Fraser Valley Potters’ latest show opened at Coquitlam’s Place des Arts on Friday night. The juror for this show, ECUAD ceramics professor Jen Woodin, gave the members a critique of their submissions at an August meeting and she attended the opening to present prizes and certificates to her selection of prize-winners and ‘honorable mentions’.
Visitors to the evening’s events were first welcomed by Place des Arts Executive Director Joan McCauley and then we were ushered into the Leonore Peyton Salon to be further welcomed by Indigenous MC Dennis Joseph, accompanied by Christine Mackenzie who had led the summer’s community art mural that was displayed on the walls around us, and sound artist Matt Dyck who had coordinated music and light effects for the evening.
As usual, I found myself taking lots of photos, of people and their pots and the evening’s events. There are so many ceramic artworks to show you that I need to divide this account of Friday’s happy evening into two blogs.
To begin with I’m giving you a glimpse of the ‘Sharing Culture Through the Natural World’ mural in the LP Salon. Notice the forest images in light on the floor.
Later in the evening I took the stairs up to the mezzanine floor to see the ‘Evolution of Self and Indigenous Art’ show and was happy to meet Bella Coola artist Christine Mackenzie. Her clothing, jewelry and re-purposed masks were charming.
Works by Fraser Valley Potters Guild members were displayed in protective acrylic cases on plinths, in the Arts Centre’s Atrium. They’re protected but it is difficult to take good photos.
It was a busy evening, with many pottery friends in attendance. When I could find one of them I tried to photograph each artist with her pot/s.
Here is the list of Award Winners and Honorable Mentions.
In the Open Class there were 2 Award of Merit winners: Eliza Wang and Jean Paull, who will receive $100 each and a certificate. 4 Honorable Mentions will be given certificates only: Pat Schendel, Ying-Yueh Chuang, Giles Barton-Owen and Amy Chang. In the Student Class there will be 1 Award of Merit winner: Zilin Shen, who will receive $100 and a certificate. 1 Honorable Mention with a certificate only: Susan Johnston. Congratulations all!
To see more photos of pots and people at last Friday’s opening please click on the second blog with the title ‘Of the Earth’.
I love the Darth Vader masks. Everything looks so exciting and energetic. Thanks for the post.
The creativity on display is energizing and thought provoking. Thanks for a look into the exhibit.