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MAY 3- 31, 2008 - JEAN MADDISON - Guest artist from The University of Guelph.

VAC Gallery is pleased to present Jean Maddison, our first solo visiting artist from Guelph, Ontario in a large exhibition of
her recent digital works on vinyl. "Exploring Eden" uses the foetus as the central image in a thought provoking visual dialogue swirling with colours, forms and ideas inspired by diverse sources from the poetry of William Blake to The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. As a long time printmaker and graphic artist, Jean's preoccupation with layering context and meaning is evident in every piece. The complexities of, and potential interruptions to an unborn life through DNA research and experimentation are cross referenced to external environments in the natural world: mountains, glaciers, the heavens and the seas. These environments in turn reflect the internal architecture of cells, veins and life-giving blood networks that underline the vast interconnectedness of everything on the planet.

Jean notes in her artist statement "We are entering an era, unprecedented in history where hybrid life forms are being engineered in laboratories and sophisticated techniques are deployed routinely in in-vitro fertilization clinics. Further, biotech intrusion into flora and fauna has startling and far reaching implications for all life on Earth, including of course, human beings....What interests me are life’s potential for integrative and associative patterns of growth and renewal, the opportunities and hazards and the ethical and moral dimensions implicit in the new 'technology of life'."

About the artist: Jean Maddison has been exhibiting internationally since 1969 and has shown her work in solo and group exhibitions throughout Canada, the USA, Europe, India and Japan. She holds a Masters of Art from the Royal College of Art in London, UK and is currently Associate Professor of Fine Art at the University of Guelph in Ontario. Her work is included in many public, corporate and private collections in Canada, the United States and England.

The artist will be present for the public opening reception of the exhibit on Saturday May 3rd from 7-9pm. All welcome. Show continues until May 31st. For more information about this exhibition please visit www.victoriaartsconnection.com or call 477-9089.

Victoria Arts Connection is a registered BC Non-Profit Society supporting multidiscipline arts in the city of Victoria, BC. For more information please contact Heidi Bergstrom, Gallery Curator by email: info@victoriaartsconnection.com  

MARCH 3-APRIL 26, 2008 - THE PACIFIC FESTIVAL OF THE BOOK INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION - an exciting exhibition of works selected from hundreds of submissions from artists in Canada, the USA and Europe. This fabulous survey includes hand made book arts, illustrations, works inspired by literature, installation and conceptual works in a variety of media from traditional to experimental. Visit the Pacific Festival of the Book web pages for more information.

FEBRUARY 2-MARCH 1, 2008 - B.A Bosaiya, "Angels and Insects"

This photography exhibition is a collection of close up portraits of insects, or are they angels?

B.A. Bosaiya is from Sumner, Washington and will present up to 50 close up photographs of insects. These fascinating portraits challenge the way we see and think about our fellow creatures from the insect world.

In the artist statement Bosaiya says "We have come to see the world as devoid of mystery, and with these images I hope to restore some sense of wonder about the world around us. There was once a greater sense of mystery in the world-sailors of long ago would tell tales of mysterious beasts in uncharted areas of the flat Earth. Hand-drawn maps had vast areas marked as “Unknown” and the darkest corners were marked with the wondrous phrase, “Here there be Dragons.”

There is no doubt that Bosaiya is achieving this aim.

For more information about Bosaiya please visit www.angelsandinsects.com

NOVEMBER 30-JAN 26, 2008- A Passport to the Arts Youth Festival Exhibition. A fabulous collection of works by youth from age 6- 17 yrs. Once again the youth of this city present an impressive collection of painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, installation, conceptual work and mixed media.

NOVEMBER 3-28, 2007 - Federation of Canadian Artists, Victoria Chapter, Annual Juried Show
Reception with the Artists: Saturday November 3rd, 7-9pm

The Federation of Canadian Artists is one of Canada’s oldest and most distinguished arts organizations. Founded in Kingston, Ontario in 1941, it quickly established a BC Regional Branch, with Lawren Harris as its first President and Emily Carr as one of the founding members. The FCA was instrumental in establishing the Canada Council for the Arts, the successful Painting in the Parks program in BC, and galleries such as the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, which was originally an FCA Gallery. Today, the FCA has a permanent gallery on Granville Island in Vancouver, Federation Gallery, which exhibits work from members across the country. The Victoria Chapter currently boasts over 150 members, including 21 signature members, whose ranks include Robert Bateman, Dorothy Oxborough, David Goatley, Catherine Moffat and Clement Kwan. The chapter meets monthly, puts out a regular newsletter, and holds at least one workshop and two juried exhibitions every year. This will be the first exhibition we have held at the Victoria Arts Connection. All our exhibitions are juried by a panel of 3 highly qualified signature members, resulting in some of the most stunning collections of artwork to be seen in Victoria.

