Olga Livshin

Whimsical, huggable toys

Lea Bilot with some of her bearded gnomes. (photo from Lea Bilot)

Some artists find their niche, their preferred way of expression, early in life. For others, it takes longer, sometimes decades, to discover their creative outlet. Lea Bilot belongs to the second category.

For the past few years, Bilot has been knitting and selling her whimsical stuffed toys at fairs and craft markets around Greater Vancouver.

“I was born in Vilnius, Lithuania. That was where I grew up and got married,” she told the Independent. Later, her family immigrated to Israel, where they lived for 26 years. They came to Canada in 2015, following their adult children.

photo - Every one of Lea Bilot’s creations has its own expression — Every one of Lea Bilot’s creations has its own expression. *(photo from Lea Bilot)*

“I was never artistic before,” she said. Though perhaps she was, without realizing it. Creativity doesn’t usually spring out of nowhere. It surely shimmered inside her all along, finding unconventional channels among the demands of hard work and three growing children.

“When we came to Vancouver, my husband and I started flipping houses,” she said. “We did it for a few years, but then COVID happened. Everything stopped. I didn’t know what to do. My husband found a job, but I was bored out of my mind.”

She searched for an avenue to apply her fertile imagination.

“We went to our community centre once, and there was a craft fair there. I liked the knit toys someone was selling, but I thought: I could do better. And the idea stuck.”

Never having made a knit toy before, Bilot did some research on the internet.

“I don’t speak good English,” she said. “So, I contacted a friend in Israel and asked if she could find me some books in Russian on the subject. She did and sent them.”

Bilot read all the books and then began to experiment.

“At first, I knitted some children’s clothing, but I don’t do that anymore,” she said. “Now, I concentrate on toys. I don’t copy what the books say either. I improve on them, make changes. I might use legs from one toy, hats from another, whatever fits my vision. Sometimes, I just follow my muse. Or I might find something new on the internet. There are several groups on Facebook, and we share information. We also help each other, when one of us hits a snag.”

Lea Bilot also makes other creatures, such as aliens. *(photo from Lea Bilot)*

The variety of toys Bilot creates is astounding. Her output includes some common animals – dogs, cats, bears and rabbits – as well as owls in graduation hats, aliens with antennas and gnomes with beards. Each one has its own expression; no two are identical. For the winter holiday markets, she makes colourful Christmas trees with legs and hats, and snowmen decorated with buttons.

“I don’t knit snowmen – I make them from socks,” she said. “And, for my Christmas trees, I started to crochet. I’ve only been doing it for a few months.”

She derives her ideas from everywhere.

“I once saw a man on the street with a big bushy beard. He was a short and fat older man, and his beard was white. I thought: that is my gnome.”

Her home is half living space, half workshop.

“I have so much yarn now, I need to put it somewhere I can easily access,” she explained. “I put all my clothing in cardboard boxes, and my yarn into my dresser’s drawers.”

Most of her yarn is acrylic.

“Some children are allergic to wool. They like to hug their toys, kiss them, sleep with them. I have to use acrylic for the toys,” she said. “And I buy only expensive yarn: from Denmark, from Turkey, from Lithuania. I don’t use cheap local yarn – it doesn’t last long. Children put their toys to hard use. The toys need to be washable and durable.”

photo - Lea Bilot’s handmade owls — Lea Bilot’s handmade owls. *(photo from Lea Bilot)*

From design to execution to sales, Bilot enjoys every step of the toy-making process.

“I love making them. Sometimes, when I want to finish one, I wouldn’t sleep for half the night. It is such a joy making all those details – skirts, boots, glasses – and coming up with new concepts, new patterns.”

She loves selling the toys as well.

“People don’t always buy them, but, whenever they pass my table, they smile. Women, children, even men – they all smile. Children are very well behaved, too. They would handle my toys, hug them – I make them soft and extremely huggable – but they don’t demand that parents buy them, don’t throw fits. It’s always a pleasure to be around them. That’s why I don’t offer my toys to any stores. I want to witness those smiles.”

Bilot sells her toys several times a year at craft fairs at community centres, schools and even universities.

“There are websites for artisans like me,” she said. “They list all the fairs. I would drive to those fairs first, see what they are selling, what the conditions are, before applying to them as a vendor for the next time. My husband helps, he drives me around. And my daughter helps with the application process.”

When asked if she gets any income out of her full-time toy-making hobby, Bilot laughed. “I cover the price of yarn,” she said, “and a bit above it, but not much. Mostly, I do it for the fun of it.”

To see Bilot’s creations and be ready when she next tables at a market, visit instagram.com/leas_knittings.

Olga Livshin is a Vancouver freelance writer. She can be reached at [email protected].

Paintings inspired by women

Therese Joseph’s solo show at the Zack Gallery opened Oct. 12, but the official opening reception, which she will attend, takes place Oct. 30. (photo from Therese Joseph)

The new solo show at the Zack Gallery – Women, Words and Wisdom: Therese Joseph – celebrates the power of women in our lives.

Artist Therese Joseph’s mixed media paintings combine imagery and words in her depictions of women she admires. Not any specific woman, but all of them, a symbolic woman, and what she means to the artist. On the walls of the gallery, Joseph’s women are sad or sleeping, doubting or searching, traveling or dancing, but they all represent the artist’s interpretation of “woman,” in all her multifaceted complexity.

Joseph grew up in Switzerland, and her road to Vancouver and an artistic career was a round-about one. When she was in her early 20s, she traveled to England to study English. There, she met a young engineer from Borneo. They fell in love and stayed in touch. A few years later, after he found work in Vancouver, he invited Joseph to join him. She had never been to Canada before.

“At first, I came for three months,” Joseph told the Independent. “I loved it here. Everyone was so open and friendly. I felt free here, felt that I could do anything I wanted. Life here was much less structured, not as many rules as back home in Switzerland. It felt like there could be more than one way to do stuff, and that freedom attracted me.”

Like many others, she was captivated by the nature of British Columbia.

“The mountains, the sea, the forest. It was like Switzerland, but more – more open, more generous,” she said.

Of course, it took time for every document to be signed and she could finally settle into her married life in Canada.

