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From Land and Sea, Vancouver Island inspires

Pinned to a cork board on the wall of Linda Yurgensen’s studio is a photo of her and her father painting together during a recent trip she took back to her home province, Nova Scotia. It’s a reminder of her very first inclination to translate reality into a representative vision through art.

Retired now, Allen Horne was a pipe fitter and plumber during working hours; father to six children, and an avid hunter and painter when time permitted. He first inspired his daughter to pick up pencil and brush.

“I grew up watching my father paint, he painted part time – never really showing his work anywhere,” she recalled. She remembers sketching, and occasionally asking if she could use some of his paint in her own works.

But after she entered her teens, the love of painting went dormant in Yurgensen for many years. “I did it up to a certain age, until I was maybe 13 or 14, and then I kind-of forgot about it,” she said.

She married, worked, raised a family and moved – in 1992 – to the Cobble Hill home, where she and her husband Eric still live. “For years and years it didn’t really occur to me to pick up a paintbrush,” she said. Not, in fact, until 10 or 12 years ago, a hiatus of about three decades, did she set brush to canvas again.

Once again, her dad helped her get going. “My father kind of encouraged me,” she recounted. “He sent me a book for Christmas one year, Painting with Pastels, and that’s how I first started, pastels.”

Since then, she’s been making up for lost time in the narrow studio, which looks suspiciously like a converted front porch, where she works. The urge to paint has become “an overwhelming desire to do something creative,” she said. What inspires her now are the forests, landscapes and seascapes of her Vancouver Island home… and always colour, vibrant hues of reflected sunlight.

“I just did it for the enjoyment of it, basically. And I noticed as I was doing it my work was getting better,” she said. 

She took one course in watercolours, tried pastels, went on to acrylics, but gravitated to oils as her preferred medium. “Oil is my love,” she said. “I really love oil, probably won’t ever leave oil.” Although she’s self-taught and paints by her own light, Yurgensen does admire The Group of Seven, and some of her work is reminiscent of Canada’s most famous artistic movement.

And like the Group of Seven, her work is deeply evocative of place, of Vancouver Island. We do get plenty of cloudy, rain-sodden days here, but Yurgensen sees and portrays them as anything but drab. “When I look at a foggy day, even, I’m not seeing grey, I’ll see purple and blue.” 

She wants viewers to experience her new homeland’s contours, shapes and hues through her art. “I’m hoping they see the West Coast as I do, not as a drab place, but the beautiful, green, lush, colourful rainforest, which is Vancouver Island,” she said. “Before I came I had no idea that this was here, now I’m never going to leave.”

To achieve the feel she wants, Yurgensen starts with a primed canvas, colours that with a primary colour, ‘something bright’ in acrylic. Then she paints her scene on, again in acrylic. “When that’s all dry,” she said, “I go in with my oils, but I don’t layer, I just lay the colours side-by-side, so you get an optical illusion when you look at it. It’s not blended.”

The artist’s life isn’t easy. Getting your work into galleries is hard, and when the work is rejected, it’s hard not to question why. “You wonder, it it the art, or is it just not the right time?” You have to push through and keep going. “I would say, just keep doing what you love, and eventually, others are going to love it too,” Yurgensen said.

Linda Yurgensen will be featured artist January 6 through February at Rainforest Arts, 9781 Willow Street in Chemainus, open from 11 am to 4 pm daily. She will be hosting an art demo Saturday, Jan. 18 from 2 to 4pm at the gallery.

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An Artful Christmas at Rainforest Arts

What is it you look for in a Christmas present?

Of course, you want something unique, something that will delight and surprise, and in that department, few presents top original art. So, with more than fifty artists displaying paintings, sculpture, jewelry, pottery and more at Rainforest Arts, it’s a great place to find gifts that will add a bright touch to someone’s home and holiday.

There will be an even greater choice of original art to enjoy and buy this season. A special floor-to-ceiling salon style exhibition, opened in early November, bringing in an expanded selection of locally produced works. And if you aren’t sure what might suit the tastes of friends or loved ones, you can always give them a gift certificate, knowing there’ll be a terrific selection for them to browse.

