Spring Rain over the valley (Merritt, BC)

Biography

Artist Statement

I was born in Vancouver in 1948 and grew up in Kitimat, B.C. I studied for a Bachelor's degree at Simon Fraser University and completed it at the University of British Columbia in 1971, majoring in Fine Arts. After some time on the crew of the television show "The Beachcombers" and travelling in Europe, I returned to U.B.C. to do some studio courses.

I was drawing extensively during this period. I had my first group show in 1979 and have concentrated on painting since then. I have had many exhibitions during these years in private and public spaces. My work has been included in many charity auctions and other group endeavours and has won awards. The latest of these was an honourable mention in the Torrit Grey Competition sponsored by Gamblin Colors, Portland, Oregon, in 2010.

My early work was entirely photo-based and very detailed, but it has now become looser and more intuitive. It ranges between abstraction that verges on representation and representation that verges on abstraction. I work in acrylics, and other media when appropriate for the work underway in my studio. I have been working in Mission, B.C. since July, 2011.
Article: Kimoto Gallery Exhibition – Rhythms of Dissonance: New Paintings of Land and Water
Author Veronica Plewman, date published unknown
Source: https://kimotogallery.com/show/kimoto-gallery-rhythms-of-dissonance-new-paintings-of-land-and-water

OPENING RECEPTION: Saturday afternoon, May 4, 1 – 4pm
EXHIBITION DATES: May 4 – 25, 2019

This new work continues my exploration of the interfaces between land and water. Such interfaces include biologically rich and diverse wetlands and beaches, which are ecologically important. They show rhythms of change in the movements of water, wind and plants: visible flux. A secluded rainy beach, where grasses that are rooted in gravel and driftwood sway with the incoming tide, is an unmarked memorial to my mother. A sandy open beach at low tide, with rounded high white clouds scudding across a blue sky, is an unmarked memorial to my father. The memories of those beaches seem to have been made such a long time ago.

Now, fire cuts through wetlands and wind throws down trees. Soot darkens glaciers and storm-driven king tides rip out wharves. The effects of climate change are increasingly dramatic, and devastatingly beautiful. They remind me of literary descriptions of war, captured succinctly by Suborno Chatterji: “[writers have described] war as a disembodied presence with a life of its own, where instruments of death such as white phosphorus and napalm are magically transformed into morally indifferent objects of beauty”1. We are beginning to believe that we are destroying the world, yet we continue to believe that our lives can and should continue as they always have. We are at the mercy of our capacity for cognitive dissonance. Our inability or unwillingness to change is not sustainable. We are at war with ourselves.

1. Suborno Chatterji, 2005, Imagining Viet Nam: Tim O’Brien’s “The Things they Carried”. Lasalle University Digital Commons
- Veronica Plewman