“Home in Switzerland, I had an education as a kindergarten teacher, but my diploma wasn’t accepted here in Canada,” Joseph said. So, she opened an after-school art club for local children.

photo - “Wear Your Words” by Therese Joseph — “Wear Your Words” by Therese Joseph. *(photo from Therese Joseph)*

“I’ve always loved doing art, loved being creative,” she said. “I was involved in several community art projects with my young students in North Vancouver. We painted balconies, murals, created some street banners.”

But, eventually, she wanted to dedicate herself to art full-time, and she felt she needed more education in this regard.

“At about the same time – year 2000 – a couple of my family members in Switzerland died, and it was hard for me. I couldn’t be there with my family as much as I wanted,” she shared.

Creating art felt like a necessity for her then, a balm to her grieving heart. She sold her art studio business and enrolled in art-related continuing education classes at Emily Carr University of Art + Design and Langara College.

“I took many classes and workshops in the next few years,” said Joseph. “Whenever I liked an artist, I found a way to learn from them. Among my mentors were Jeanne Krabbendam, Don Farrell, Lori Goldberg, Nurieh Mozaffari, Steven Aimone and more. I’d call it a self-directed art education.”

She emerged from that time an accomplished artist and art teacher. She exhibited widely in Canada and abroad. She taught both children and adults.

“I love teaching art,” she said. “At first, I preferred teaching children, but, as my own children grew older, I gravitated towards teaching adults and seniors. Everything has its time.”

Through all the changes in her life, Joseph kept making art. She paints figures and faces, flowers and feathers in her Dandelion Art Studio in North Vancouver.

“Women are my predominant subject,” she said. “They inspire me. They embody how strength and resilience can coexist with vulnerability, and how setbacks are merely steppingstones on the path to achieving one’s goals.”

Her technique is often mixed media. “I collect old magazines, newspapers, cards. People bring them to me, too. I rip them to pieces – never cut with scissors – and glue those text fragments to my canvases to see what could emerge. I love the process of creation, love the empty canvas that becomes an image with a meaning and a message. I never know what the current painting is about until it is done. The painting itself guides me.”

At the beginning of this year, Joseph learned about the Zack Gallery’s call for artists and submitted her proposal for a solo show.

“I had enough paintings with text and letters to fill a gallery,” she said. “I wanted to emphasize the texts, so I started searching for quotes from famous women to attach to each painting. I read thousands of quotes on the internet before I made my selection for each painting. It was very interesting and amusing.”

Her palette is colourful and her compositions sophisticated.

“None of them depict a specific woman,” she said. “They all come from my imagination. I wanted to paint something about perfume, and my painting ‘Fragrant Rain’ was the result.” The woman in the painting saunters under her umbrella, while the rain hides the details, though one can make out a perfume bottle in her bag. Coco Chanel’s tongue-in-cheek quote accentuates the painting.

“Wear Your Words” boasts three female figures, in red, pink and orange, their clothing decorated with disjointed texts. We don’t know what the women are doing. Are they dancing? Are they passing each other on the street? The letters filling their clothing jump at the viewers. “Words are the clothes your thoughts wear,” says the quote by Amanda Patterson that accompanies this painting.

photo - “Shadows in Motion” by Therese Joseph, whose exhibit Women, Words and Wisdom is at the Zack Gallery until Nov. 18 — “Shadows in Motion” by Therese Joseph, whose exhibit Women, Words and Wisdom is at the Zack Gallery until Nov. 18. (photo from Therese Joseph)

Most of the works on display are full of colour, so the one in black and white draws the eye. “Shadows in Motion” is actually a diptych. Joseph explained its roots.

“I’ve always loved traveling, and we traveled a lot. When, after 37 years of happy marriage, my husband passed away, I wanted to prove to myself that I could travel alone, too. I went to Mexico. I walked on the beach and watched my shadow. After awhile, I started posing, jumping and photographing my shadow in every awkward position. My hands were here and there, up and to the sides. I bent. I stretched. The sun was strong and my shadow seemed to dance. I wanted to capture every nuance. The painting was born out of those photos.”

Another travel destination – Amsterdam – inspired a couple of paintings. “Strength Becomes Her” and “Moving On” both have the word “BISON” in them.

“I was in Amsterdam and visited an art show about bison,” Joseph explained. “It was in a warehouse – a huge building with many different artists. They had a catalogue as large as a newspaper, and I asked for two catalogues. When I came home, I tore those catalogues into shreds and used the ripped words in the paintings.”

Both paintings employ bold, punchy colours. Both are rather large.

“The bison is huge and powerful, and I wanted my paintings to reflect that,” said Joseph.

Women, Words and Wisdom opened Oct. 12 and will run until Nov. 18. The official opening reception, with the artist in attendance, will be held on Oct. 30, at 6 p.m. To learn more about the artist, visit thereseljoseph.com.

Olga Livshin is a Vancouver freelance writer. She can be reached at [email protected].

Processing the tragedy

On Sept. 28, Temple Sholom unveiled a new group exhibition in its gallery. “This is not a regular art show,” curator Rina Vizer told the Independent. “It is a commemoration of Oct. 7, of its hope and memories.”

Vizer has wanted to organize a show that would act as a fundraiser since the horrific terror attack on Israel last year.

“It has been the theme of my art from the moment I heard about the attack. I couldn’t process it in any other way than through my painting,” she said. “Last year, in September, we couldn’t even imagine that such an atrocity was possible. I wanted the other artists to do the same, to express what was beyond words through their paintings and share it with viewers.”

image - “HaTikvah” by Rina Lederer-Vizer is part of the Memory and Hope exhibit at Temple Sholom that Vizer curated to commemorate the terror attacks of Oct. 7, 2023 — “HaTikvah” by Rina Lederer-Vizer is part of the Memory and Hope exhibit at Temple Sholom that Vizer curated to commemorate the terror attacks of Oct. 7, 2023. *(image from Rina Vizer)*

At first, she contemplated the Zack Gallery as a venue but it had a schedule to maintain, and its shows were booked well in advance. “Then I discussed with our rabbi some other art installation, and I asked him: ‘What about a show commemorating Oct. 7?’ And he agreed that it was a great idea to reflect on this calamity through art.”

The timeline to find other contributors was very tight. “I started the process at the end of August,” she said. “My only condition [to the artists] was: it had to be new art, created as a reaction to Oct. 7. Nothing old would work.”

Vizer contacted several people she knew personally, including Vivienne Davicioni, Sidi Schaffer and Glenda Leznoff. “I’ve also seen the art of Olga Campbell, and I had heard about Zohar Hagbi and her intuitive art studio. I was sure both of them would be a good fit for this show. The Zack Gallery director, Hope [Forstenzer], recommended Brian Gleckman, who agreed to participate. In all, we have seven Vancouver artists in this show.”

image - “Tikun Olam” by Brian Gleckman is part of the Memory and Hope exhibit, which is at Temple Sholom until Oct. 28 — “Tikun Olam” by Brian Gleckman is part of the Memory and Hope exhibit, which is at Temple Sholom until Oct. 28. *(image from Rina Vizer)*

Vizer and Hagbi were born in Israel, Gleckman hails from the United States, Schaffer was born in Romania, Campbell in Iran, Davicioni in South Africa and Leznoff in Canada. Regardless of their countries of origin, all of them dedicated their artwork for this show to Israel, and all of the pieces reflect the traumatic impacts of Oct. 7.

Vizer’s paintings are not large, but they pack a punch. She signs her art as Rina Lederer-Vizer. “Lederer is my family name,” she explained. “But I only have one sister. When we go, the name will disappear. This way, I hope to keep it a bit longer.” Her painting “HaTikvah” is full of hope and despair in equal measure. A woman gazes up, her palms together in prayer, but her eyes are sad, her expression stark. Is she praying for the hostages’ return? Is she a hostage herself?

Another of her paintings, similar at first glance, is called “101 Days of Awe.” The woman in the foreground is from the diaspora, but her solidarity with the suffering in Israel is unmistakable. Like the figure in her painting, Vizer stalwartly expresses her solidarity with Israel.

“I have been attending the ‘Bring Them Home’ rallies every Sunday since last October,” she said. “We meet at the Vancouver Art Gallery at 2 o’clock. At first, there were thousands of people there each week. Now, it is a hundred or so, but I go.”

At one of the rallies, Vizer carried a banner with the name and image of one of the hostages, Carmel Gat, a therapist from Tel Aviv. Vizer was so moved by Gat’s plight she used the portrait at her family seder. “I was shocked and angry when I learned on Sept. 1 that Gat was executed in a tunnel,” she said. That was when she painted “Light in Tunnel.” There are darkness and death in those tunnels, but, contends Vizer, light always comes after darkness.

image - “I See You” by Olga Campbell — “I See You” by Olga Campbell. (image from Rina Vizer)

Like Vizer, Campbell’s paintings are mostly figurative. “I See You” depicts a face, fearful and anxious. There is a catastrophe unfolding in front of this person, and they are helpless to prevent it. Another of Campbell’s paintings, a number of shadowed figures on a foggy background, bears a fateful title: “I Didn’t Get a Chance to Say Goodbye.” Campbell’s third painting, a black and white collage reminiscent of an old-fashioned newspaper, has an even more explicit title: “October 7.”

The same title applies to one of Schaffer’s paintings. In a short email exchange with the Independent, she said about that horrible day: “The event had and still is impacting me very much. Early every morning, the first thing I do is turn on the TV to hear what’s happening in Israel. I am a child survivor of the Holocaust, and I hoped nothing like that would happen again, but the reality of today is different.”

Schaffer has two paintings in the show, and she explained her symbolism. “The small one is titled ‘October 7.’ It’s a collage. I have done it this year, not long ago. You can see prayer hands and a memory candle for those we lost. There is a child’s wooden rocking horse left without a child. In one of the videos after the horror, I saw a house totally destroyed. Only this horse alone remained on the front lawn.

“The second work is bigger and is titled ‘The Phoenix Reborn from Ashes.’ I worked on it for a few years, but, this year, inspired by the October tragedy, I finished it. I feel it gives hope of renewal, of better days to come, of freedom and joy.”

Leznoff, who is also a writer, talked about her experience joining this show. “I was invited to participate by Rina Vizer, who I met about a decade ago at Israeli dancing. This year, I have been very active writing letters to governments and organizations about antisemitism in Canada since Oct. 7. I had an op-ed in the National Post last January, when two British Columbia theatres canceled the play The Runner. Rina knew me as both an artist and a writer. She knew I have been very moved by the events, both in Israel and in Canada, so she asked me to contribute works I’ve done in response to the war.”

Leznoff’s two pieces in the exhibit are titled “Shattered” and “Morning Light.”

“The first painting is a mixed media piece that uses black ink and paint, yellow paint, a photo, dried flowers from my garden, and charcoal. The painting is abstract, however, there is a sense of something explosive and raw with the black paint,” she said. “For me, the yellow is a sign of hope, and the falling flowers are in memory of the tragedy of the flower children at the music festival.

“The other piece,” she continued, “is connected to a poem I wrote called ‘Winter Light’ that accompanies the painting. The poem is framed with the painting, and it’s about how the hostages and soldiers are always on our minds, and we are not giving up. Ironically, although I am a published writer, I hardly ever write poetry. I think both abstract painting and poetry handle emotional issues that are sometimes difficult to convey in a straight narrative.”

The Memory and Hope exhibit will be displayed at Temple Sholom until Oct. 28. The art is for sale and all proceeds from the sales will go to Hostages and Missing Families Forum: Bring Them Home Now, and Magen David Adom in Israel.

Olga Livshin is a Vancouver freelance writer. She can be reached at [email protected].

Artist’s portals to elsewhere

Artist Amy J. Dyck sits amid her work “Bed Desk,” one of the pieces in her solo exhibit, Portals to Elsewhere, which opened at the Zack Gallery last month. (photo by Byron Dauncey)

The art of Amy J. Dyck is surreal and enigmatic. Her solo show Portals to Elsewhere opened on Aug. 25 at the Zack Gallery. Like any portal, it allows a viewer a glimpse into the artist’s sophisticated and contradictory inner world.

“I loved drawing when I was young,” Dyck said in an interview with the Independent. “I liked little details: earrings, shoelaces. It was easy, like a game. Then I had a son and, like every young mother, I was always tired. Creating art at that point stopped just being fun. I needed to concentrate, to find time for my art, to figure out whether I wanted to spend that time. That was when I became a real artist.”

