While driving to San Fransisco via the Oregon Coast Highway in 1989, Dante Comoglio could see the world spinning from both corners of his eyes.
On the right was the Pacific Ocean; on the left, vegetation and rocks.
For a quarter mile, Comoglio kept his glasses off but followed the double yellow line on the road to experience the magnificent colour streak.
“I’ve been trying to reproduce that for a long time,” he said.
When he returned home to Vancouver, Comoglio snapped photos and attempted to manipulate them. Later, the Mac software PhotoShop also didn’t achieve the result he sought.
And so, Comoglio devised a small machine to mount on his Cannon G9, a compact camera that he likes because of its simpleness and response mechanisms.
On Friday, he’ll open his first show at Coquitlam’s Place des Arts that will highlight a dozen pieces in his Horizons photography collection.
It’s a series that’s been exhibited before around Vancouver and, soon, will be on the walls at the Italian Embassy in Montreal (though a date has yet to be set).
His long, thin blurred horizons are common scenes: sunsets, beaches, home.
“There are everywhere I go,” he said. Still, “I want them to be serene because it shows there’s a silence and it shows the way you are travelling. It’s our relationships with what we see around us.”
Meanwhile, also opening Friday night at Place des Arts, is the annual Positively Petite miniature exhibition (in the Atrium Gallery) and Ancestral Dreams (in the Mezzanine Gallery).
For the former, some 25 artists will demonstrate the obvious statement: that good things always come in small packages.
For the latter display, Karen Goodfellow — an Emily Carr University of Art + Design grad with a First Nations background — has created a mix of assemblage, painting, collage and other media for personal exploration and healing into her origins.
As well, the Maillardville centre will launch the start of its Christmas Boutique for shoppers looking for holiday crafts. Among the items for sale include handmade fused-glass wall clocks, jewellery, hand turned wooden bowls, knitting, soaps and cards.
• The opening reception runs Friday from 7 to 9 p.m. at Place des Arts (1120 Brunette Ave.). Admission is free and a cash bar will be open.
