Nancie Green rarely goes on Facebook but, a few years back, it was suggested to her by a girlfriend to use the popular social media network to reconnect with someone she had lost touch with.
That "someone" was David Miller, a Vancouver artist whom Green had known when he played in a band with her late sister - nearly 30 years ago.
The girlfriend knew that both Miller and Green, a Port Moody resident, were skilled in photography and digital composition and thought they should meet again to combine their talents.
The reunion proved successful and, two years later - along with Green's other sister, Lanni Sulje, an oil and watercolour painter - they formed the LaNaDa Artists Faction, with the aim to work in different media but with common themes.
Their first exhibit, titled Three Art Harmony, was staged last year at The Grind and Gallery Coffee Baron on Main Street in Vancouver.
For their second showcase, the faction will be at Coquitlam's Place des Arts, where they will display about 30 pieces as part of their new collection, in the Leonore Peyton Salon.
The exhibit opens tomorrow (Thursday), with a gala reception to be held on Oct. 20 at 7 p.m. at the Maillardville facility.
Green said the partnership has spurred a lot of production and creativity for the trio - not to mention, mutual support. Miller has a printer while Green and Sulje help with framing (the sisters used to own PoCo Place Gallery).
Sometimes, the artists will visit a spot and use their respective media to interpret a scene - thus, the title of their latest collaboration, Never a Place.
"David has a unique eye: he will photograph something in Vancouver that's not your normal postcard shots," Green said, adding, "We have an artists' statement for this show [quoting writer and painter Henry Miller] that reads: 'Destination is never a place but, rather, a new way of looking at things.'
"We, as artists, as well as the audience, bring our own experiences to it."
Green, who also does fantasy and science fiction artwork, said the LaNaDa show will highlight places from Vancouver to Venice. One of her pieces, titled Against the Sky, details a historic building in the old city of Matera, Italy, which was the backdrop used in Mel Gibson's blockbuster, The Passion of the Christ.
Meanwhile, also starting Thursday, Place des Arts will exhibit Everything but the Light (oil paintings) by Carly Bates in the Atrium Gallery as well as My Heaven (acrylics and oils on canvas) by Shin Jae Yu in the Mezzanine Gallery.
For more information, visit Place des Arts at 1120 Brunette Ave. or call at 604-664-1636.