That wasn’t the only time life challenged her. “I wanted to be a designer,” she said. “I started at design school but, after one year, I became too sick and had to drop out.”

But she never abandoned learning – she taught herself, read textbooks and took occasional classes. And she never stopped creating – paintings and drawings, mixed-media collages and soft sculptures, ceramics and wood installations dominated her life, as she juggled being an artist with her non-artistic jobs, family and chronic illness.

Multilayered and metaphorical, Dyck’s collages and sculptures could be seen as a self-portrait of an artist battling a chronic disability.

“I’m often sick and can’t move much,” she said. “Sometimes, I spend several months in bed. That’s why I make soft sculptures. It’s easier when I’m in bed and can’t go to my studio. I have to be flexible with my materials and techniques to accommodate my illness.”

Despite the hardships associated with her ill health, Dyck’s works don’t display any bitterness or resentment. Instead, the artist is on a journey of self-discovery.

“I have to learn how to live in a body that’s broken,” she explained. “That’s what my art is about. My soft pieces are something I want to wrap around myself, to counteract my anxiety.”

All the sculptures on display at the gallery present complex knots of fabric, pipes stuffed with soft fillings. Combined with ceramic elements, leather, wood, feathers and other materials, these ouroboros reflect the artist’s struggles and her determination to live as fully as she can. Her philosophical piece “Blame Mosquito” is a fur ball with half a dozen ceramic hands coming out of it, pointing in all directions. “When I was young,” she recalled, “there was a traumatic event in my life. I blamed everyone – like those fingers pointing everywhere – until I realized that I myself carried some of the blame. That’s why one of the hands points back at me.”

“Yellow Polka-dot Tail” also has sharp, dark spikes coming out of the soft, colourful tangle and pointing everywhere. “Those spikes are like my anger. They help me feel powerful,” she said.

Another piece, “Wing Head,” introduces a strange single wing decorating the sculpture’s head. “The wing is not functional,” she said. “Just like parts of my body. It is a possibility of flight, an idea, not a reality.”

Dyck explores a body that doesn’t work well by creating allegorical figures with faulty anatomy, with the wrong number of fingers on a hand or mangled joints or tiny wings in the wrong places. “I’m processing my disability through symbolism,” she said.

She uses second-hand materials for her sculptures. “I buy old clothing at thrift stores or internet marketplaces. The leather came from our old couch. My kids helped me dismantle it and cut out the pieces I could use,” she said.

photo - “Wing Head” by Amy J. Dyck can be seen at the Zack Gallery until Oct. 1 — “Wing Head” by Amy J. Dyck can be seen at the Zack Gallery until Oct. 1. *(photo by Byron Dauncey)*

The theme of a body disrupted, of limbs disconnected, continues in her painting-like mixed-media collages. Many of them have images of open doors, windows or arches. “They are my portals to elsewhere,” she said. “When I’m in bed, when I can’t move, I look out of my window and imagine myself out there. I like being outdoors.”

The images are uncomfortable and deformed, but there is optimism, a strange equilibrium of what might be considered ugly and beautiful. Body parts surrounded by butterflies. Too many hands counterbalanced by birds and ghosts, black and white charcoal drawings incorporating splashes of real gold. All of them speak of a deep need to understand our own bodies, how they work and why they sometimes don’t. The style of the artist is unique and instantly recognizable, and that is what Dyck teaches aspiring artists – she offers classes at community centres and retirement homes. “I try to teach my students how to find their own voices,” she said.

One of the most interesting examples of Dyck’s art is an installation called “Bed Desk.” Dyck explained its etymology.

“I promised the gallery a sculptural installation, but then I became very sick and couldn’t leave my bed,” she said. “My husband is a builder. He made those wooden stands that surround the circular space and act as frames for my drawings. He also made me a bed desk where I could draw while in bed, but I could only create pieces of the same shape and size as the desk surface. I channeled my longing to move, to feel strong into those drawings. The figures I drew are broken, like me, but they move, they grow, they adapt and evolve. The installation was funded by a Canada Council for the Arts grant. When you step into its circle to view the drawings, you enter your own portal to elsewhere.”

Dyck’s show will be at the Zack Gallery until Oct. 1. To learn more about the artist and her work, visit her website, amyjdyck.com.

Olga Livshin is a Vancouver freelance writer. She can be reached at [email protected].

Art as a form of storytelling

Sarah Dobbs is the new manager of the Sidney and Gertrude Zack Gallery at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver. (photo from Zack Gallery)\

The Sidney and Gertrude Zack Gallery has a new manager, Sarah Dobbs, who showed an early affinity for her chosen field.

“My first time as a gallery host happened when I was about 8 years old,” she told the Independent. “My father was a journalist and a travel writer, and we lived in many countries when I was young: Spain, France, Morocco. Everywhere, my parents took me to art galleries, and I loved it.

“In the 1960s, while we were in Mexico, we often went to the local market. My father bought colourful folk sculptures. It was long before they became popular, we started collecting them. After we returned to Toronto, my family decided to have an exhibition of our collection. I was there, too. I enjoyed talking to people who came to see the show. I told them stories about this sculpture and that one. I liked sharing another culture with the people in my city. This entire experience had a huge impact on me. Even though I was young, I realized that art was storytelling. Art reflects our understanding of people and cultures.”

After receiving her degree in art history from the University of British Columbia and a master’s of education from the University of Toronto, Dobbs worked in the art world for more than 30 years.

“I ran commercial galleries and public galleries,” she said. “In the mid-’90s, I opened my own gallery, where I displayed mostly abstract art. I love abstract. Anyone can read their own story in an abstract painting.”

One of Dobbs’s most interesting projects happened when she was the director of the Burnaby Art Gallery.

“Part of my job there was to increase our interactions with the community,” she

explained. “I started an outreach program for people who would never go to an art gallery on their own, specifically youths right out of jail. They were young. Most of them had yet to graduate from high school. We gave them disposable cameras and suggested they take photos of what was important in their lives (but not drugs). Then they would do collages of their photos and we displayed those collages in local bus shelters. Those collages reflected the teens’ lives, perhaps helped them to come to terms with it. The collages were also an opportunity for all of them to share their lives and their concerns with the wider public. I’m proud to say that all of our participants graduated from high school.”

