RONNA ANDER
ANTHEA CAMERON
CAROL DEMERS

In ‘A Response to Place’, Ronna Ander, Anthea Cameron, and Carol Demers create an array of ceramics and 2-dimensional works inspired by the unique natural world of the North Shore. Cityscape Community ArtSpace will be transformed into an all-encompassing environment evoking the sensory experiences of forest and ocean and offering a reflection on the natural world.

The gallery is divided into 2 visual moments, forest, and ocean. Step into the forest and immerse your senses with a 4 foot-high re-imagined eagle’s nest. From there viewers enter a calmer environment and are revived by the sculptural flow of the rhythmic ocean. The pieces on display utilize all the gallery’s surfaces – mounted on the walls, suspended from the ceiling and nestled on the ground – where viewers will see tangible presentations of local natural elements transformed by 3 unique artistic visions. Using clay, paint, pigments, paper, wire, and other materials, the artists explore the measured rhythms of nature. Through the processes of painting, mark-making, coil-building, burnishing, and weaving they take the viewer through the transformation of raw materials towards a contemplative vision and connection to place.  

RONNA ANDER
Artist Statement

Painting:

I don’t try to depict reality, I rely on abstract shapes, brush marks, colors, tones, layers of paint and surface textures to convey my feelings and make things visible.  Painting means participating in a happening.  It involves trying to surprise and surpass myself with being open to the unexpected. I start my work with intermixed layers of acrylic colors transposing them into geometrical shapes, lines, brush marks and movements.  I work from within letting all the elements I have been gathering come back with my feelings. When looking at abstract art, especially non-objective art, the viewer must be prepared to leave the objective, material world and enter the world of the artwork.

Ceramics:
My interest in studio ceramics began 30 years ago.   In my day-to-day experience I have two aesthetics that I aspire to and try to capture the essence of both traditional English ceramics and the “wabi sabi” designs of Japanese pottery.  Presently exploring smoke-firing where pieces are fired in a primitive smoky atmosphere with all the possibilities that wood and salt laden material can produce. The joy of making something from a lump of clay has nurtured and shaped my life and I still find my enthusiasm for pottery ever growing.

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ANTHEA CAMERON
Artist Statement

I moved to the coast in the early 1970s from Toronto. My dream was to work on a fish boat, which I did for many years, fishing for salmon. During that time, I also planted fir, spruce, hemlock and cedar trees in the coastal forests from northern Vancouver Island up to the Bella Coola valley. In those years my work was all outdoors and that is where I developed an appreciation of the beauty of this coast, from the ocean to the dense forests and mountains.

My artwork now reflects those experiences, with distinct references to our local north shore mountain and ocean landscape. With my smoke fired vessels I try to achieve the look and feel of wood and bone. Much as when I pass an arbutus tree, I need to feel the wood under the bark.

My long tubes are inspired by dentalium shells, tusk-like mollusks harvested off the southwest coast of Vancouver Island and the Olympic Peninsula by the NUU-Chah-Nulth peoples. In pre-contact times these shells were used for adornment and widely traded throughout the interior and western mountains. They are still harvested by their descendants today.

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CAROL DEMERS
Artist Statement

Whether I work in clay or paint or sculptural materials, I take my inspiration from the natural world around me. A hike in the dense forests or along the rocky coastline never fails to provide me with a sense of openness and clarity that later informs my work.

It is the details that I notice.  I find myself as fascinated by the smallest lichen on a twig or cluster of shells on a beach as I am by the endeavours of a hummingbird or the tracks of an animal in the snow. Skeletal remains of living things, be they plant or animal, also fascinate.  I once came across the bones of a small animal on a mountaintop.  The bones were bleached by the sun and were as smooth and white as porcelain. They captivated me and I found myself thinking of their fragile beauty often. They reminded me how intricate and interwoven the natural world is, yet also so fragile.  My work is a visceral expression of my response to this awareness.

I coil-build organic forms in clay, then burnish the clay to produce a soft, smooth texture with a fine sheen. The work is then fired in wood and sawdust with the addition of dried plant materials, oxides and minerals. Although I can encourage certain results, the surface is provided by the fire, at its choosing. I love this aspect of the finished piece.

My paintings, like my ceramic work, focus on natural materials. I incorporate earth pigments, plaster, oil paints, beeswax and found objects to render tactile, abstracted surfaces.  I try to capture the feeling of the landscape, rather than to replicate it. When I get it right, I like to think my work could be placed in a forest setting or on a rocky outcropping overlooking the ocean and look like it belongs.