During the afternoon of the Symposium I walked up the hill to see the display of work that had been fired in the Ombu kiln. I had been invited to bring a piece in, and although I like salt firing best I had a good piece that had been in a good spot on the top shelf of a salt/soda firing in the gas-assisted end of the Ombu kiln. It is the vase with the hole that I had shown in our ‘Various Vessels’ show at Deer Lake Art Gallery in November.

Then I checked out Burnaby Art Gallery as I’d been told that they had some ceramics showing alongside a poster show. Imagine my surprise when I came across an old friend of mine, a large Chicken I’d made for a show there some time ago. It is owned by Carol Mayer. She tells me that Darren Marten, the curator there, had borrowed several pieces from the Mayer collection for this display. OK! Also displayed were pieces by Gailan Ngan, Vic Cicansky, Celia Rice-Jones, Gathie Falk and Tam Irving.

Back in the Shadbolt Centre I photographed presenter’s pieces, including another Cicansky pickle jar, a Bob Kingsmill bird and a flame-ware cooking dish by Robbie Lobell.

Before the Keynote Address by Takeshi some of our elders were honoured as usual. This year Bob Kingsmill was surprised to find that his wife Mary had sent photos to Carol Mayer for this celebration of all he has done for our community. Vincent Massey gave a little slide show of work by Robert Weghsteen, who had been a major influence after Vincent returned from England. His murals are around BC. And we applauded the memory of ceramic artists we’ve lost this year, too many.