Projects like this, integrating art and public awareness, have accompanied Dobbs throughout her career. From 2002 to 2008, she worked in Ireland, at the National Gallery of Ireland and at the Irish Museum of Modern Art.

“We worked with hospital patients, but it wasn’t art therapy,” she said of that experience. “It was just doing art, participating. It reminded sick people of their healthy selves.”

Everywhere she has worked, Dobbs has helped people tell their stories through art, helped them deal with their suffering.

“In 2004, I was invited by a nurses’ charity to go to Sri Lanka for five weeks, to help the tsunami victims,” she recalled. “So many died there, children, old people. So much pain. I tried to do what I could to help, to ease that pain – I brought 98 kilos of art supplies with me.”

Later, in Kenya, she lived in a women’s peace-building village for a time.

“There were women from different tribes there, the tribes that were at war, that committed atrocities towards each other. But those women tried to build peace,” said Dobbs. “We would sit together and share stories. When women from different tribes saw similarities in their stories, felt their stories resonate with everyone, it helped in the peace-building process.”

Dobbs has curated about 200 art exhibitions. In her opinion, deep knowledge of the art world is only part of being a successful curator.

“Of course, you have to be passionate about art,” she said. “But you also have to be very organized. You need to be patient with the artists – they are very sensitive. Encouraging artists, especially young artists, boosting their confidence is paramount. It helps them tell their stories. And you also need to be aware of who is going to see the art – to keep balance between artistic expression and public understanding. Sometimes, the latter could be a challenge. Another ongoing challenge is convincing people that art has value.”

Those challenges can be exhausting, and even a successful art curator occasionally needs a break. Dobbs took such a break during the pandemic. The timing made sense, as most public spaces closed in 2020.

“For three years, I ran an integrated clinic, including traditional medicine, a naturopath, a massage therapist, etc. A break is good,” she said, “but I always come back to art. Sharing art with everyone is my joy.”

That’s why when the JCC announced that the Zack Gallery needed a new manager, she applied for the position.

“I have known about the Zack Gallery forever,” Dobbs said. “It is a wonderful place, a blend between a public gallery and a commercial art space. The gallery runs community exhibits. There is a theatre next door, which brings people in before the shows and during the intermissions. Children come in often. That is how art education starts for most of us, when a child wanders into an art gallery.”

Olga Livshin is a Vancouver freelance writer. She can be reached at [email protected].

Pride in his Jewish identity

Brian Gleckman in front of his work, “The Judgment of Solomon (Psak Din: Judgment).” Psak din is a ruling given by a beit din, a Jewish court. (photo by Olga Livshin)

Brian Gleckman’s first show at the Zack Gallery, Abstracted Identity, opened on June 18.

The artist has loved art since childhood. “I grew up in Los Angeles,” he said in an interview with the Jewish Independent. “It is a vibrant city for visual arts. There are an endless number of art galleries and museums, and I was always there. And, of course, I always drew and painted.”

After getting his degree in visual art and history from California State University, Gleckman traveled extensively around Europe, before settling in Vancouver more than 30 years ago. But traveling has remained his passion and, during his travels, he invariably focuses on art and art history, museums and galleries.

“When I first visited Europe, I fell in love with Rococo and Baroque,” he said. Baroque and Rococo are both highly ornamental styles, which infused the art and architecture of post-Renaissance Europe.

Later, he drifted towards more contemporary styles, both as an art connoisseur and in his own work. “I suppose I can call my art abstract expressionism,” he said.

“Colour for me is a vehicle that allows me to play with shapes and space,” Gleckman explained. “Spatial relationships and composition of the images are of the utmost importance to me. I’m also concerned with depth and texture. I aim to create visual tension in my paintings. I think art shouldn’t be too easy or too comfortable. I want my viewers to engage, to ask questions. ‘What did he mean by that?’ ‘How does it make me feel?’ My viewers might not arrive at the same inner realization I conceived, but their explorations are more important than my answers. When people interact with my art, they become part of the creation process.”

With his current show, Gleckman seeks to “portray things that lie beyond the tangible – that is, beyond the figurative, beyond the readily recognized narrative. The paintings in this exhibit are expressions of the inspiration I derive from biblical stories, religious thought, as well as rudimentary ideas within kabbalah. Selected from the portfolios of my professional artwork, these paintings are reflections of how I personalize the intangibles of Judaism.… These paintings are abstractions of my Jewish identity, an identity that is the product not so much of formal religious practice but the summative effect of intellectual and emotional sensibilities of my Jewishness.”

Of course, the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver, which is home to the Sidney and Gertrude Zack Gallery, felt like the perfect venue for such a show, but there was an additional reason why Gleckman wanted to exhibit at the Zack.

“After Oct. 7, I wanted to do something that had meaning,” he said. “I wanted to share my pride in my Jewish identity. At the same time, I wanted to be part of the effort to help Israel, to make my own contribution. But I am an artist. I create art. I thought maybe my art could inspire someone to do something for Israel, to help in some way.”

He approached the gallery with the idea of a show and offered to donate any proceeds from the sales of his paintings.

“I’m going to donate whatever I get to two organizations: ASI-Canada (Association for the Soldiers of Israel), which supports active-duty IDF soldiers, and Magen David Adom, which is Israel’s emergency response service. To promote the sales, I’m also offering 30% discount off my website prices for all my paintings.”

The exhibit comprises 27 paintings from several of Gleckman’s established series. “For this exhibition, I have included paintings that are accompanied by titles … for fuller comprehension,” he said.

“The titles invite viewers to search for and reflect on the nuances of their own understanding of the selected stories, themes and ideas,” the artist explained. “I’m not trying to dictate my own interpretations to viewers. Instead, with the titles, I try to nudge viewers in the right direction. The titles are sort of guidelines for understanding the images, their conceptual representation.”

image - “Yerushalayim (Jerusalem)” by Brian Gleckman. The Hebrew words in the painting are from Psalm 137: “If I forget you, O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget ... if I do not bring up Jerusalem at the beginning of my joy.” — “Yerushalayim (Jerusalem)” by Brian Gleckman. The Hebrew words in the painting are from Psalm 137: “If I forget you, O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget … if I do not bring up Jerusalem at the beginning of my joy.”

