A few weeks ago I received an interesting invitation to attend an afternoon reception at the home of Zoë and Gaetan Royer. ‘Artists meeting Artists’ was organized as a fabulous opportunity for local (living or working in Port Moody) artists to meet each other and to learn what we are all working on in our studios. I fully expect that many collaborations and plans will emerge from the many conversations started there last Saturday.

With a carefully planned agenda Zoë welcomed us, gave us all name tags and a list of all 40 people attending, and then gave us a while to complete a clever strategy to start conversations. With each person we met we were asked to say their name and then a word or words about them, or if a stranger then perhaps a word about ourselves. It certainly broke the ice! I made notes on my list so that now I can put faces and art technique to names.

Then we were ushered in to the Royer’s 3-storey high media room where we were treated to a slide show. Each of us had been invited beforehand to send 3 slides of our work and a bio. Gaetan had carefully edited the latter so that the first slide we saw was a brief bio and a quotation relating to our specific focus or passion. The next slide was of two of the images we’d submitted and the third was a single image and we could choose to explain what had inspired the piece or our work in general. It was an efficient way to learn about each other in about an hour, and wasn’t too scary to say a few sentences. I really enjoyed the whole presentation. Zoë, Gaetan and Zoë’s two daughters were included in the slide show.

Afterwards we repaired to the elegant living quarters upstairs for drinks, more snacks and lots of conversation.

The house is a contemporary delight, situated off Ioco Road, with a spectacular view north across the Inlet and towards Vancouver to the West. Occasional postings on facebook have given me an idea of this restrained, elegant home and I was pleased to experience the Royers’ carefully planned and built home.

My word for Zoë, for our ‘meeting’ was White. The house furnishings, her dress, her quiet confidence and her three adorable white cats just wiped my mind clear of anything else. But I have to say that the vast white walls are now becoming brightened with bold, wildly colourful art and I have the feeling that much more will appear there soon!

So I’ve described Zoë’s ‘Salon’ in some detail partly because I think this is exactly the sort of initiative that will break down the invisible walls between artists. Together we can talk about our work, collaborations and about how Art can become a bigger part of life here in what we optimistically call ‘The City of the Arts’.

Finally I know that there are many more artists in our midst and that this was probably just the first event like this. Thank you for inviting us all Zoe and we’ll totally understand why we aren’t on the list for the next one!