Art Articles & Reviews for 2005

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  Posted: 08 Dec 2005

  International Art Theft Update

  An imperfect resolution to the problem of images being taken from artist and gallery sites has been reached. more...

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  Posted: 17 Oct 2005

  Canadian Forces Artists Program

  The production of Canadian war art was officially started in 1916, with the creation of the Canadian War Memorial Fund. Artists, often already serving with Canadian forces during the First World War, would record over 800 paintings more...

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  Posted: 11 Oct 2005

  The Zen of Winning at a Graphic Design Competition

  Recently, I attended a Graphic Designer's of Canada (GDC) Conference in Saskatoon - Frontiers 2005, which included a show of work by the attending designers from Saskatchewan. The three presenters judged the show the previous day. The format was simple fo more...

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  Posted: 13 Sep 2005

  Haren Vakil

  Haren Vakil is a Victoria artist who was born in Bombay - now officially known as Mumbai. One of four children, he was “the oddball. I used to draw all over the house,” he told me. His parents brought in a private teacher for him when he was 7 years old, more...

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  Posted: 02 Aug 2005

  Tibetan Art Show

  The people of Tibet live in the high barren land of the Himalayas, where trade routes from Persia, India, China and Russia cross. The people grafted a rich strain of Buddhism to their own elaborate animism in about the 8th century CE. more...

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  Posted: 26 Jul 2005

  Eva Campbell: Black Being / Body And Beyond

  Eva Campbell is a talented artist in the midst of her career. In the thirteen years sinced she immigrated to Victoria from Ghana, she has created a body of paintings which allow us to share the inner thoughts. This extensive exhibition reveals... more...

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  Posted: 04 Jul 2005

  Meiji

  For about 250 years - from Queen Elizabeth to Queen Victoria - Japan was virtually closed to the outside world. Then, in 1853, Commodore Perry of the United States sailed into Tokyo Bay with four awe-inspiring “black ships” and forced Japan to sign... more...

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  Posted: 27 Jun 2005

  Peanuts

  In 1972 I was living in Toronto, studying Fine Art at York University. One day a visiting artist named Dana Atchely arrived at school with his Ace Space Show. He had the words “Space is the Connector of All Things” tooled into his fancy leather belt. more...

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  Posted: 07 Jun 2005

  Book Review - The Life and Times of Victoria Architect P. Leonard James

  Victoria’s architecture is part of its charm. Full length studies of Francis Rattenbury and Samuel Maclure have assured those architects a proper place in the public memory. With the publication of a new book by Rosemary James Cross about her father, P. L more...

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  Posted: 25 May 2005

  Laura Harris

  Laura Harris, born in Sidney and now of Cadboro Bay, is having a show (with Ray Ward at the Main Street Gallery). There is a joyous sense of homecoming for this young and popular painter, who is the daughter of Heather and Cliff Burrows of Sidney. more...

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  Posted: 18 Apr 2005

  Pat Martin Bates: Destinations, Navigations, Illuminations

  One such evening in the mid 70’s, after two hours of uproarious conversation, I found myself sitting on the bottom step beside Pat Martin Bates. It was perhaps our first meeting, but we both agreed - we’d known each other for a long time. more...

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  Posted: 12 Apr 2005

  Joseph Kyle

  Joseph Kyle died in Victoria March 16, 2005. A Memorial service for him will be held at 2.30, Tuesday April 5, at the Interfaith Chapel at the University of Victoria. more...

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  Posted: 04 Apr 2005

  Armando Barbon

  The sculptor unwound the plastic wrap which keeps his clay moist, revealing a life-sized man, confidently stepping onto the emigrant ship. His piercing gaze is fixed on the future. Behind him, in high relief, his wife and children are wrung with the pain more...

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  Posted: 30 Mar 2005

  Emi Honda

  Honda grew up in the Japanese countryside and then lived in the city of Osaka. Thus, a mix of nature and technology comes naturally to her. She reminded me that technology is created by humans, and humans are part of nature. “There is no borderline,” she more...

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  Posted: 21 Mar 2005

  In Her Shape

  “Each time we act in service of our sacred intention, each time we align our energies and our actions with what we most truly love, we gain in personal power and ability, the path before us becomes clearer, and the help and allies we need come to us.” more...

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  Posted: 14 Mar 2005

  The Hudson Bay Centre

  On the fourth floor of what we have learned to call The Bay Centre, Canada’s oldest commercial venture has installed an art gallery and historical display. On a recent visit Laurie Mackie, the very knowledgeable interpreter on hand, introduced me to the c more...

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  Posted: 07 Mar 2005

  Bunzo Nakanishi

  Bunzo Nakanishi died of a stroke in his home in Kyoto on November 22, 2004. He was 82 years old. Nakanishi is fondly remembered by many artists here. Through his annual visits to the city, even up to the year of his death, Nakanishi formed many firm frien more...

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  Posted: 22 Feb 2005

  My Funnies Valentine - a Portrait Show of Comic Couples

  Michael Lewis was brought up on the Sunday funnies - the colour comics that come in the weekend newspapers. He was a child in the early 1950’s when those weekly cartoons evolved into comic books and films and television programs, but it was those he more...

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  Posted: 14 Feb 2005

  Steve Dickerson

  When I was introduced to Steve Dickerson last week, I asked “why haven’t we met before?”. He’s a professional artist, with a studio in my neighbourhood for almost fifteen years. His highly detailed pictures aren’t available a more...

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  Posted: 07 Feb 2005

  Andrew Dick

  'They’re exactly the same!' On a recent visit to the Pompidou Centre in Paris, I saw lots of drawings and sketches from the famed Surrealists - Max Ernst, Francis Picabia, Joan Miro. The little homemade books that Victoria’s Andrew Dick was sh more...

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  Posted: 17 Jan 2005

  James Joyce

  I’ve given up watching television. Instead, I’m reading Finnegans Wake by James Joyce. Joyce’s Ulysses is considered the most important novel of the 20th century. For years it was incomprehensible to me, until I read it aloud... more...

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  Posted: 03 Jan 2005

  Neil MacCormick

  Neil MacCormick recently sent me an invitation to an exhibition of his paintings (until January 15, 2005) at the O. K. Harris Gallery in New York City. That gallery is the fountainhead of photo-realist art. Many of his paintings represent Victoria... more...

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  Posted: 19 Dec 2004

  James Tissot - The Letter

  Since then I have learned that there is more to art than a fine finish and a pretty face. But painting remains more visual magic than theory, and I have continued to admire Tissot. At the moment one of his fine canvases is on show in Victoria. more...