and cold wax.
