This past summer, Keith Rice-Jones got a big wake-up call for his health.
The retired Coquitlam school district art teacher was ordered to undergo a quadruple bypass and, as a result, he didn't know if would be able to finish his retrospective in time for the Evergreen Cultural Centre.
Luckily for Tri-City audiences, Rice-Jones has recovered well from the heart surgery and, on Thursday, he will be launching his Working The Edge: A (Mostly) Ceramic Journey exhibit.
"It was a bit of a shock, to say the least, when I got the news but everything has turned out okay," Rice-Jones told The Tri-City News last week.
Still, "everyone is telling me to take it easy and to slow down, which is difficult to do, too."
Rice-Jones' survey of 37 years of ceramics will include about 100 sculptures - measuring from three inches square to six-feet tall (and weighing 150 pounds) - plus a sketchbook of his drawings.
The work will demonstrate his influences from the mid-1970s, including German Bauhaus and modernist styles. It will be shown in the Evergreen gallery by themes rather than chronologically, he said.
A teacher at Port Moody secondary school for 12 years, Rice-Jones hopes the exhibit will draw interest, including from his PMSS alumni.
Besides the opening reception on Sunday, Nov. 17 at 4 p.m., in which he will give a presentation, Rice-Jones will also host three public demos: Nov. 23, Nov. 30 and Dec. 7, all from 1 to 4 p.m. in the gallery.
Working The Edge closes on Jan. 9, 2014.
A film about Keith Rice-Jones at work can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPfVD05CeJw.
jwarren@tricitynews.com
