What an extraordinary few weeks we have had since I last put together a blog. In early March there were numerous clay-related events coming up, with TriCity Potters’ juried show ‘Earth, Form,Fire’ scheduled to open on March 5th. It was organized to be one of many clay shows and workshops planned to coincide with the much-anticipated Canadian Clay Symposium at Shadbolt Centre on March 20th. As you all know only too well the Covid 19 Pandemic has arrived instead and every single scheduled show and gathering has been cancelled.

But in early March we had no idea of how fast this virus would spread, and on March 5th the show opened. Unfortunately I had already caught a different virus, a beastly flu with a temperature and still now, more than three weeks later, a persistent cough. So Alan chose to attend the opening and he took some photos and reported back to me on which pots he liked and who was there. He said that there wasn’t as big a crowd as usual for a three-show opening at PoMoArts. I’m sorry to say that I have no notes on the two 2D shows that opened that night but I’m told that the Arts Centre will be posting news of them. I’ll post some of Al’s photos here. He explained that our TCP president Ronald Boersen was singularly scruffy-looking for an art opening because he was in fact teaching wheel-throwing in the Clay department during the formalities and just popped upstairs to thank the visitors, the potters, Gallery Manager Janice Cotter and the Arts Centre.

Some days later, as the Arts Centre initiated strict cleanliness measures to try to maintain their schedule of Spring Break Art Camps, I spent a short while there (wearing a mask my doctor’s office had given me when I checked to see if my flu was going to go away.. she said I was ‘on the mend’) to sign a form agreeing to their safety plans, and I took the opportunity to take some more photos of the pots in our show. Glad I did as that’s the only chance I had to see how they’d been displayed. Janice and her helpers had, again, put together a thoughtful arrangement of our ceramic creations.

Very shortly after that, of course, plans changed, and all public gathering venues had to close and our pots have sat, lonely, in an empty gallery. Now we are told that the city of Port Moody plans to have all the public buildings thoroughly cleaned and all art work needed to be removed. PoMoArts Director Fatima Amarshi and Janice have arranged a very cautious system for us to collect our work. So this afternoon I was let into the Centre by Janice, all alone and a proper distance from me. She showed me cleaning supplies for the pots if I chose and pointed out a sterilized pen to use to sign out my work. But then Janice invited me to say a few words about my jugbirds into her phone and she tells me that the gallery staff hope and plan to make little videos and photos available on the PoMoArts website to allow more people to see the shows and to enable some purchases. Watch for that!

Enjoy browsing through this rather large selection of photos (and I apologize for not including all pots) as you get used to living in isolation and try to work from home. As these new circumstances evolve I must admit that Alan and I have a large comfortable house to spend our days, he has his study and I have my complete studio and we can potter in our garden. We shall miss spending time with our family that’s for sure but already we’re getting used to visual communication via iPhones. I sent an email to my farflung family in the US and in Europe and England and was comforted to receive lots of reassuring messages back, so I intend to do that often.

So far I haven’t taken advantage of the beckoning studio. With my galleries closed, the Symposium cancelled and the Saltspring Island show planned for the Fall cancelled, it’s rather discouraging. I need to get myself really healthy and make sure Al is kept safe , and then I hope that, like many other artists I follow, I shall be inspired to be creative again.

Let’s all follow instructions from our leaders to slow Covid 19’s spread and trust that we can gather socially again in the not-too-distant future. Good luck all!