School Tours Continue — Britannia Secondary Students Visit Telling Stories/a visual art exhibition

Britannia Secondary School students in Ariel Boulet's Ceramics and Photography classes visited Telling Stories/a visual art exhibition on Friday, 04 December. They were greeted by Alison Keenan and Phyllis Schwartz,  curators of the exhibition, who introduced to the idea of conflict as a central storytelling element in the exhibition. Edward Peck, Jim Friesen and Debra Sloan spoke to the specifics of their work on show.

Edward Peck explained the process of discovering layers of storytelling on the graffitied walls in Berlin. He quoted Dorthea Langer: "A camera is a tool for learning how to see without a camera," and illustrated the application of this quote in his work.

The development of his series was the focus of Jim Friesen's artist talk. He explained how he used both sequence and title to develop the concept of a mystery unfolding in his landscape photography. In his talk about The Swimmer, he spoke about both poetic and narrative elements in his imagery. 

Debra Sloan spoke about the sources of the stories found in her ceramic sculpture. She focussed on character and conflict. She further explained that the sculptural surface offered the opportunity to add narrative landscape elements. 

BestB4 Collective artists will continue to work with these students in their classes at Britannia Secondary School, and their work will be displayed in the foyer of the Vancouver School Board in February.                  

Sunday's Salon — two artists telling stories about their stories (Part 2)

Debra Sloan: Whisper Sweet Nothings

Join the BestB4 Collective Salon for a conversation with Daphne Harwood and Debra Sloan this Sunday, December 6 (2 - 4 pm) at the Chinese Cultural Centre Museum (555 Columbia Street at Keefer).

Debra Sloan: Maple Tree

Debra Sloan is a Vancouver-based ceramic sculptor and 2015 recipient of Mayor’s Design and Craft Award. Her slip cast dogs, horses and baby figures challenge and surprise the viewers’ assumptions and attitudes. Her work has been exhibited locally, across Canada and internationally and most recently awarded the Vancouver Mayor’s Art Award and biannual Hilde Gerson Award by the Craft Council of B.C. Debra Sloan has recently returned from a six-week residency at C.R.E.T.A. in Rome.

Sculptural work by Sloan in Telling Stories is from Horsing Around, a series that grew out of her experience as Artist in Residence at the Leach Potter in St. Ives. This series of horse and rider continued a solo exhibition at the Gallery of BC Ceramics(2015).

Debra Sloan: The Edge of Nowhere

Over time, says Debra Sloan,my figures have become what I call proto-human, neither male nor female, adult or baby. Landscapes and architectural references are about my environs and provide opportunity to add contextual layers. Placing my figures and images within metaphorical constructs, and outside of how we normally encounter them, is how I comment on our interaction with environments and society.

Debra Sloan: On the Merry-Go-Round

Debra Sloan: Riders to the Coast

Out of the Mouth of Babes

As part of our BestB4 Residency at the Chinese Cultural Centre Museum (Vancouver) during the run of the  exhibition. Tree: Literal and Figurative, Pauline Doyle, Alison Keenan and Phyllis Schwartz welcomed students from Britannia Secondary School and Lord Strathcona Elementary School into the gallery and museum classrooms. Student from both schools were quickly engaged with the art work in the gallery and responded with perceptive and knowledgeable observations.

When standing in front of Anna Ruth's inverted graphite drawings of trees, they speculated on why the tree was installed with roots at the top of the drawing and leaves on the ground: perhaps forests were being destroyed or the artists wanted us to take a more careful look at the entire tree. Looking at Edward Peck's three large scale  photographs, their comments indicated that they had an instant understanding of the raw industries that make up the economy of British Columbia; they quickly made the connections between raw materials being converted into building materials, pulp and paper.

Pauline Doyle leads a discussion about Edward Peck's photographs

Students discussing Anna Ruth's inverted tree drawings