Tag Archives: Lisa Gibbons

Arts

Ann Mortifee: Coming Home To Cortes Island

Conclusion of a 4 part series.

Hollyhock brought Ann Mortifee to Cortes Island. She was one of Vancouver’s leading singers, but had no previous teaching experience when they invited her to do a workshop. That was 40 years ago. 

“Martha Abelson convinced me to give it a go. I remember the first workshop I did. I went into a wild panic because I’m not a teacher, I’m a singer. I went to the library to find out how I could teach,” she explained.  “At the end of the first session in the morning, I told  Shivon Robinsong (a co-founder and Director of Hollyhock), ‘I can’t do this. I’ve used everything that I was going to use in the five days in the first morning. I have no idea what I’m doing for the rest of the week. I have to give them the option to leave. I’ll pay for everything that Hollyhock would lose.'”

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Arts

Looking at Art in a group show

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.

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Community, History

Beginnings of the Co-op at Refuge Cove

Norm Gibbon’s novel ‘Sea Without Shores’ is set in the tiny village of Refuge Cove, on West Redonda Island, during some of the years he was a member of the community. Refuge Cove’s story goes back several decades before that, but in today’s broadcast Norm outlines some of the history surrounding the beginnings of the Refuge Cove Land and Housing Co-op. 

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Arts, Business

Grand Opening of the Outdoor Friday Market

The Grand Opening of the Outdoor Friday Market was on a warm summer day and hundreds of people may have passed through before it ended. There were 14 stalls clustered beneath the cedar trees and around the edges of the parking lot. I did not go inside the hall, which is always packed with tables. This was also the first of this summer’s live music performances at the adjoining Village Commons.

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Arts

The Thursday Afternoon Art Collective brings ‘Between Heaven and Earth’ to the Old Schoolhouse Art Gallery

The Thursday Afternoon Art Collective will be coming to the walls of the Old Schoolhouse Art Gallery at 6 PM on Friday June 9. The talents of Lisa Gibbons, Madhurima Braaten, Dayna Davis, Caz Ratcliffe, Denise Drury, Jane Newman, Karen McDiarmid and Darshan Stevens are on display in ‘Between Heaven and Earth.’ The exhibition closes on Sunday June 18. 

“I’ve been doing art classes in the studio for the last maybe 10 years,  mixed media art classes for different members of the community, children and adults,” explained Lisa Gibbons.

“A core group of really dedicated people just kept coming and emerged as this vital core group that we have right now. We were meeting just before the pandemic, but it was still in the form of a class. Then we had to take this break and, for me personally, I also had to take a break for health reasons. The studio was dormant. We were all  in our own creative spaces at home.  Gratefully, I was able to come back to the studio late last fall,  maybe November, and this core group of women really wanted to continue coming back as well.  We just naturally morphed into a collaborative group because everybody’s got so much experience now. So we left behind that old model that we were doing before, it’s just really beautiful how it’s blossomed, and we’re doing things together.” 

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