Many of the artists showing at the gallery are from the Chemainus area, so their works often touch on local themes and scenes. And since Rainforest Arts is a non-profit, run by volunteers on behalf of the Chemainus Valley Cultural Arts Society, when you buy a Christmas gift, you’ll be making a contribution to the arts and artists in your community.

Rainforest has an excellent selection for every budget. From art greeting cards, and colorful accessories, to large format prints and original art, you’ll find something memorable to put under the tree.

As a bonus, November and December shoppers will have a chance at something extra-special: with every purchase, they can enter their names to win a basket packed with art gifts valued at hundreds of dollars, donated by Rainforest’s artists. The draw for prizes will take place in late December, in time for you to add a few extras to your gift list… or give yourself a fantastic present.

The friendly volunteers at Rainforest Arts are always happy to answer questions and show shoppers around. So, when you’re making your list, and checking it twice, be sure to visit Rainforest Arts this holiday season. You’re sure to discover some great ideas and see some wonderful art.

Find out more at RainforestArts.ca

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Please Take a Seat

There’s really no such thing as an empty chair.

That’s the conclusion you come to, looking at the evocative pictures Daphne and Art Carlyle have taken over the last 15 to 20 years of chairs outside cafés, in shopping malls, nailed to forest trees, in marble porticos, in just about every conceivable setting or configuration.

Funny thing is, there’s not a single person in any of the pictures hanging at Rainforest Arts, where they are featured in September and October. Rather, the chairs inviteyouto take a seat. But they’re photos, so you can’t step inside the scenes and sit yourself down, the only way to get there is through the portals of imagination.

Viewers are invited to turn themselves around and look out of the photos, instead of in. “I hope that they would look at the chairs, and imagine themselves being in that chair, in that location,” Daphne said. You can even bring a companion along and place them on the other side of the table. “Somebody special, or perhaps just a friend.”

“Any chair has an appeal to it, and there’s a temptation or an invitation to sit,” Art said. “So, a quaint table and chairs at a coffee shop is an invitation to sit and chat or take a moment, take a special moment.”

Part of that special moment is the chairs themselves, how our bodies conform to their shapes, how their curves and colours appeal to the eye. There’s an elegance and functionality to chairs that make them works of art in their own right, and capturing that essence is one of the objectives of Please, Take a Seat.

“I think it’s important to acknowledge the designers and the craftsmen, who make the chairs,” Art said. “Our role is to use our creative skills and technical skills to interpret that. I don’t think anyone who looks at the show is going to quite be able to view chairs the same again.”

So, consider yourself invited to Please, Take a Seat, during their exhibit at Rainforest Arts. The gallery is at 9781 Willow Street in Chemainus. It’s open from 11 am to 4 pm daily. On Sept. 14 Daphne and Art will be at the gallery all day for their opening (refreshments will be available). More information at RainforestArts.ca. You can also email info@rainforestarts.ca, or phone 250-0246-4861.

CraigSpenceWriter.ca

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CitizenX: First Nations & Reconciliation

Citizen X is Mid-Island Focus’s survey of issues heading into the Oct. 21 Canadian Federal Election. MiF is providing background  and asking questions a typical voter might ask.

As long as reconciliation is just something we read about in the news or watch on TV – and we’ve been doing that way too long – we are not going to achieve the goals set out in the 94 calls to action contained in the Dec. 15, 2015 Truth And Reconciliation Commission report.

Reconciliation is a national priority which, more than any other, has to be taken personally, because if we don’t personally commit to addressing the consequences of a genocide that occurred within living memory, and the ongoing effects of continuing colonialism, we have to accept the blame that is our national heritage.

Are those harsh words? Not nearly so harsh as the reality lived by hundreds of thousands of First Nations people in Canada, be it on their traditional lands, or in the cities that have been built on their traditional lands.

Most of us would agree now that European ‘discovery’ and settlement of North America wasn’t the expansion of a progressive civilization into unoccupied, unproductive lands; it was an invasion of territories that had been inhabited and adroitly lived on by indigenous peoples for thousands of years. In BC the onslaught commenced in earnest less than 200 years ago – that’s in the space of three lifetimes.

