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Highway icon for our Coast

As you drive up or down Hwy. 101 on your way to the Sunshine Coast Arts Centre in Sechelt to see the new invitational show of local artists, give a thought to what this journey means to you as a resident.

As you drive up or down Hwy. 101 on your way to the Sunshine Coast Arts Centre in Sechelt to see the new invitational show of local artists, give a thought to what this journey means to you as a resident. The latest art show that opened on July 20 is somewhat cryptically entitled Power of Place, Point of Departure. Organizers have described the Coast as "a linear configuration on a water-bound peninsula" and have asked 80 of the Coast's finest to use their various media to describe the challenges of living within our geography. You would expect cedars and mountains, eagles and salmon. Indeed, they are there in profusion. Surprisingly, the most powerful icon of our Sunshine Coast that emerges from the show is the ribbon of highway that connects us all. Lorna Hiebert's Ferry Traffic depicts colourful cars that crawl across a polar fleece jacket under a sky of sparkling stars. Kay Bonathan's highway twitches across colourful shapes when seen Through Rose Tinted Glasses. Dean Schutz's Free Rays is not exactly a highway depiction but his mixed media view of the shore-line includes a district lot plan that gives a sense of Coast real estate.

Pat Crucil's Life Line is an arresting tale of ferry routes and settlements told on fabric painted canvas. If you find yourself crossing the yellow line while walking about the centre, then you have found Donna Balma's minimalist representation of the highway rendered in yellow plumber's tape on the floor. My absolute favourite of the highway series is Bev Brawley's Zoom Zoom in mixed media. Her cars are like toy ones pictured in children's Noddy books and they bounce along a black strip lined with squiggly cedars. This show is highly recommended. Usually, when so many artists contend for wall space, the gallery appears to be crowded, but in this case, the work is easy to see. The viewer must still look closely to catch signs of humour.

For example, lean in to R.B. Wainwright's lino cut/chine colle entitled SC #1. It features eagles and salmon along with a certain five-leafed plant rumoured to grow in profusion on the Coast. Also, look closer into Ursula Fritsch's exciting Gardening on the Rock collage for signs of the jigsaw framework beneath. Take some time to browse Junco Jan's art book called Dogwater, B.C., a tribute in digitally enhanced photographs to the great pooches of the Coast. Other photo renditions show a variety of Coast familiars: blackberries, graffiti and stuff that washes up on the beach. Beaches figure greatly in the Coast ethos. Monica D. Robb's work has steadily gained confidence over the past few years as evidenced by Oh Sunny Day, Why They Came, Robb's acrylic painting of chunky, languorous women and gangly kids on a local beach.

Marilyn Marshall's acrylic, Pile of Wet Tourists Drying on Gospel Rock, has managed to capture the body contortions that sun seekers display in order to expose every pore to the rays. Noel Silver's dramatic nude, The Suffering Sea, shows a man crouched in a small rowboat under a checkerboard sky.

Not all is light hearted. Look closely at Jessica Gabriel's Parade Route. The fun events, a Canada Day parade and the annual Show and Shine, are imbedded in a dark background in which the shadow of the mill looms over all. Adele Waddell's acrylic When the Eagle Weeps tells a tragic story. Two of the most eye catching works in the show are Lee Croy's painting sixteen, an eagle poised over water, bathed in the sublime, almost unnatural light of sunset, and Harvey Chometsky's Breathing Fire - the vivid sheen of hammered copper framed on black plywood. The show continues until Aug. 21.