Most of the titles are in Hebrew, spelled phonetically in the English alphabet. Some are in English, but they represent Jewish customs and stories. For example, the large painting “Tikkun Olam” is a field of life-affirming blue, while “Shiva” is bleak and dark, a painting of grief and despair, but both will generate different feelings for everyone.

A few other paintings are linked to grief and death, but many sport bright colors, like “Aytz Chaim” – blue and gold and triumphant – which proclaims the artist’s vision of the Tree of Life. The painting, tall and narrow, is framed by golden words.

Another tall and narrow painting, “Tefillah” (a prayer), contains this one word in Hebrew, as well as 10 bright gold stars dancing on the blue background below, representing a minyan, the quorum of 10 men (in Orthodox Judaism) or people needed for Jewish communal prayers.

Another painting with words and colours woven together is “Yerushalayim.” Its golden-brown palette is reminiscent of the ancient city of Jerusalem, its modernity and its millennia of history, including conflict.

Then there are calligraphed Hebrew letters, each magnified manifold on its own black and white canvas. “Their shapes are still recognizable,” said Gleckman, “but I wanted to explore the possibilities, the situation where something we know becomes something else, something to investigate and find a new meaning.” Each of these letter-paintings is like a road, curling capriciously according to the letter’s design, leading the viewers towards the unknown.

Abstracted Identity runs until July 18. To learn more, visit the artist’s website, briangleckman.com.

Olga Livshin is a Vancouver freelance writer. She can be reached at [email protected].

Cultural constellations

Lindsey Tyne Johnson has a new show at the Zack Gallery: The Irish Mazzaroth & Hebrew Spelled Backwards. It comprises two separate parts.

Hebrew Spelled Backwards debuted at the Kamloops Art Gallery in 2023. It is a series of illustrations in which the artist explores her Jewish heritage.

“When the show finished in Kamloops, the Zack Gallery director contacted me,” Johnson told the Independent. “But the show had only seven pieces, and the Zack Gallery is large. It needed more art.”

At about the same time, Johnson decided to delve deeper into her ethnic roots. “My mother’s family were Irish Jews,” she said. “Not a usual combination. I went to Ireland in February 2024 to find out more.”

She was fascinated by what she discovered. “Jews appeared in Ireland in the 1500s,” she shared. “Later, antisemitism forced many of them to leave, but they came back again. Then, there was a wave of Jews who came to Ireland and Northern Ireland from Russia in the beginning of the 20th century – they were escaping pogroms. Someone tricked them, sold them tickets to New York, but delivered them to Ireland instead and kicked them off the ship there. Some persisted in traveling to America, but others settled in Ireland. And then, there were the Jewish children escaping the Holocaust in Europe, Ireland took them in.”

When Johnson visited the Irish Jewish Museum in Dublin, she found a number of her ancestors. “Their names were all written up in the Book of Irish Jewry there,” she explained. “The museum staff asked me if I wanted my name to be added to the new edition of the book. Of course, I said yes.”

The second part of the show, Irish Mazzaroth, started taking shape in her mind while she was in Ireland. The 12 black and white illustrations on the gallery walls reflect Johnson’s take on the zodiac’s traditional imagery. Mazzaroth means constellations in Hebrew.

Both Jewish and Irish lore have a long record of zodiac interpretations, from Greco-Roman mythology to the Zodiac Wheel, the centrepiece of the sixth-century mosaic at Beit Alpha in Israel.

image - “Virgo” by Lindsey Tyne Johnson, part of Johnson’s solo exhibit at the Zack Gallery until May 9 — “Virgo” by Lindsey Tyne Johnson, part of Johnson’s solo exhibit at the Zack Gallery until May 9.

Johnson, a young Canadian artist, has succeeded in meshing seamlessly Celtic symbolism and Jewish mysticism into a series of computer illustrations that are uniquely hers.

“I started the first one in January. I finished the last one just before the show,” she said. “Each one is a well-known astrological sign, and each involves some aspects of both Jewish and Irish culture.”

Every illustration is a whimsical little story, a playful tale that connects all earth cultures to one another. The images are clean and austere, uncluttered by unnecessary details. The twin girls in Gemini smile at the viewer. In front of them are Shabbat candles and a challah. Behind them, a leafy tree rises in the Irish countryside. Their quiet joy is unmistakable.

On the other hand, the lone girl in Scorpio is solemnly considering the riches of ancient books in the famous Old Library in Trinity College in Dublin. She seems breathless with excitement at the abundance of choices in front of her, her braid curling up defiantly like a scorpion’s tail. The Jewish thirst for knowledge is given form in the context of the historical Irish library.

In another famous location in Dublin, the Temple Bar pub, Johnson features, in Virgo, an Irish Jewish woman playing a fiddle, merging lively Jewish klezmer and Celtic tunes.

image - “Leo” by Lindsey Tyne Johnson — “Leo” by Lindsey Tyne Johnson.

In Leo, the backdrop is grimmer. It depicts the Crumlin Road Gaol, hinting at the political strife in Ireland, while the man in front reminds us of the story of Daniel and the lions. “One of my distant relatives worked as a prison guard there,” Johnson said.

The frames of every illustration are identical: a rounded rectangle of Celtic knots, tied together at the top by a Magen David, which also emphasizes the affinity of two cultures.

The Irish Mazzaroth & Hebrew Spelled Backwards is on display at the Zack Gallery until May 9. To read more about Johnson and Hebrew Spelled Backwards, go to jewishindependent.ca/artfully-exploring-heritage.

Olga Livshin is a Vancouver freelance writer. She can be reached at [email protected].

Art helps bring us together

The current show at the Zack Gallery, Community Longing and Belonging, brings together a range of artists and styles. Pictured here is Alejandra Morales’s “A Landscape of Consumable Dreams.” (photo by Olga Livshin)

The current show at the Zack Gallery, Community Longing and Belonging, which opened Feb. 21, is the sixth annual exhibition in celebration of Jewish Disability Awareness and Inclusion Month.

The exhibit was organized by the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver’s Inclusion Services and curated by Shelly Bordensky, the program’s coordinator. Most participating artists are either members of the JCC program or similar ones in other localities, like Aspire Richmond. These initiatives support people with developmental disabilities through various creative endeavours.