We have to know where, on the spectrum, our political representatives stand when it comes to truth and reconciliation. Do they believe we, as a nation, have an obligation to assist First Nations rebuilding their communities and economies in the 21st Century, based on the strengths of evolving and adapting indigenous cultures?

Do our political representatives agree that: the appropriation of First Nations lands; the sequestering of hunting and gathering peoples onto reserves; the decimation of First Nations populations by European diseases; the denial of First Nations citizens of their democratic rights; the outlawing of First Nations cultural practices; the attempted genocide of the residential schools system… and so on, confer an obligation on the nation?

Again, most would go at least that far. But reconciliation isn’t only about deal-making. That’s just a start. It’s about healing, too. And that’s where things get personal. Friendship isn’t something proclaimed in an official document; it’s a feeling of mutual respect, curiosity, trust and concern shared face to face. Until we can look one another in the eye, and see relationships that go way beyond anything you could put into a contract, reconciliation will not be fully achieved.

So:

  • What efforts will your party, and you personally, be making in response to the 94 calls to action contained in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s 2015 report?
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Naden Band skips beat to honour Chemainus vet


May 8th is a special day for World War II veteran Fred Durrand. Not only is it his birthday, but it’s also the day Germany surrendered, ending the war in Europe; and it’s the day he got married to his war bride Josie, the love of his life.

So not to many squares on the calendar can match May 8. But July 23, 2019 might be in the running for a prize too, because on that day he was honoured by the Naden Band, in front of a packed audience at the Chemainus Band Shell in Water Wheel Park.

Fred is among the few WWII veterans still alive, but his memories of the war years are keen. He hadn’t strayed very far from his hometown of Revelstoke, B.C., when he boarded a train for Calgary to enlist in the Canadian armed forces in October, 1942 at the age of 18. It was a different man who returned home, via Vancouver in 1946.

The second biggest birthday gift Fred can remember in his 95-year history was VE-Day on May 8, 1945; the biggest, his marriage to Josie – the beautiful young Dutch woman he met as a soldier in Amsterdam, and married in Revelstoke on May 8, 1947.

Fred served with the 8th Brigade, in the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division. As a signals dispatch rider, he delivered vital information to commanders advancing from the beachhead in Normandy, through Brussels, and on to Amsterdam.

His experiences of war have made Fred a fervent advocate for peace as the only sensible way of resolving global conflicts.

Mid-Island Focus also does commissioned coverage of events, celebrations, launches and news in the region. Video, plus story, plus online distribution at a rate you can afford. Find out more under the Services link, or connect by email.

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Pumping up an inflatable kayak

Assembling the Intex Explorer inflatable kayak is pretty easy. As a portable, storable boat for use on calm waters, it’s a pretty good buy.

Okay, so I’m a bit of a snob when it comes to kayaking… not the sleek, fibreglass, never-let-your-hull-scratch-a-barnacle type snob; more like the plastic, every-scrape-and-scratch-is-a-notch-of-experience sort. Faint praise is appropriate when it comes to my status as a kayaker.

And I’ve even had a comeuppance from that modest rank on the paddler’s index, from a 14 footer stroker, to frequent use of what my partner and I refer to as ‘tubbies’, six foot boats that wiggle through the water like some erratic species of beetle – a trade off required so we could fit our yaks into our camper.

But now circumstances have reduced us to the very lowest of the low form of paddling, a mode best suited to crowded holiday beaches or even water parks, and which any self-respecting kayaker would laugh off the water: an inexpensive – dare I say ‘cheap’ –  inflatable.

We’re planning a long trip, and bedding down surreptitiously in unauthorized parking spots with tubbies outside The Tortoise simply isn’t an option. The only solution is an inflatable we can stuff into the head cum storage locker when we’re parked, and catching our required 40 or 50 winks.

So, as an experiment, I bought an Itex Explorer for $200 at Cabela’s in Nanaimo. There’s no denying our Intex looks more like a puffy platform you’d float around on with a beer in one hand and a mobile in the other, soaking up the sun and drifting wherever wind and current take you; a floatie that could just as well come in the shape of a duck or an inner tube.

