Universal Cosmic Consciousness??? Spooky.....

"Sails"

(Reflections Series)

acrylic on canvas, diptych, 24" x 36"

This painting has a bizarre and a spooky story behind it and still sends chills down my spine.
Last June, on a beautifully sunny morning, I made my way to Kelowna Library Parkade to drive back home. On the spur of the moment, I decided to walk around the waterfront area in hopes of capturing some images for my personal collection of the fabulous Okanagan summer. I clicked away pics of flowers, the lake, boats as I leisurely walked amoung joyful kelownites and visitors, some jogging, walking, cycling .... simply taking in the ambience. Suddenly, the reflection of the prominent landmark, Sails(sculpture) in the windows across the street, caught my attention. Needless to say, I took several photographs from different angles.

Later that evening as I went through the pics, I decided to crop one of the reflections of the Sails and started my painting. As I am not a night time painter.... I put down the base coat on the preliminary sketch on the 2 canvases, went to bed.

Behold, next morning's paper had what seemed like my painting on the front page ........ I was totally baffled. For a moment I didnt know if I was dreaming or was it for real, it really shook me. After getting hold of myself, I wrote to the editor with my original image and the cropped one for my painting. He was equally amazed and thought I had the photographer, Gary Nylander, in my photograph. Gary was out at the waterfront on an assignment the day before. He checked the time we both took our pics.... mine was about 20 minutes prior to his. Imagine, 2 total strangers, photograph the same image, same day, nearly the same time and crop it up to uncanny close format.

I guess, both of us tapped into the Universal Consciousness at the same time and got the exactly the same inspiration.

This was the second time for me to create an art form from "my own imagination" and a totally unknown person to me, does something so similar that it outweighs odds for coincidence. "Hundreth Monkey"experiment valid? I certainly think so.

April 2009 Show

"RCA Window"

(from "Reflections Series")

acrylic on canvas, 18" x 36"

Show opens on April 1, 2009 at WOODSIDE DESIGN GALLERY, 1561 PANDOSY ST. KELOWNA, B.C. CANADA.

I will be showing some works from my "Reflections Series" along with Rita Diebolt .

I have long been fascinated by the distortion of images on smooth, reflective surfaces ....windows, sunshades, water, mirrors, metals and whatever else that teases my imagination .......... hence this body of works.

Okanagan Arts Award

Grand finale to an extremely enjoyable Valentine's weekend.

To my utter surprize, my name was called out as the winner for Art Educator for the second annual Okanagan Arts Awards 2009, held last evening in Lake Country, British Columbia, Canada.

These awards are organized and administered by the Arts Council of the Central Okanagan and has ten categories ........music, theatre, dance, literary arts, visual arts, media arts, design, art educator, support of the arts and lifetime achievement.

All those involved put in a tremendous effort to make it an evening to remember. The foyer was beautifully decorated with the Valentine's theme in mind...wine, appies, chocolates and live music on the harp. The award ceremony entertainment included music, poetry, dance and comedy.......well done Arts Council of the Central Okanagan.

I am humbled by this recognition and grateful to Marina Garrison for nominating me, Jennifer Burrows and Linda Heinrich for their letters of support. As an art educator and an artist, it is my students' accomplishments that enrich me and make sharing my knowledge, an immense joy.