When Words & Image opens at the Gibsons Public Art Gallery (GPAG) this week, 26 Coast artists will show up to four examples of their art, with each piece including words as an integral or complementary part of the image.
Because this show is also about reading, the GPAG will present it in collaboration with the Gibsons Public Library, and it will run through April 19 with artwork at both locations.
Artist Sheila Weaver said she was drawn to this show. "It's pretty rare to combine the arts in this way in a gallery show," she said. "As a poet, I'm really happy with it."
She said she is concerned that poetry always ends up the orphan of the literary scene and hopes that the public will attend the last in a planned series of author readings to take place on Saturday, April 3, when she will read along with poets Susan Telfer and Joe Denham.
Weaver is showing three photos, all natural wilderness scenes, and one drawing, a coloured pencil rendering of a fire ravaged tree trunk with an accompanying original poem, Fire. The photos show a waterfall in Yoho Park, a quaking aspen in the interior and Muskeg Lake on Gambier Island.
"I have Gambier to thank for a lot of my work," Weaver said.
Her writing began years before and sprang from her love of the land, and her painting and photography found its spark during her 12 years on Gambier among the many artists who live there.
"This show is a natural fit for me," adds Gibsons photographer Alan Sirulnikoff.
He's showing three images taken from ongoing projects that involve either stories or words. A photo from his road kill series, Dead Ahead, depicts a lifeless raccoon by the side of the road. The accompanying story is thought-provoking, whether or not you appreciate the subject matter. His graffiti series is more inspirational.
"I'm not interested so much in tagging, but we write humorous, clever, social and political commentary on walls. I'm always adding new ones to the project," he said.
Visually they work well. Although the words are paramount, they are not simply an observer's record. Sirulnikoff is tuned in to composition and lighting to give the graffiti its symbolic context.
Charly Mithrush has not shown her work very much on the Coast and wants to remedy that. As one who has studied at Emily Carr, she is always surprised when people remark that they didn't know she painted.
"It's so much a part of who I am," Mithrush said.
The Halfmoon Bay artist is showing two mixed media pieces - one of them acrylic on board that lists these words of wisdom, author unknown: "Life is the art of drawing without an eraser. Now, isn't that true?" Mithrush asks.
Artist Betty Pehme also reveals contemporary wisdom in her digital print, Spam Remedy 101. It depicts scribbled computer jargon - the kind that we have all learned in the past decade in order to deal with unwanted email - and the words seem to be vanishing into a cyber vortex.
Paul Clancy is retired now from his career as a professional photographer for major magazines and Thomson newspapers. His work at the GPAG, where he serves as a director, is all about learning something new. He will be showing two short films - one of them using stick figures. The second employs painted words and photographs conveying the emotions that the words create.
"Film making is such an interesting area," Clancy said. "Hopefully it will be interesting for others, too."
The exhibition officially opens tomorrow (March 13) with a reception from 3 to 5 p.m. to take place immediately after the author readings that start at 1 p.m. Stan Dixon will read from his Sechelt First Nations history followed by photographer/writer Heather Conn at 2 p.m.
The GPAG is also exhibiting the young people's show, Shout Out!, this month. The kids will hang and show their own work in the Harbour View room. For more information, see www.gibsonspublicartgallery.ca.