*Image above right: "Regrowth" by Sherry Mitchell,SFCA
*Image above left: "Behind the School" by Mary Ann Laing

OCTOBER 1- 27- Island Illustrators Group Show
Reception with the Artists: Saturday October 6th, 7-9pm

Victoria Arts Connection is pleased to present a group showing of works by the Island Illustrators Society. The society was established to foster a greater interest in the art of illustration and supports its members and clients by sharing information regarding illustrative techniques, business ethics, and standards. Their membership includes practicing illustrators, students, clients, and other interested parties. This exhibition will present a diverse range of works by up to 32 illustrators whose work includes drawing and painting in all media, including digital media. Professionally, many of these member artists have had their works published, or they work professionally in the field of illustration, such as industrial and architectural design, graphic design, landscape, figurative and botanical drawing. The group defines illustration as "a piece of visual information, either drawn or photographed, which usually illustrates an accompanying text. The purpose of illustration is to enhance the ideas presented in the text, or simply, to transmit information or concepts visually". For more information about the Island Illustrators Society, please visit their website: www.islandillustrators.org.

Sept 8-29, 2007
Herman Surkis and Maria Miranda Lawrence "Source and Sustenance"
Media: Photography and Painting
Dates: Sept 8-29, 2007
Reception with artists: Saturday September 8, 7-9pm

Victoria Arts Connection is pleased to present "Source and Sustenance" featuring the photographic works of Herman Surkis and paintings of Maria Miranda Lawrence September 8-28, 2007. These artists share a common muse through music and dance and bring together a dynamic body of new works exploring this theme.

Surkis and Lawrence met at an exhibition opening where Surkis was immediately struck by a sense of kinship with Lawrence and initiated an invitation to show together. From there the artists shared their vision and started working at the Metro theatre to photograph dancers and musicians in a 'black box' environment. Each artist then returned to their own studio to create their unique interpretation and impression of the experience working not only with the dancers and musicians but, together as visual artists.

Bringing their work together for the first time in September is sure to reveal interesting intersections and departures in their individual artistic expression. The opening reception on Saturday September 8th from 7-9pm will of course include a sampling of the artist's source of inspiration with live music and dance performances.

About Herman Surkis, MA: Herman Surkis, has been a freelance photographer for Maclean Hunter Publications, Hit Parader, Jazz, Cream, Downbeat and Rolling Stone. He has photographed dancers from the Bolshoi Ballet, Kirov Ballet, as well as many local Victoria dancers. Herman has eclectic interests in photography that range from nature, wildlife, landscape and fashion.

About Maria Miranda Lawrence, ACIPA: Maria Miranda Lawrence, ACIPA is a signature member of the Canadian Institute of Portrait Art, an executive member of the Island Illustrators Society, and a Fine arts graduate from KSA, Nelson, BC. She enjoys exploring new media and forms of artistic expression. In May, 2006 Maria received the national Portuguese-Canadian COPA Award for outstanding achievement in Arts and Culture. Music and the performing arts has been her main inspiration for over two decades. Website: http://www.mirandalawrence.com

July 2-28,2007 Claudia Lorenz, solo show
RECEPTION WITH THE ARTIST - Saturday July 7, 7-9pm

Victoria Arts Connection Gallery is pleased to present the work of Victoria artist Claudia Lorenz.  Claudia's work is deeply connected to the natural world; she uses her art to bring a unique understanding of ecological and sustainability processes in the natural world while redefining the creative relationship between art and nature. Some of her works are designed as site specific installations that through natural processes will decay and return to the earth from which they were made.  In 2006 Claudia undertook "The Sustainable Bowls Project" to create a series of hand made bowls from reclaimed clay at a University of Victoria construction site. In another project Claudia created sculptural 'compost people' created from invasive creeping ivy which eventually compost over time and return to the forest.    Claudia has a background in Environmental Sciences from Guelph University (1989) and is currently pursuing a Restoration of Natural Systems Diploma from UVIC.  In addition to fine art studio studies at the Dundas Valley School of Art in Ontario and an honours BA in Art History from UVIC, Claudia's art making practice is solidly grounded in both the arts and sciences.  In 2004 Claudia was awarded an Earthwatch International Community Artist Fellowship.   When not creating her own work Claudia can be found teaching workshops and classes for all levels including beginners through her Greensquare Studio http://www.greensquarestudio.com/.   

