By Louis Belcourt, CKTZ News, through an LJI grant from Canada-info.ca
The Gorge Harbour Marina and the Gorge Hall have both booked Roots Round Up this weekend for two shows.
The prolific Vancouver based band haven’t played Cortes since before the COVID-19 pandemic and have never played back-to-back shows on the island.
Continue reading Roots Round Up returns to Cortes since before the pandemic to play weekend of shows
Iris Steigemann was an artist before she came to Cortes island in 1980, but for the last five or six years her work has taken on a new focus.
“I’ve been painting icebergs. What fascinates me is the underneath of the iceberg. You usually see a quarter to a third of an iceberg above the water. Under the water, it’s kind of a dream landscape. I like to play around with that,” she explained.
“There is also the environmental aspect of it. The ice cap there is melting way faster than what was expected. The thickest part of the ice cap in Greenland is about three kilometers deep. They’re doing ice cores of this and they can actually see what kind of weather there was, what was happening on earth at those times. Now this is all melting. They break off and a lot of them from Ilulissat Icefjord actually float around to the Canadian side. They drift down the east coast and then they melt.”
Continue reading Coming July 5: Iris Steigemann, Adrift Above The Arctic CircleThe audio version of this opens with a short clip of Jemma Hicken singiing ‘Skim Milk.’ I was hoping it would be a new version, with her and Robbie Bankes singing together, but it looks like the only place to hear that will be in Mansons Hall at 7:00 on Tuesday July 2, 2024. Jemma and Robbie are just finishing a month long tour of Alberta and BC. They were about to play at Campbell River’s Spirit Square when Cortes Currents reached them yesterday. They will be on Read Island today.
Cortes Currents: How long have you been playing together?
Jemma Hicken: “We had one show together last November. Then we’ve just had our tour, so mostly since May 30th.”
Continue reading Jemma Hicken and Robbie Banks tour: Coming Back To CortesThe summer market season begins on Wednesday June 26th, from 12:30-3:00 PM.
“We’re having our first artisans market at Hollyhock, just outside the garden and the lodge in the grassy area above the hot tubs. This is our first in a series of five or six markets that are happening every second Wednesday afternoon over the summer. We have a variety of artists, fiber artists, ceramicists, lotions, potion makers, clothing makers, painters and live music,” explained Tamlyn Collingwoood, Business Mentorship Coordinator for the Cortes Community Economic Development Association (CCEDA). “Come and check it out, everyone’s welcome.”
Continue reading Summer Markets at Hollyhock‘Painting With Eyes Closed,’ an exhibition by Filipe Figueira opens at the Old Schoolhouse Art Gallery on Friday June 21st, 6-9pm.
“You always have to come up with the title for shows. Usually they’re sort of pretentious and arty, but there’s a reason for this one. It alludes to the process. I’m inspired by scenes on Cortes. I’ll go somewhere, sketch and I’ll get inspired, but a lot of my ideas come just when I’m at the point of falling asleep. The painting will come into my head. Sometimes really detailed thoughts, like the paints to use, the techniques, the layout and even very specific paints and paint mixes pop into my head. Often I have to get up and sketch. Sometimes it wakes me up in the middle of the night. I’ll be thinking about the painting and that becomes the basis of the paintings. They are scenes from Cortes, but they’re mediated through this process,” he explained.
Continue reading Painting With Eyes Closed: The Artwork of Filipe Figueira