The Zack show’s creative displays consist of paintings and pottery. While the size, media, colour palettes and framing of the works are all different, the underlying theme is the same: we all want to belong, we are all together on this planet.

Two paintings reflect that theme not only in their content and method of execution, but in their titles as well: “All Together 1” and “All Together 2.” Both works are cheerful and colourful, rendered with the abandon of the primitivism style. Cats and birds frolic on the canvas without regard for one another or for rules of perspective. Both list the artist as Art Hive, the visual art division of JCC Inclusion Services.

Bordensky told the Independent that both paintings were group pieces, created by several people. “Each artist added an element – a cat or a bird – and our wonderful art instructor, Kim Almond, made sure they all matched in style and colours.”

According to Almond, 13 artists, all members of Art Hive, participated in each painting.

“Mark Li and Andrew Jackson started off the two collaborative paintings for the group, and it was a great project to work on as a class,” she said. “Colours were a huge part of the process, as the artists were always striving to create that special pop of colour.”

Another example of group art is the pottery creations – playful little animals, solemn hamsas (hands) and juicy pomegranates – crowding several stands around the gallery.

“These ceramic pieces are all Raku ceramics by the pottery artists who are members of our Art Hive,” said Bordensky. “Together, we can create so much.”

Individual artists’ paintings are also on the theme of community.

Alex Lecce’s untitled piece is a slice of a neighbourhood street with a pie shop. The colours are realistic, and the image captures a quiet, everyday moment. We all go there, the artist seems to say. Those pies make our lives happier and more flavourful. They unite us in our humanity.

On the other hand, Alejandra Morales’s painting, “A Landscape of Consumable Dreams,” is jarring in both the colour palette and the structure. This painting screams of discord. There are two disparate parts in the image. The top part is a tangled bunch of flowers, all in beautiful, greyish lilac hues, intertwined and elaborate. The bottom part is a vague human figure bowing to the pretty flowers. The colours of the figure are harsh, grating; they don’t fit with the flowers. But the figure obviously wants to fit, just as we all want to fit in with our surroundings. The complexity of the juxtaposition of humans versus nature is unmistakable.

Other paintings are not as complicated. Mami Zimmerman’s “Best Friends” features two ponies. Its simplicity is charming and lovely. We all want such friends.

image - Mami Zimmerman’s “Best Friends” — Mami Zimmerman’s “Best Friends” *(photo by Olga Livshin)*

Calvin Ho’s painting “Nuts” is another example of primitivism in the show. The bright depiction of a squirrel and a woodpecker is reminiscent of picture books from our childhood. Bold lines and primary colours underscore that feeling. The two creatures are playing tug with a nut. Or maybe they are sharing it. Or fighting over it. The innocence of the picture invariably induces a smile.

image - Calvin Ho’s “Nuts” — Calvin Ho’s “Nuts” *(photo by Olga Livshin)*

In contrast, Merle Linde’s powerful landscape – “BC Wildfire 2023” – doesn’t invite smiles. The painting, its red and black scheme grim and scary, reminds us of the horror of the wildfires that affect our forests every year. The tragedy implied in the painting unites us, just as the sweeter emotions in other images do.

In a telephone interview with the Independent, Linde said: “I’ve always enjoyed art, from the day I could hold a pencil. I liked going to art shows, too.” Mostly self-taught as an artist, she said she only started painting seriously after she retired.

Judaica is one of the directions she explores in her art. To date, the Independent has used two of her paintings for its cover: for the 2023 Passover issue and for the 2022 Rosh Hashanah issue. Occasionally, she teaches classes for seniors in various artistic techniques.

Merle Linde’s “BC Wildfire 2023” *(photo by Olga Livshin)*

“Acrylic pour is a fascinating technique,” she said. “You pour the paint and let it spread as it will without a brush, and then wait till it dries. That was what I did for the background of the ‘Wildfire’ painting. I made it a few years ago. When I saw the news about the wildfires last summer, I picked up a brush and painted the black burned-out tree skeletons on top. I have two such paintings, but there was only space for one in the Zack show.”

Most of the paintings in the show express themselves at first view. However, Gail Rudin’s “Out for the Hunt” raises questions. It portrays four seemingly perky owls on a merry, greenish background. One could assume a light-hearted company of friends on an outing, until one notices a line of tiny mice scurrying away in terror in the very bottom of the picture. Suddenly, the entire image changes its meaning, illustrating the unavoidable conflicts within nature, where the hunters and the hunted coexist. Despite the constant danger of the wild, nature somehow always finds its balance. Maybe, as humans, we could take lessons from that.

Community Longing and Belonging is on display at the Zack Gallery until April 2.

Olga Livshin is a Vancouver freelance writer. She can be reached at [email protected].

Sculpturing with wood

“Constellation” by Rosamunde Bordo. (photo by Sol Hashemi)

Every true artist at the start of their career undergoes a period of intense search: for their voices, for their themes, for their artistic expressions. Rosamunde Bordo is at that exciting stage now. She is searching. Her show at the Zack Gallery, Morning Star, reflects her creative explorations.

A professional artist today, Bordo has always loved art.

“As a child, I went to a school with a strong art program. I painted. I played saxophone. My parents always encouraged my interest in art,” she said in an interview with the Independent.

photo - Rosamunde Bordo’s solo exhibit, Morning Star, is at the Zack Gallery until Feb. 7 — Rosamunde Bordo’s solo exhibit, Morning Star, is at the Zack Gallery until Feb. 7. *(photo from Rosamunde Bordo)*

After a bachelor’s in liberal arts and print media at Concordia University in Montreal (2014) and master of fine arts degree in visual art at the University of British Columbia (2020), Bordo teaches printmaking at UBC. But her artistic interests range much wider than printmaking. Her newly emerging passions include the creation of installations and woodworking.

“I started woodworking last spring,” she said. “In this show, I use different woods: maple, cherry, walnut. I’m fascinated by the process of turning wood into sculptures. In a way, woodworking is similar to printmaking. Both use technology but, unlike two-dimensional printmaking, woodworking offers three dimensions. In woodworking, I try to find the story of the material, try to immerse in material-based research to investigate the self as a created subject.”

Bordo began woodworking when she started her ongoing installation project, The Denise File.

“It is almost a work of detective fiction, written through physical space,” she explained. Using found postcards written to someone named Denise, Bordo “wanted to reconstruct who the elusive Denise is, to figure out what the letters meant, to show her essence through objects, sculptures and drawings.”