But let’s give her a chance. Let’s blow her up, take her out on the water, and see how she handles.

Getting the Explorer out of its bag and inflated is pretty self-explanatory. It took us about half-an-hour, but I figure with practice can be done in 15 minutes or so. Deflating it, and getting it back into the bag takes about the same amount of time. Couple of hints:

  • if you’ve taken on water during your sortie, turn the yak upside down and empty it before deflating;
  • roll it from stern to bow to squeeze the air out of floor panels and pontoons before you fold it for wrestling back in its carry bag;
  • watch for barnacles or sharp rocks, when you’re on the water. Cabela’s won’t take back a defective or punctured Explorer – once it’s out of the box, you have to deal with Intex..

Our maiden voyage took place July 22, a perfectly calm summer day with nary a wave in sight. We launched from Cook Park in Chemainus, headed for Kin Beach. The Explorer handled reasonably well when we were paddling in tandem. But if one of the paddlers stopped, it quickly took on the navigational characteristics of a beached walrus.

Paddling at a relaxed pace, with the stern paddler sweeping or deflecting to keep on course works reasonably well, but the Explorer – because it is light and short – has a mind of its own. I wouldn’t want to test her out in a stiff wind or with any serious wave action.

To sum up: If you’re looking for a ‘kayak’ that will fit into a manageable bag for stowing in a camper, or for lugging down to an inaccessible lake, or for lounging around on a family beach, the Intex Explorer is an option; if you want to get serious about paddling any kind of distance, or in any kinds of wind or waves, look for something the snobs won’t laugh at quite so hard.

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The inspired whimsy of Morgan Bristol

Clocks with feathered hands, birds that ‘could be’ crows with four legs and stiletto beaks… Morgan Bristol, who will be featured artist at Rainforest Arts for the months of July and August, gets lost for hours at a time in a world of insightful whimsy, where he discovers art that delights and informs.

“I like to have a bit of character, comedy, in there so that people may have a little laugh, or see something in there that they can identify with,” he said at his studio, next to La Petite Auction House at 9686 Chemainus road, which he and wife Dawn Geddie operate.

To the uninitiated Bristol’s modest work space seems a combination repair shop, of some sort, and painter’s studio. That reflects his dual artistic persona: as a metal artist on the one hand; painter on the other, the painter in him only having emerged in the last year-and-a-half.

“I was trained as a metal artist, a jeweller” he explained, “and everything was sort of tactile and 3D, so this is kind of a new venture for me and I’m thoroughly enjoying it,” he said of his 2D debut.

There’s a sense of joy in most of his works, be they three-dimensional, or two. Clocks aren’t meant to measure time, really, so much as to make light of it; crows – if indeed the birds depicted in his recent works are of the Corvine family – aren’t meant to fly, so much as make us ask how flight is even possible.

Purposeful whimsy might be a good phrase to capture the spirit of Bristol’s work.

He’s especially excited to have his paintings featured. For someone who picked up the brush and spatula such a short time ago, he has created pieces that are innovative and captivating. You can’t help trying to imagine the world these creatures might inhabit – a world that’s an expression of Bristol’s own imagination.

“I seem to channel something when I’m painting,” he said. “It’s something that happens, and I can lose two or three hours in a second, and almost come-to and it’s done. It’s all intuitive in that sense.”

Intuitive, but worked with an almost sculptural passion. For Bristol the process is as important as what emerges out of it. “As far as the paintings go, I was never a lover of flat images. I always wanted to do something to those flat paintings, so that said, in this batch, I work in texture.”

His paintings are built up in many layers, Bristol explained, using just about any material that comes to hand. He listed paint, caulking material, gyprock mud, even tar as ingredients he uses to change the ‘contours’ of his paintings ‘until I get something that I like.”

Morgan Bristol’s art will be featured at Rainforest Arts, 9781 Willow Street, Chemainus, in July and August. The gallery is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily. More information at RainforestArts.ca or info@rainforestarts.ca.