June 4-30, 2007
Robin McDonald, solo show “We are All Assembled here”. 3d assembleage works.

Victoria Arts Connection Gallery is pleased to present "We Are All Assembled Here" assemblage works created by Vernon, BC artist Robin McDonald.  This group of 3d assemblage pieces engage the viewer through the artist's sense of play and storytelling.  McDonald refers to each piece as a unique collection of recycled junk that takes her on a journey of discovery led by the materials and found objects.  This journey began as a young art student when, in the throws of youthful opposition to the 'Big Boss Man', she joined various environmental groups determined to save the earth. Although the experience was anticlimactic and left the artist with a fair amount of cynicism she did manage to salvage her creative spirit.  "During my Save the Earth sabbatical I had visited many dumps and junk stores studying the miasma of the cast off debris generated by our 'successful modern life style' a veritable gold mine of raw materials."  Thus began the creative process and love affair with assemblage.  McDonald's process is not unlike a good soup - it takes time to simmer and brew.  "In this process I would usually have lots of strange little 'artifacts' living around my studio for quite some time and like all toys they would soon start to tell me their story and the fun would begin....The Inuit would always say that the carving was in the rock and they were only trying to let it emerge.  I feel the same way in that - it is my job to get 'The Story'. 

April 30-June 2, 2007
"Manifestations"
Louise Monfette, Mary Giordano, Jennifer Waelti-Walters,Frances Baskerville, Agnes Ananichuk

Agnes Ananichuk
As an artist, I seem to want to say something. I am not content to just produce representational or decorative works. I feel that I should be trying to tweak the mind of the viewer –encourage them think about the subject or issue, explore a different perspective or contemplate an alternative approach. Art is also a learning process for me resulting in researching an idea, utilizing new techniques or pushing my boundaries on how to express an idea. The result is hopefully art that reaches out and touches you."

Agnes has participated in many group and juried shows since 2000 and is a graduate of The Victoria College of Art Diploma Program. She works in printmaking and collage. Agnes says that working with paper "is a gift – it frees me from inhibitions in the creative process; it has no expectations; it continually surprises me."

Fran Baskerville

“I paint the figure because I am fascinated by human energy. Whether it takes the form of physical movement, as in dance, or the form of emotional or spiritual intensity, I try to capture particular moments. I am interested in the ways that people experience imprisonment and liberation. My figures are striving …often for something they cannot reach or can reach only momentarily. Moments of release are short-lived but beautiful.”

Frances is a graduate of English, Language and Literature at the University of Toronto and has a MLS degree from the University of Western Ontario. After careers in education, librarianship and public service management, she entered art school and has committed herself to art since graduation from the Victoria College of Art in 2000.
A recent recipient of the Herbert Siebner Practicing Artist Award, Frances has had solo shows nationally and in the United States. Her work has been exhibited broadly in Victoria at the Fran Willis Gallery, Martin Batchelor Gallery, the Gallery at

the MacPherson, the Arts Council of Greater Victoria, the Rogue art Gallery, the May Ip-Lam Art Gallery, the Sooke and Sidney Fine Arts Shows and the Maltwood Gallery at the University of Victoria. In January, 2004 the city of Victoria commissioned her to paint a 10 foot square mural as part of a city beautification project.

Jennifer Waelti-Walters

"My background is in literature, gender politics and photography. I have recently become a painter and a passionate maker of figurative monoprints. My prints, made in series, become ambiguous narrative as the figures shift and multiply, moving through space and, by implication, through time, casting shadows and leaving ghosts as the surface of the plate evolves. Using ink and press to create painterly effects of texture, I work with movement, gesture and mood. When I paint, I am also interested by texture, gesture and, above all, colour. Whereas, as a printmaker, I observe the world around me and comment on it, as a painter I engage with the internal energy of that world, the weight of hanging skins, the upward thrust of Spring growth, the geometries of ice. Most recently, I have been attracted by the dynamics of crowds and so, finally, seem to be bringing prints and paintings together…at least for the moment."

Jennifer is an award winning artist who has participated in several group, juried and solo exhibitions locally, nationally and internationally. In 2005 she received the Pat Martin Bates award for works on paper in the “Look 2005”, Community Arts Council Show and in 2004 was one of three Featured Artist(s) in the World printmakers, Estampa, International Print and Contemporary Art Fair, in Madrid, Spain. Jennifer received her Ph D and B.A.Honours from the University of London, UK and in 2000 graduated from the Victoria College of Art Diploma Programme.

Louise Monfette
"My current work explores passages in life through the symbol of the dress. Dresses are used as icons to mark benchmarks in life as christenings, graduations and weddings. They carry with them the memories and associations of these important life events.....In the paintings, dresses float in space, disembodied. An eerie vulnerability is felt. The infant dresses are about life and death, childhood versus old age, light versus darkness. The sculptures of infant dresses touch on childhood experiences ."

Louise is an emerging artist who after several careers is now devoting her energy full-time to her art. Her work ranges from the intensely personal to the whimsical. Louise has studied at both Victoria College of Art and Ontario College of Art and has participated in several group exhibitions from 2002-2006 and has had two successful solo exhibitions in 2005.

Mary Giordano
"I am mainly an abstract artist. I work only occasionally with the figure. When I do, it seems I speak of the angst of being mortal, the pain that life brings to us. Two of the paintings in this show are connected to the tragedy of 9/11 – one, a foreknowledge of the lives and limbs burnt in its furnace, the other, a personal reaction to its horror."

"Memories and Dreams" video installation
April 7-28, 2007
Reception with artists: Sat., April 7, 2:00 – 5:00 pm

Victoria Arts Connection will be hosting it's first video installation exhibition "Memories and Dreams" as part of the Edges Film Festival presented by Media Net. The four artists in this exhibition Rick Raxlen, Judith Price, Trace Nelson, John Blaszcyk all bring a unique perspective to the theme of "Memories and Dreams" from the anxiety around the loss of time to the safe haven of memory that keeps us secure and yet ultimately bound to places only found in one's memory that can provide safety and comfort. For more information please visit the Edges Film Festival website: http://www.edgesfestival.com/edges/program.html

Memories & Dreams
by Helen Marzolf

Twenty years ago, the British critic John Berger observed how the bluish flicker of TV screens replaced
the light of hearth and lamp in the countryside where he was living. Now Berger’s bluish light carries a comforting familiarity. It illuminates our living rooms, kitchens and bedrooms and it frames the unfolding chronologies of our lives as they are marked by weddings, birthdays, reunions and anniversaries. These familiar events, always heavily coded, are sometimes choreographed more to the resulting documentary than to the intent of the event itself.

Video installation artists use Berger’s bluish light as a decoy to lull the viewer, disarm her, and, in effect , draw her into an unexpected interpretive space. Instead of encountering the industrial-strength narrative tropes of television or advertising or home documentaries, viewers of “Memories and Dreams” will discover the mechanics, misfires and poetics of everyday circumstance.

“Memories and Dreams” features familiar and strange imagery, inviting active dialogue, occurring in real time, in order to engage, if not complete, unified narratives or provocative fragments. Two intertwined transformations—the activated space of the installation and the change from spectator to interlocutor—strike me as the two stroke engine driving “Memories and Dreams”. These installations are suffused used with imaginative light, refuge from the [bluishly] overcast conditions of contemporary living.

WORKS IN THE EXHIBITION:

Posterity, Rick Raxlen, 2006, installation

"Rick Raxlen's Posterity does what film does best. Drawing upon film's inherent capacity for heightening our sense of time, loss, and the passing moment, it tenderly evokes a state of mind in which memory meets dream on the borders of consciousness. Through double screen projection, the photographic imagery of the earlier Raxlen film, 'Leaving Montreal Behind,' is paired with the subsequently
drawn and animated images made in response to that film." Marilyn Brakhage

Remaining/Someplace, Judith Price, 2001, installation

A two-channel video installation with two themes: a person's efforts to reach a chosen destination, trying all possible routes, only to be constantly bounced from one route to another, only ever getting partway, never reaching the end of the journey; people arriving at their chosen destination, only to miss their desired human connections, finding themselves unable to communicate with one another.

Electra Complex, Trace Nelson, 2007, installation

The first in a series of works addressing the different stages of life, Electra Complex is an experimental animation/installation investigating the emergence of the feminine self and the concerns of young womanhood. A self-portrait of the imagination and a meditation on the rituals of making art. Several single channel and ambient works will play in a continual loop on a monitor in the gallery during the month of April:

Ever Mindful Of The Time, John Blaszcyk 2007, 15:50 min

Time is a river without banks, and I have been hopelessly swept into it. I find myself in an obsessive-compulsive relationship with time. On one hand I want it so much, for I never seem to have enough time. On the other hand, most of my time is spent in pursuit of the mundane, I wish to make it pass quickly. Hurry, hurry. hurry! Time is running out! As I grow older, the children run faster, and I fall further behind. Cars are faster. Deadlines are coming. Schedules must be kept. ASAP. Phones are everywhere. Don’t worry, the world and the depressing information highway will find me, even if I happen to miss something. Like in a race that I seem to be destined to lose, I need to find some kind of sanctuary - a time that is pure, simple, and essential. In this video, I attempt to give the impression of the finite nature of time, and at the same time the beauty that goes on around us if we only give ourselves the time to live it.

Hot Foots and Hat Tricks, Rick Raxlen 2007, 5 min.
A film of manipulated bits of cowboy lore re-worked via sanding, colouring and scratching.

Vertigris, Judith Price 2006, 16 min.
This video reflects her memories and dreams of moments and places of safety and protection. The video of a perfect backyard summer day and a slow zoom out from a grand piano, punctuated by tiny birds taking flight and a battle of shadow puppets, mirror her memories of comfort.

March 1 -31, 2007
"Art of the Book" part of The Pacific Festival of the Book
More than 50 artists from across Canada are participating in the Art of the Book. Works range from book cover designs to original art used for book covers as well as art inspired by literature, hand made books, conceptual and installation work and performance. More images can be found in the PFB pages.



Left to right: Aimee Brown, NS; Lorraine Douglas, Victoria, Mary Conley,Victoria

Jan 29-February 24, 2007
Dan Sali and Cathleen Thom "Influences" 2d and 3d works
The Victoria Arts Connection Gallery invites the public to "Influences" an exhibition of works by artists Dan Sali and Cathleen Thom. While neither of these artists have met yet, there is a thread of shared inspiration in their work that prompted VAC gallery curator Heidi Bergstrom to bring them together in an exhibition. The influences are distinctly oriental in flavour but each artist is completely unique in approach. Sali's work strives for balance and harmony informed with personal symbolism in two dimensional imagery, while Thom's small sculptural collage boxes layered with Japanese papers and found objects invoke a sense of memory. Both artists work have a sense of storytelling and narrative that engages the viewer to keep looking for and finding the influences.

Dan Sali's work has been exhibited nationally and internationally including exhibitions at Yakumo Gallery in Kitakyushu City, Japan as well as exhibitions in Regina and Victoria. His work has been featured in television documentaries by Global TV (1989 documentary 'Sali Picks up the pen') and Japan TV's special interest feature in 2002. Sali's work is in public and private collections in Canada, Japan, UK, Australia, USA and Korea. VAC recently chose one of Sali's images to use as the centrepiece for the Pacific Festival of the Book logo.

Cathleen Thom has a background in visual arts (BA Art History UVIC) and film through the Gulf Islands Film and Television School. Her work has been screened locally and her most recent exhibitions have been at the Sooke Museum and the 50/50 Arts Collective in Victoria, BC.

Opening Reception with the artists Saturday Feb 3, 7-9pm
show continues Jan 29-February 24, 2007

Influences: Cathleen Thom & Daniel E. Sali

The Victoria Arts Connection is pleased to present the work of Cathleen Thom and Daniel E. Sali, two artists who look eastward to the aesthetic and spiritual traditions of Asia for inspiration. Bringing together divergent approaches to media, composition, colour and technique, this joint exhibition highlights the contrasting and complimentary
relationships between these two artists’ work.

Cathleen Thom’s vibrant, eclectic collages evoke her academic background in art history. Thom collects what others have cast off, incorporating small pieces of metal, paper, dried leaves and seedpods that she has scavenged into her art. She gives these found objects a new role in her visual narratives about memory, nostalgia, myth and history. Her collages are composed of layers of images, text, paint and ink, beautifully patterned paper and found objects, some of which become obscured and subsumed into the tactile, textured nature of the art. As a
result, Thom’s work reveals itself to the viewer gradually, as a meditation in colour and form.

The serene, spiritual paintings of Dan Sali display the artist’s systematic use of symbols to create a visual language of the soul. Certain symbols, like the birds that have interested Sali since childhood, have become enriched with multiple meanings over the course of his life and artistic career. He has studied First Nations and Asian art, and he deftly incorporates his knowledge of these traditions into his work. Executed in pen and ink, watercolour and acrylic, Sali’s paintings are finely detailed. His spacious compositions provide the viewer with room to contemplate his themes of time, space and the concept of beauty. Through his art, Sali creates a moment in which the natural and the spiritual, the personal and the universal intersect and are rediscovered.

written by Mary Lucas, MFA

Dec 2- Jan 27, 2007
Children's Gala Exhibition- Children and their Artist, Collaborative Exhibition

In celebration of our 2nd annual Children's Gala to be held December 2, 2006-Jan 27,2007, VAC Gallery presents a series of works created by children/youth and a significant artist in their life. This may be collaborative work done by a child or youth with their artist parent(s), relative or friend. The works in this exhibition may be directly collaborative or individually created works that the child or youth would like to show with their artist partner. This exhibition represents all media.

Please see our submissions page for information on how to submit work for this show next year.

October 2-Nov 30,2006
Claire-Paulette Turcotte, Exhibition and Book Launch "The Woman Who Could See In All Directions At The Same Time"
Opening reception Saturday October 14, 2006 7-10pm

Claire Turcotte has been involved in the arts for 36 years as a visual artist and writer. Her work has been sold in galleries in Ottawa, Peterborough and Toronto. A large part of her early works were collected and sold through Whetung’s Ojibwe Gallery in Ontario. Her work is in collections in Canada, USA, Germany and Great Britain. In 1981 her work was discovered by arts patron, Jack von Mettenheim who purchased over 200 of her works before his death in 1988.

Claire is a student and teacher of Dreamwork in Victoria. Her passion is being out on the Land.

Her work has been published in various periodicals such as Vox Feminarum, Quarry, Waves, Anthos, Femme d’action, Open Set: an anthology, Room of One’s Own, and Synchronicity. She has received a Canada council grant in writing and was a winner in the BC Festival of the Arts, Otherwords ’97.

This exhibition takes us through Claire's creative process with works that range from mixed media painting and drawing to sculpture. Her passion and deep connection to the natural world and personal history is expressed authentically through a masterly use of materials, layering and textures.

Artist Statement about the book:

""The Woman Who Could See In All Directions At The Same Time" is a memoir in mythic-poetic style of the three years I lived in a cabin on the edge of a wood. This is the story of my connections to the forest, the land, lake and mountain where I spent my days writing, dreaming and making art. It is the story of living with nature. It is about creative fire and the emerging images that found their way into my art. And it is about my love for the Earth.
As well, there is a companion book that is a “workbook,” and study guide with a website (www.cdris.org) that is also a showcase for my art."

September 7-October 1, 2006
Herman Surkis and Doug Gilbert, Movement and Music in Photography

Local artists Herman Surkis and Doug Gilbert join together in this photography exhibition to bring forward a series of captivating images that explore the sensuality of the human form in movement and music.

Herman Surkis has been a freelance photographer for Maclean Hunter Publications, Hit Parader, Jazz, Cream, Downbeat and Rollingstone. He has photographed dancers from the Bolshoi Ballet, Kirov Ballet (Toronto), as well as Polynesian, Dance Unlimited, Alma de Espana, Ballet Victoria (Victoria) and many others on the local dance scene in Victoria. Herman works with professional models, but also has eclectic interests that range from nature, wildlife, landscape and macro photography.

Doug Gilbert (www.douggilbert.com) Doug has been on an ever evolving journey into digital photography. By combining traditional photography with digital processes Doug is transforming his final product into a seamless, unified expression.

Please join us for a reception with the artists on Saturday Sept 16th at 7pm.

