Some extraordinary places in nature evoke an immediate, almost spiritual connection. The natural honeycomb sandstone formations known as Tafoni, found along the shorelines of many Gulf Islands in British Columbia, are among these places.

Edges is an exhibition featuring the work of five women artists — a painter, a photographer, a potter, a sculptor, and a poet/dancer — from across Canada’s east and west coasts and regions in between. Though coming from different disciplines and backgrounds, each artist has, by chance, encountered the Tafoni formations and found deep inspiration for their creative practices in these erosion-sculpted coastal forms.

Each artist experienced an instinctual, intuitive response to the Tafoni’s intricate patterns — formations shaped by natural forces over millennia. At the same time, they recognized the environmental vulnerability of these formations. What is visible today at low tide may be lost tomorrow. The Tafoni, while appearing stable, are threatened by the escalating impacts of climate change: rising sea levels, intensifying storms, and the resulting erosion that endangers the coastline’s structural integrity.

The artists see not only the beauty of these formations, but also their fragility. Edges seeks to convey this duality through a multidisciplinary exhibition that invites viewers to engage with the emotional, environmental, and aesthetic power of these natural spaces. The exhibition also includes opportunities for community engagement through an Artist Talk and a Poetry-Dance performance.

The artists acknowledge that the coastal Tafoni formations of British Columbia exist within the traditional territories of the Coast Salish peoples, including the QayQayt (qiqéyt) Nation and all Coast Salish Nations.

 

Ellen Pelto 

 

Ellen Pelto is an abstract painter who works in acrylics, oils and cold wax medium. Her work balances the complexity of surface with simplicity and succinctness. Her approach to painting is spontaneous and intuitive. She applies multiple layers of paint and paper and continues to manipulate the surface to reveal visual depth and texture. Her focus is on neutral colors, surface, texture, and mark making. For the past 30 years she has balanced a busy professional career with creating art. She discovered The joy of clay and ceramics before transitioning to painting. She studied visual arts at the University of Victoria and has subsequently taken many courses and workshops with many renowned artists. 

 

Celeste Snowber 

 

Celeste Nazeli Snowber, PhD is a dancer, poet, writer, and educator who is a Professor in the Faculty of Education at Simon Fraser University in Canada. Celeste interweaves multidisciplinary forms in her performances and published works and attention to embodied ways of inquiry has been central to Snowber’s performative work for over two decades. Artistic, performative and scholarly writing are interconnected in her work where writing from the body flourishes. Celeste’s poetry often emerges from dancing, and her movement informs a visceral way of writing. Celeste’s poetry and essays have been widely published and she is the author of three poetry collections. Her poetry books include Wild tourist: Instruction to a wild tourist from the divine feminine, (2016), Blue Waiting (2017), co-authored with Sean Wiebe which explores the Atlantic and Pacific coast. The marrow of longing, (2021) explores her Armenian identity, place, and themes of longing/belonging. Her most recent book, Dance, place, and poetics: Sitespecific performance as a portal to knowing (2022) integrates her dance, poetry and video dance poems. Her book, Embodied inquiry: Writing, living and being through the body (2016) continues to be integrated throughout the world as a text to explore writing from the body. Celeste creates site-specific performances and has been the Artist in Residence in the University of British Columbia Botanical Garden creating full-length performances connecting poetry and dance out of each season. Celeste’s site-specific performances focuses within riparian zones, between land and sea, where opportunity rises to create from the more-than-human world and integrate themes of land, sea, and ecology. Celeste has performed across North America and Internationally in a variety of venues, including concerts, galleries, museums, conferences, and outdoor spaces. Although Celeste primarily works as a solo dance artist and poet, she takes great joy in the multiple collaborations she does with other musicians and visual artists that are presented in concerts and galleRies. Celeste is the mother of three amazing adult sons and lives in the Lower Mainland of Vancouver with her husband. She can be found dancing between the land and sea or at www.celestesnowber.com 

Carolyn Sullivan formally studied photography, video, and dance in college, later completing a two-year upgrade in new digital media. She has enjoyed an extensive career as a commercial photographer, curriculum designer, and instructor, teaching multimedia at all levels. A bridge between analog and digital media, Sullivan has exhibited her photographic work in solo exhibitions and numerous group collaborations over the years.

 

 

 

Sande Waters holds a BFA from Emily Carr University of Art + Design in Vancouver and an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in California. Her work has been exhibited and collected in Canada, the United States, and Europe for many years.

 

In addition to her studio practice, Waters volunteers as Assistant Art Curator for the Lions Gate Hospital Foundation’s Healing Art Donation Program. She previously served as Vice President on the Board of Directors at the Seymour Art Gallery in North Vancouver, and as Chair of the Artist Prize for the Contemporary Art Society of Vancouver.

 

Waters lives and works in Deep Cove, North Vancouver, BC, as a guest on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Skwxwú7mesh Úxwumixw, Stó:lō, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples.