Place des Arts opens its new gallery season this week with three exhibits - one of which puts the spotlight on the Maillardville centre's own teachers and staff.
And among the 35 ArtFeat pieces in the Mezzanine Gallery is a fantasy realism comic drawing by one of Place des Arts' newest employees: Oliver McTavish-Wisden, the fine and performing arts programmer.
Formerly with the city of Port Coquitlam parks department, McTavish-Wisden will show The Scout's Memory.
The drawing, he said, is part of a series called The Scout, which traces the story of a 10-year-old street urchin who wants to be a superhero and help other kids by uncovering monsters under beds, fighting bullies and rescuing cats up trees, for example.
"He lives in a junk yard but he's also a defender of youth," McTavish-Wisden told The Tri-City News last month.
The Scout's Memory stand-alone drawing is from the fifth issue in his three-year-old series that's now being published in Cloudscape Comics' eight anthology, Megafauna.
In that issue, McTavish-Wisden describes how Scout and his pet crow became friends, as told by other kids in their dark community.
McTavish-Wisden said he got hooked on comics while reading science fiction books and comics about childhood such as the animated Calvin and Hobbes and Tekkonkinkreet series.
But though he likes to draw, McTavish-Wisden also has a knack for writing comic plots. Soon, he will have a short story printed in an anthology called Chilly Tales by 11th Dimension Press, a Toronto publisher.
The drawing for his comic, 45 Minute Revolutions, was done by Ksenia Kozhevnikova and tells the story about Mike Collins - the third (and relatively unknown) astronaut on the Apollo 11 mission to the moon.
Meanwhile, also part of ArtFeats' faculty exhibit is work by teachers David Robinson (ceramics); printmaker Saskia Jetten; multimedia sculptor Joy Kirkwood; and painters Jane Appleby, Adrian Walker and Sue Cowan.
PdA staff showcasing their talents include Michael Fera, Bali Singh and Jessie Au.
In the Atrium Gallery starting on Thursday will be acrylic pieces by Jeff Wilson, in his collection titled By Land, Air and Sea.
And in the Leonore Peyton Salon will be multiple media works in Karen Santos' Silence Lifted series.
The opening reception for the three exhibits is Thursday, Sept. 4 from 7 to 9 p.m. at Place des Arts (1120 Brunette Ave., Coquitlam).