Sanctuary -Artists in support of Muir Creek: Opening August 17, 2006 7-9pm.
Show and Sale of Art

The Muir Creek Protection Society presents a group exhibition of artists in support of Muir Creek. The society has recently held this exhibtion at Sooke Harbour House and now is spreading the word to Victoria through this exhibition. Funds raised go to supporting the society's efforts to raise money to purchase the land around Muir Creek to create a new park. Works include sculpture, painting, photography and printmaking. Special events for the opening include a slide presentation of the history of the area as well as live harp performance by Alison Vardy.

Artists include:
Kay Lovett - paintings
Craig Benson - bronze sculpture
Jen Jellett -photography
Anne Boquist - gourds and baskets
Chiarina Loggia - painting
Doug Gilbert -photography
Gretchen Markle -paintings and pastels
Jan Johnson - metal sculpture
Pat Cook - paper making and painting
Rebecca Van Skyver - fabric art and drawings
Ted Spiers - wood sculpture
Linda Woodbury - clay
Norene Schmuck - mosaic
Bev Petow - metal sculpture
Sandy Sydham - metal sculpture
Katherine Woods -soapstone sculpture

Exhibition continues until September 3, 2006.
Play video, Alison Vardy on Celtic Harp next to Ted Speir's wood sculpture

Pictures from the Opening, click for larger picture.

July 21-August 11,2006
"Busted but not Broken" Warrior Women's Garden of Art

JUNE 1-JULY 15, 2006
Heidi Bergstrom, "Between the Lines" paintings & installation

This series is comprised of 18 paintings (oil on massonite and watercolour mixed media) as well as sculptural installation and explores the relationships between literal meaning, subjective interpretation and shared symbolisms. The geometry of the lines defines pictorial and story telling space while also representing how layered our thought and memory processes are. There is no such thing as stasis - we sort, store and retrieve information and memories continually, even simultaneously. In “Between the Lines” the result is an ongoing dialogue between the images that eventually comes off the wall to become a three-dimensional incarnation through sculpture and installation. Heidi Bergstrom is a visual and multimedia artist from Victoria. She received her BFA Honours from York University in 1990 and has exhibited in several solo and group exhibitions. Visit her personal web site for more info: www.horizon.bc.ca/~heidi   

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APRIL 1- MAY 30 , 2006
"Performance" Vancouver Island Sculptors Guild

A group exhibition exploring the theme of performance and movement featuring the works of:

Photos by Neil Hodge

FEBRUARY 10-MARCH 28, 2006

Artist Alfred Muma-Baroque And Blue

BAROQUE & BLUE, an exhibition of 25 innovative large scale watercolours by Powell River artist Alfred Muma, opens Friday February 10, 2006, 7pm-9pm at the Victoria Arts Connection. This exciting interpretation of Claude Bolling's Suite for Flute and Jazz Piano Trio is expressed on a large scale on paper with calligraphic oil pastel marks and vibrant watercolour washes.

Alfred paints in a variety of media and especially enjoys interpreting music through his brush and says, "I always wanted to be a musican but became a visual artist instead. By painting the music as I listen to it, maybe I can capture the experience of the composer and record it in paint."

Alfred Muma lived on the Queen Charlotte Islands/Haida Gwaii for over ten years. He moved to Powell River, on the upper sunshine coast in 1997 and just opened his working studio called "Among Friends". Alfred works in a variety of media-acrylics and oils on canvas, mixed media on paper, watercolour and original prints and has completed a number of mural projects.

Alfred is an award winning artist who has shown in over 70 juried and 40 solo shows since 1975.

His most recent solo show "30 Years of PAINt", was presented at the Holtenwood Gallery, Texada BC.

The show can be viewed at the Victoria Arts Connection, suite 110 - 2750 Quadra Street, Victoria Monday-Friday, 3pm-7pm and Saturday 9am-4pm, or call for an appointment at other times. Exhibition continues until March 28th.

Email or Website

DECEMBER/JANUARY 2005
Children's Gala Exhibition- Children and their Artist, Collaborative Exhibition

In celebration of our first annual Children's Gala held in December 2005, VAC Gallery presents a series of works created by children/youth and a significant artist in their life. This may be collaborative work done by a child or youth with their artist parent(s), relative or friend. The works in this exhibition may be directly collaborative or individually created works that the child or youth would like to show with their artist partner. This exhibition is open to all media.

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