It is usual to look at one artist’s work hanging in a gallery. It may be more complicated to look at 20 artists displaying more than 30 pieces on the walls in almost every media used to create art.
Here are some ways I enjoy looking at art in a group show.
Continue reading Looking at Art in a group show
Up until now, there have not been any reports of Western Screech Owls on Cortes Island since 2017. That just changed a few weeks ago in the island’s more remote northern forest.
Field biologist Sabina Leader Mense reports, “I was sitting in the skiff with my husband Dennis, under an unbelievably brilliant sky of stars. It was the last station of the night, pushing midnight, and in the 16th minute of that 17 minute call playback sequence, I heard something. I remember pivoting around in the boat. The sound was behind me and you do what owls do, you turn around. I think your ears and the muscles and your ears cup and you’re just straining to hear something. Then I heard the call again. It was very distant, but I recognized it was an owl. I began analyzing the audio disks in my head going, ‘is it a Northern Pygmy Owl? Is it a Northern Saw-Whet Owl?’ As I was doing this, it called the third time and I recognized it was a Western Screech Owl.”
Continue reading Success: The search for Western Screech Owls on Cortes Island
A great many fisherfolk once worked out of Whaletown. The Cortes Island Museum’s list goes back to the 1930s, at which point there were 7 men and a woman. Three of them used rowboats.
“There used to be a huge fleet rafted out, both six and seven abreast all along both sides of the dock, in Whaletown. In the last 10 years or so, there’s only been three or four boats in there, fishing. The main one that I know of in the last little while is the ‘C-Fin,’ but he goes outside of the Vancouver Island area and fishes tuna. When he comes back he doesn’t sell it to a fisheries, he sells it from the dock, and the same with his prawns. So he’s not using a middle man to sell his products, which I suppose is one of the few ways you could make a little bit of money now,“ said Lynne Jordan, former President of the Cortes Island Museum, in the latest instalment of her history of Whaletown.
Continue reading When fishing was an industry in Whaletown
An exquisite scene hangs outside the Old Schoolhouse Art Gallery for the 2022 Annual member’s Show. A hummingbird is depicted flying upward to sample the nectar from a cluster of flowers. Izabelle Perry’s piece is actually a gateway, which some members hope will become a permanent exhibit. The price is $2,500,
Kristen Schofield Sweet agreed the gate is remarkable, but the membership would have to agree for the gallery to make an investment like that.
Continue reading Old Schoolhouse Art Gallery: The 2022 Members Show
His musical roots go back to the McCarthy era, when the United States was purging itself of anything that could be labelled communist. Pete Seeger gave him tips on how to play the guitar. He was a member of the psychedelic rock band Mad River, which released two albums in San Francisco before it disbanded in 1969. On Cortes Island, he is somewhat of a musical icon. In addition to being a songwriter, he is one of the key organizers of Lovefest and the face of CKTZ’s Lip Syncs for the past decade. In this morning’s interview, Rick Bockner talks about paths of beauty.
Continue reading Rick Bockner: Paths of Beauty
