What is "community spirit"?
Look around the walls at Port Coquitlam's Gathering Place and members of Art Focus give a pretty good interpretation through acrylics, oils, mixed media and photographs.
Nine artists from the local non-profit group had two months last fall to come up with a definition of "community spirit" to tie into the annual PoCo Spirit Week, which runs Feb. 11 to 18, 2012, with free arts, cultural and sporting activities for all ages.
And their results are impressive.
Cheryl Yodogawa salutes PoCo gardeners with her paintings of purple rhododendrons, hydrangeas and dogwoods while Rae Yano pays tribute to hometown hero Terry Fox with his shadow running down a leaf-covered path. Lindsay Watson shows bold silhouettes of children playing in Lions Park and Arlene Connolly paints watercolour images of customers outside the downtown dollar store, Europe Bakery and Leigh Square as well as a pedestrian taking a break under tropical plants.
Colony Farm is also represented in oil by Anna Wagner, Salomeh Honormand has the biggest piece - a sweeping acrylic on canvas called Unified Contrasts - and Eunice Hodge, a retired School District 43 teacher, has three landscape photographs. Margaret Shorter exemplifies her community spirit through photo collages while Mary Kendall displays some quirky mixed media works including a piece called Me, Myself, and I, which has self-portrait drawings and a copy of her birth certificate, dated 1928 in Halifax.
Spokesperson Gail Proude, a P.E.I. native who has been with Art Focus for three years, said when Yvonne Chui, the city's arts and culture program co-ordinator, put the "community spirit" theme to the group last October, many members were already involved in shows so the output was limited given the tight turn around.
Still, she likes the new and original pieces that are hung at the Gathering Place and looks forward to the opening reception tomorrow (Thursday) at 6:30 p.m.
The Art Focus exhibit is on until Feb. 20.
Meanwhile, in The Outlet, Art Focus member and Leigh Square Community Arts Village instructor Tracey Costescu has a complementary exhibit, showing 13 works in watercolour, oil on panel, acrylic on paper and canvas, and graphite on paper.
As part of the "community spirit" display, Costescu is offering two artists sessions at The Outlet: Realistic Drawing on Feb. 4 and 5, and Build a Blog in a Day on March 10. "I would say my workshops are also promoting community spirit by helping both new and more experienced artists in the community to have the tools and knowledge they need to help them create their own artwork," she said.
Register for the workshops at 604-927-8400 or experiencit.ca.
jwarren@tricitynews.com
