Hello art lovers,

 

So the Spirit of Things is up at the Station House Gallery in Williams Lake until September 26th, 2026. 

 

For a peek at the opening, check out this post in the Williams Lake Tribune. It does a good job of outlining the show and even includes some short clips from interviews.

 

The opening had a great turnout with a lovely crowd. We had an engaging talk and lots of interesting conversation afterwards. 

 

It was a true honour to spend the last year creating with Simone Buck and Katja Kovanen, whose talented, creative minds and spirits offered no end of inspiration and encouragement. It is a privilege to show my work with theirs. 

 

Here is a super awesome low tech recording of my talk (made at home) on my pieces and the theme of The Spirit of Things. Sorry, no recording of the opening night, but I do have a few photos. Find the talk transcript below the photos. Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

     

 

 

 

Talk transcript (each paragraph is a painting):

 

This project, for me, explores how the heart and spirit experience everyday life. 

 

Hormones in the Fog: The eyes see fog as a blanket of white obscuring their vision, but the heart sees in the mist itself millions of airborne droplets of water suspended in delicate swirling harmonies, brought together by just the right combination of warm moisture and cool air, part of the larger patterns of the days and seasons.

 

Dancing Trees: Trees appear to the mundane mind as inanimate objects that, at most, are moved by the wind and supply resources for our homes and our economy, but the spirit knows how the trees reach and stretch and dance through time far beyond human existence and even imagination. It looks to the hillside and sees standing, dancing, singing people, the forests as orchestras of their slow moving, gigantic, gentle, life giving rhythms. The heart and spirit feel their love as the ever present air in our lungs, the heat in our homes, our shelter. They feel held like swaddled babes by all that these standing people give. They know that all life on this planet is made possible, in large part, because of the world that has been created by the love of these joyous, dedicated, and steady, slow dancing giant gentle people. The heart breaks a little with every wildfire and clearcutting, and it humbles and swells to do better, like a penitent lover, to appreciate and reciprocate their love, to learn and practice the ways of the honourable harvest, to celebrate their love and beauty and support their health and vitality for generations to come.

 

Dreaming: Sleep is not just a silent end to a loud day. When we sleep, we surrender, and we dream. The heart and spirit can help us to pause and appreciate the beautiful luxury that is a safe place to dream. At the end of every day, we put ourselves down, and we are held in the mysterious embrace of sleep and dreaming. This is a sacred space where we let go of our worries and enter a realm of possibility. It is the birthplace of vision and reconnection with our original wisdom. When protected and honoured, it can help us clean our confusion and focus our lives.

 

Contemplation: We live inside our thoughts, like fish swim in water, and so they are a medium that is almost entirely invisible, but the heart and spirit know how our thoughts form shapes in our lives, how they both stem from larger cultural patterns and contribute to them. “Cogito ergo sum: I think; therefore, I am,” philosophized Renes Descartes 400 years ago. There is some truth to that. Our thoughts play a large roll in both reflecting and shaping our perceptions, in what we believe is possible, and in the choices that we make. In that sense, they help create both our insides and our outsides. The Buddhists encourage us to develop intimate awareness and masterful relationship with the movements and shapes that move through our minds, so that we can choose what moves us and what we identify with, so that we can choose, to some extent at least, how these shape our lives. The heart and spirit see and feel the currents of the mind and what they are creating and destroying in our lives and help us make conscious choices.

 

The Spirit of Light: Light is also something that is nearly invisible. We easily take light and shadow for granted, though they are at the center of our consciousness. Sun and moon remind us every day of their interplay. In an eclipse, the darkness of the moon allows us to see the otherwise blindingly beautiful corona of the sun and its powerful jets of magnetism. When darkness and light are in balance, they can help us release old limits and embrace new potentials. My own heart and spirit see in this alignment a release of myths of scarcity making way for the abundance of an honourable harvest, a joyous healing and reconciliation between humanity and nature.

 

The Web of Life: The web of life threads through all, and when we follow our hearts and spirits through its connections, we can see how the spiders have been our guardians and teachers, and we can let go of our fear and embrace their gifts. Every quilt stitched by grandmother’s hand comes from that love. Sometimes it feels like all of life is a trap. It is true that there is much trickery and danger in the world, but there is also much subtly beautiful and protective webbing that we can trust with our hearts and souls. This painting, and all the others, invite us to look for its beautiful loving magic, to look for the loving spirit of things.

 

 

J