Musings
Creativity abounds and even thrives in this discombobulated age; no surprise that it's clearly evident in the online 2020 Sooke Fine Arts Show. The organizers have worked tirelessly to reinvent this premier Vancouver Island summer event. You attend from your very own home: no crowds, and lots of time to browse and ponder. I have just had my first peek at the show and, WOW. The presentation is exceptional. View the show at http://sookefinearts.com
I am delighted that two of my images were selected for SFAS 2020 and thrilled that Flying Solo sold during the Purchasers' Preview last night. (Limited edition of 5)
Flying Solo
Deep Dive
Art off the Fence 2020 officially opens in the glass showcase at the Driftwood Centre this Saturday, June 27th. Three weeks of rotating art in July will be followed (after a short break) by three more in August. Even within the limited space we plan to showcase a wide variety of work so please check the space often this summer.
At Oak Bay Avenue's Gage Gallery (Victoria), some of the work submitted to "Challenge Crisis with Creativity" (previously shown online) will be displayed when the gallery reopens on Tuesday, June 23rd, for the first time since the shutdown - five days only. My piece Connecting While Physically Distanced (shown below the Gage Gallery poster) will be among the works on display.
Connecting While Physically Distanced
Welcome to The Social Distancing Festival.
This is a site for celebrating art from all over the world, showcasing amazing talent, and coming together as a community at a time when we need it more than ever.
Our Pender Island Art off the Fence Bee Project is featured on the Social Distancing Festival Website:
https://www.socialdistancingfestival.com/visual-art
My piece Upside Down Yoga, Upside Down World is part of our festival display.
The Social Distancing Festival website is worth exploring; showcased is an extensive
collection of inspiring artwork in multiple genres.
Stay tuned for more!
Art off the Fence is an annual premier summer art show on Pender Island. To mark it's 24th anniversary this July, the show will go on, reimagined for these discombobulated times.
We have moved from our usual one acre site on South Pender Island to the twenty-four square foot
display case at the Driftwood Centre, as well as online.
Starting Wednesday, May 27th with the Bee Project, you'll find a rotating exhibit of our artists' work in the display case in front of Talisman Books - and on Facebook and Instagram at
Art Off the Fence on Pender Island.
About the Bee Project
There are 20,000 species of bees in the world; they pollinate one third of the crops we eat; a few species are thriving, others are endangered by habitat loss, pollution and climate change. This exhibition and sale of work by Art off the Fence artists is a celebration of the importance of bees.
Shown below are my photographic contributions to the bee project:
Just Cruisin' Upside Down Yoga, Upside Down World
Stay tuned - Art off the Fence will reappear in late June, again in the Driftwood showcase, with the usual eclectic variety of work that has been a feature of the outdoor show for twenty-four years.
Watch for posts on Facebook and Instagram
Art off the Fence on Pender Island
Four weeks ago Victoria's Gage Gallery Arts Collective launched "Challenge Crisis with Creativity". Each week the gallery requested images matching the following themes. Week One: Social Distancing, Week Two: Can't Stop the Spring, Week Three: Thankful For..., and Week Four: Pandemic Connection.
https://www.gagegallery.ca/challenge-crisis-with-creativity
Thank you Gage Gallery for a thoughtful and fun way to help artists find ways to stay
creative through this pandemic.
Social Distancing (two images):
Is it Safe Out There?
Safe Distance
Week Two: Can't Stop the Spring (two images):
Paper Thin, Still Lovely
Paper Thin, Aging with Grace
Week Three: Thankful for... (Three images):
Family Near and Far
Books
Music
Week Four has arrived and I am delighted that Gage Gallery chose to use one of my images for their call this week.
"Challenge Crisis with Creativity" is not juried and the gallery continues to accept submissions in all of the weekly categories.
https://www.gagegallery.ca/challenge-crisis-with-creativity
A brief post-trip note - we crossed the border on Thursday just as our Provincial Health Officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry, announced that anyone returning from the US should self-isolate (that proviso has been extended to world-wide entries / returnees to Canada). After picking up groceries and flowers we returned feeling happy and fortunate.
Stay well. Stay safe. Find ways to laugh.
The cartoon-like Leafy Sea Dragons at the Birch Aquarium in La Jolla alone make this stop worthwhile - captivating and amusing underwater wonders!
La Jolla Cove is home to pelicans, cormorants, seals, and sea lions, each claiming a special spot and ignoring the tourists' cameras. The cormorants guard nests; male and female parents taking turns brooding.
Just off the coast at San Juan Capistrano - the "jewel of the (Spanish) missions", a calming and sublime refuge in a distracted world.
The Mission gardens and pools are lovely; this one attracting a single-minded Green Heron.
In LA, the Getty Centre - home to J. Paul Getty's extensive art collection. The angular architecture is grand and imposing; the gardens a softly elegant counterbalance.
Finally, Sculpterra Winery and Sculpture Garden in Paso Robles; sculpture by various artists. Magnificent!
We leave today to begin the trek north filled with a trove of uplifting images of some of the treasures to be found along this delightful coast.
First, some sculpted fun. In 2008, Artist Ricardo Breceda was commissioned to create
sculptures for placement in multiple locations around Borrego Springs. These creations,
sizeable in themselves, serve to highlight the astonishing scale of their desert surroundings.
The five section giant serpent has the head of a dragon and the tail of a rattlesnake; the tail
stretches under and across the well-travelled road.
Little Surprise Canyon is typical of many of the trails in Anza Borrego. At this time of year,
hikers are rewarded with glimpses of the desert gradually colouring into bloom.
Canyons carve the badlands into chasms, sculpting a dramatic and challenging landscape.
The terrain viewed from above:
and below. Hiking "The Slot" requires deft manoeuvring and a degree of bravery!
Shadows in the foreground and the distant motorhome offer further clues to the colossal scale
of the desert landscape.
Golf course oases provide welcome diversion from sand and sandstone. Many visitors to
Borrego are drawn by the game and the mostly benign weather - warm days, cool nights.
A four mile sandy road leads from the highway to Fonts Point - a viewpoint providing a
breathtaking 360 degree view of the badlands and surrounding mountains. Sunlight and shadow
play tag throughout the day, spellbinding those lucky enough to witness the magic. At sunset
the scene is sublime.
Now it's farewell to the desert as we head towards that magnetic Pacific Ocean.
This posting finds us heading south on what has become an annual snowbird adventure. Let's
skip the I-5 nerve-wracking navigation with its overpopulation of single-minded big rigs. Las
Vegas was our first adventure stop; over several years we have discovered the wonder of the
surrounding landscape (Valley of Fire) and, this time, Red Rock Canyon, a mecca for walkers,
hikers and climbers.
Two climbers below - the upper one hard to spot in blue.
We continue to be captivated by the wild and wonderful plants and trees that survive and
sometimes thrive in this harshest of environments.
For a change of pace, an oasis of sorts: Lake Pleasant, created by a dam on the outskirts of
Phoenix. Breaking the photographic rules, I had fun dividing the scene with the presiding
saguaro cactus, keeping steadfast watch over a variety of aquatic pursuits.
Now driving across the Sonoran Desert in Southern California on a 'cloudy' day. The road
traversed expansive sand dunes and kept us amused with multiple warning signs of "dips".
More roller coaster than dips.
The desert environment here in Borrego Springs is spectacular - and very difficult to "capture"
photographically. Its magnificence arises largely from the colossal expanse; ironically too
from the sense of isolation and rugged unwelcome. It is not a land for the faint of heart. But
the sun warms the surrounding mountains and even this lonely land invites delightful exploration.
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