The Sunshine Coast Arts Council is pleased to present Bird on a Wire, mixed media bird sculptures by Coast artist Cynthia Lyman, and Masks: Subconscious Realities, the creations of Parksville artist Bill Friesen. These exhibitions will be presented at the Sunshine Coast Arts Centre from June 15 to July 17. Friesen explores the age-old concept of masks. His painted wooden sculptures create visual metaphors exploring complex dimensions of emotional and personal reality, dreams and memories. He translates inner visions and experiences into meaningful physical representations of faces incorporating the symbolic presence of male and female, good and evil, joy and sorrow, life and death. A graduate of the University of Manitoba, Friesen now lives in Parksville. There he is involved with conducting visual arts workshops, curating and coordinating group and public sculpture projects. He is co-founder of The Peoples' Gallery in Parksville. Lyman is obsessed with birds. The intensity of personal encounters with species in their local habitats inspires her to translate them into sculptures. Cynthia extricates found objects destined for landfill - everything is a potential bird, from bundles of wire to old cash registers. The wire is straightened and the machines are disassembled, relieved of their original function and recomposed into birds.
Lyman taught in both Alberta and Victoria, and in the 1980s studied painting at Emily Carr College of Art and Design. She has constructed hundreds of birds in the past seven years, the last three years while living on the Sunshine Coast. Everyone is welcome to attend the artists' reception on Wednesday, June 15, from 7 to 9 p.m.