Asked if the birds depicted on his canvases were crows, Bristol replied, “Could be,” and laughed. “It’s a hybrid, definitely a hybrid, open to interpretation.” Come see for yourself and take some flights of serious fancy interpreting his works. His July 1 opening will feature live music and, of course, Bristol himself.

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About MiF


Cabins at Piper’s Lagoon, Nanaimo, one of my special Mid-Island places

Community journalism is having to adapt to the exciting possibilities of the 21st Century: digital production and distribution of print, imagery and video through a host of channels and technologies that didn’t exist a quarter-century ago.  Mid-Island Focus will look for opportunities to engage audiences through new media – I want to explore what kinds community perspectives can be shared in the digital age.

In a sense, this is going against the grain. Increasingly people are overwhelmed by tsunamis of information funnelled at them from all over the world – a deluge of random facts, figures, memes, causes, and so on. The underlying principle of MiF is community, using the new media to present cohesive views of people-in-place – more specifically, of people in places that are tangible, real and meaningful to Mid-Islanders.

My centre of gravity in the Mid-Island is Nanaimo-North Cowichan, and for now much of the material you will find on this site will be inspired by the people and places of that locale. But the coverage area isn’t fixed. There are too many fascinating stories in the broader region that need telling, and we’ll venture up and down the coast from Mill Bay to Campbell River frequently, following ledes. Over time, my hope is to partner with other journalists, broadening the scope and intensifying the coverage of Mid-Island Focus in more consistent ways.

Thanks for tuning in; I hope you’ll follow MiF and suggest how I can do a better job bringing you Interesting news for interested Mid-Islanders.

CraigSpenceWriter

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Cowichan River level critical, says watershed board


The Cowichan River, near Stutz Falls. Photo by One Cowichan

(Due to its urgent nature, Mid-Island Focus is printing this release from the Cowichan Watershed Board in its entirety. If you have questions about this report, please contact or subscribe to MiF, and we will look for more answers in a followup story. Craig Spence, Editor)

(Duncan BC) Concerns are rising in the Cowichan Valley as the iconic Cowichan River faces a strong likelihood of running out of water by August unless there is heavy and sustained rainfall. The Cowichan is major salmon producing river, including Chinook which are a critical food source for the endangered Southern Resident orca population. Located on Eastern Vancouver Island, adjacent to the Salish Sea, this river is the heart of the Cowichan Tribes First Nation’s territory, and a favourite recreational destination. It also supports major employment for the region, through fishing, tourism, and the Catalyst Paper mill.

“We’ve been on the knife’s edge several times in the past fifteen years,” says Tom Rutherford, Cowichan Watershed Board Executive Director, “but this is the worst forecast in living memory. Unless we get a lot of rain, there is simply not enough water stored in Cowichan Lake to keep the river flowing to the end of August. Our salmon and the whole ecosystem depend on that water and it’s not there. We are all losing sleep thinking about what lies ahead.”

This is primarily a climate change impact. For sixty years, a meter-high, seasonally-operated weir at Cowichan Lake has been used successfully to hold back enough winter and spring run-off to feed the river through the dry summer and fall seasons. A schedule of minimum water flow rates, set by the Province of BC, has been maintained by the water license holder, Catalyst Paper, in return for rights to extract a portion of that water downriver to supply its pulp mill at Crofton. Over the past fifteen years, however, much drier spring and summer weather combined with lower snowpack has left insufficient water supplies in Cowichan Lake to meet those minimal flows in most years. This impacts fish survival, First Nations constitutional rights, recreation, tourism, the 600 workers of PPWC Local 2 at the Catalyst mill, and more.

This year an emergency measure is in place allowing Catalyst to pump water out of the lake into the river when the lake storage is depleted, but this is an expensive stop-gap response. While it could help keep the river flowing at minimal levels, it would result in drawing down the lake below historic levels. This could impact other fish, riparian habitats, and lakeshore residents, and is only viable as a short term remedy. Often the fall rains don’t return until October.

“It’s all hands on deck,” says Rutherford. “Local organizations are doing everything we can here.” A partnership of Cowichan Valley Regional District, Cowichan Tribes, Catalyst Paper and the Cowichan Watershed Board were recently invited to apply for major funding to begin the next phase to replace the weir. If successful, engineering and impact analysis will begin this year to build a structure capable of storing more water.

More info at cowichanwatershedboard.ca

 

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Routley, old-growth protestors engage in heated debate at MLA’s office

Nanaimo – North Cowichan New Democrat MLA Doug Routley said it’s going to take time, consultation and public support to stop the logging of B.C.’s remaining unprotected old-growth forests, and he urged a gathering of about 30 protestors at his constituency office in Southgate Mall to work with the NDP, getting legislation in place that will give government the controls it needs to implement sustainable practices.

Sierra Club Conservation and Climate Campaigner Mark Worthing said a halt to old-growth logging is well overdue, that he and other spokespersons for environmental groups have been put at the ‘kid table’ when it comes to negotiating an end to what he sees as destructive logging practices in B.C.’s ecologically vital old-growth forests, and that he’ll believe the government’s commitment to ending old-growth logging when he sees incremental signs of action.

“I feel deeply violated, I feel deeply disappointed, and I feel that I have been lied to,” Worthing said to supporters, just before Routley arrived to listen to their concerns and speak to them on behalf of his party. “I feel that I have been tricked, I feel that I have been swindled, by this illusion of government management or mismanagement of the forests.”

Routley cautioned the protestors about simplifying a complex issue, and assuming everyone on Vancouver Island feels the same as they do about harvesting old-growth. Unless people ‘buy-in’ to a process for protecting trees, and shifting to other sources of timber, passionate advocates for ancient forests could end up driving voters whose livings are derived from forestry, to supporting organizations and parties that don’t want to see any constraints on logging.

“What we need to do is collaborate,” he urged. “This is a complex problem. Communities up and down this coast do not support your position, and they have a right as well.” That drew an angry response from the protestors, but Routley insisted. “That is true. There are many different views on this issue.”

Worthing said he is not convinced the NDP is doing all it can to end old-growth logging and challenged the government to take interim measures to save what forests can be protected now. When Routley pointed out that a moratorium on old-growth logging – which some of the protestors called for – would be challenged legally, and that some First Nations do not want to see a ban, Worthing argued the government should end the practice in areas where there is a strong consensus.

It’s not difficult to figure out how quickly B.C.’s remaining old-growth is vanishing Worthing argued. “Twenty-two years – at the current rate of cut, all the old-growth is gone,” he said. “So, there’s your deadline. So, you just basically work backwards from that, and figure out: How much do we want left? What’s the line?”

Routley empathized with the protestors demand to end old-growth logging, but said the government has been hamstrung by changes to legislation and regulation that were put in place by the previous Liberal government during its tenure. “They had 16 years… to disarm the ability of government to intervene in the industry; we have had a year and a half to restore all that.”

Progress on issues like forest management is frustrating, because passing legislation is a grindingly slow process, Routley reminded. “If any of you was elected as a government, say all of you were cabinet ministers, you would not be able to go in and very simply do what you’re saying. It would be a complex, difficult task that takes a long time.”

He pointed out that the risk of throwing B.C. back into the control of a less progressive government is real and immanent, and asked again the protestors to work with the NDP despite their impatience. “As Jason Kenny gets elected to the east of us, as we have Trump to the south, as we may have conservatives federally, we have conservative governments all over Canada, we are the only government of this kind. So, while we’re not perfect, I would ask you to take the spirit here of: what do we do to make this happen?”

June Ross, Chairwoman of the Vancouver Island Water Watch Coalition, said she takes “partial hope” from the dialogue that took place during the protest. “I hope that he hears that we need to sit down collaboratively. I want First Nations at the table, I want the Sierra Club, the Ancient Forest Alliance, the Wilderness Committee, and some community groups, like the one I head up. We all need to be at the table to talk to them.”

In an interview after the protest was winding-down, Routley and Worthing committed to further dialogue. “I’m here to let the B.C. government know that they’re need in this solution to old-growth logging,” Worthing said. “It’s really encouraging to hear MLA Routley say that he’s willing to be part of that solution.”

Routley repeated: “…the only way that a solution will be sustainable, is if people buy-in.”

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