She built some wooden furniture for The Denise File – a screen and a chair – and wanted to do more, to explore all she could do with wood. Her current show, comprised mostly of several sculptures, has its roots in a Jewish magic class she took at her synagogue in 2021.

“I wanted to understand Jewish history, its mysticism and its superstitions,” she said.

Each figure on the gallery wall could have originated from the ancient writings of many nations.

“It could be ancient Hebrew or Aramaic or even Greek,” Bordo mused. “All the cultures in that region were interconnected. I see the entire show as a healing amulet, but I didn’t want to assign my own meanings to the individual figures. I wanted them to be mysteries for my viewers to investigate. I wanted the viewers to be detectives and I didn’t want to influence them with my personal vision, didn’t want to limit their imagination.”

That’s why she titled every “Constellation” figure with a number. “They could be stick figures – they are very simple – but I see them as constellations, stars connected to each other,” she said. “That’s why the show is called Morning Star. The world is a difficult place right now, and the morning star is a symbol of renewal.”

Bordo’s constellations are deceptive, looking a bit like wooden hieroglyphs, or perhaps molecular structures, each with its own character.

“The one with a leg sticking out of the wall – it wanted to be playful, maybe escape from the wall,” she said. “I was looking for harmony when I worked on them, but I didn’t want to force them into locked shapes. I wanted to give them their own personalities. Besides, I try to respect the wood I work with. It is alive. There are many ways one could interpret a wooden sculpture.”

In addition to the constellations on the gallery walls, there is also a video called Potion, which comprises four minutes of rotating green abstract patterns. Postcards with a single image from the video form another part of the installation. The text on the back of the postcards reveals the artist’s motto for this show: “Ideas are to objects as constellations are to stars.”

There is also a small table with a slab of pink salt on it.

“Placing salt in your pockets and in the corners of rooms was a well-known Jewish superstition to ward off malevolent spirits,” Bordo said. The table with the salt stands in the corner of the gallery, hopefully repulsing malice. We all need that in our troubled times, she explained.

The show opened Jan. 5 and will be on display until Feb. 7. To learn more, go to the artist’s website, withoutimages.com.

Olga Livshin is a Vancouver freelance writer. She can be reached at [email protected].

A land of contradictions

Sorour Abdollahi’s solo exhibit Intersecting Landscapes is now at Zack Gallery. (photo by Olga Livshin)

Over the years, Iranian-Canadian artist Sorour Abdollahi has participated in several group shows at Zack Gallery, but the current exhibition, Intersecting Landscapes, which opened on Sept. 7, is her first solo show here.

“Sorour is definitely not the first non-Jewish artist with a solo show at the Zack,” said gallery director Hope Forstenzer. For years, the mission of the Zack Gallery, which is in the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver, has been to showcase Jewish artists and art dedicated to Jewish themes, she said. Non-Jewish artists were not excluded, but they usually appeared in group shows.

“The big difference in the past few years,” said Forstenzer, “has been an expansion of the definition of a Jewish theme to include a wider variety of human universal experiences that reflect on Jewish cultural history and traditions.… Sorour’s work, while not as overtly Jewish as some, addresses the concept of diaspora and its impact on culture and memory. When we made the decision to show her work, it was based on the concept of a cultural nostalgia for home as an inherently Jewish theme. And the response to it, so far, has borne that out – it has had a very strong emotional impact on the community here at the JCC and has already engendered discussion of the Jewish diaspora.”

Abdollahi has been a professional artist all her life. “I’ve always painted, since I was a child,” she told the Independent.

She received her art education in Iran, and her first solo art show happened there in 1987. A successful artist, working in mixed media and acrylics, she regularly exhibited in Iran, participating in multiple group and solo shows in various cities, including Tehran and Isfahan. The only big gap in her exhibiting schedule occurred when she immigrated to Canada. “We came here in 2000,” she said. “We did it for the children.”

Like all immigrants, she struggled with the new language and new culture. “It was several years later, when my children grew older, that I enrolled in Emily Carr [University of Art + Design] part time,” she recalled. “I wanted to become familiar with the local art scene, with the educators and the artists. I wanted to become a part of the local artistic community. And it worked beautifully. My friendships with wonderful Vancouver artists Devora and Sidi Schaffer stem from those days.”

Five years after her immigration, Abdollahi felt immersed enough in the British Columbia art vista to open her own studio and gallery in Yaletown.

“People would pass my gallery on the street, and some would come in,” she said. “They asked questions. I felt that my art connected.”

That connection gave her the courage to join the Eastside Culture Crawl – the biggest visual art festival in Vancouver – 10 years ago.

Abdollahi’s current show at the Zack represents the scope of her art perfectly. It consists of old and new paintings from several different series. A blend of abstract and figurative art, her paintings are airy and bright. Most of them have vague architectural connotations and employ a predominantly blue and green palette reminiscent of spring and rebirth. The abstract forms, sometimes utterly modern, often reveal faint outlines of ruins, shimmering in the mist, in the background.

“I grew up in the land of contradictions, where a traditional way of living juxtaposed a modern, Western lifestyle,” she said. “Those contradictions manifested in the landscape surrounding me, the historical against the contemporary, with layers of change and transformation.”

Immigration to a new country profoundly impacts her imagery.

“In my paintings, I examine the relationship between memories and the external landscape,” she said. “My Iranian background and my Canadian experience have had an enormous influence on my works. They inspired a negotiation between the modern and the ancient, the old and the new, the West and the East. Ancient ruins and Persian architecture play a pivotal role, too. They have enabled me to express the conflict and the negotiation process that often exists between two different cultures or societies. While the ruins speak of a mysterious, pure and mystical past, they also illustrate the corrosive effect of time and modernity, the constant reconfiguration of a country’s landscape, architecture and culture. The dripping paint in many of my pictures also illuminates the process of renewal. The old slides down, while the new grows over it. My paintings attempt to form a bridge between the past and the present.”

Two of the paintings particularly stand out. “The Magical Carpet” is a collage, full of the whimsical patterns, warm hues and bright shapes of a traditional eastern bazaar, with the artist’s customary ruins in the background.

Another painting, “Letters from Beyond”, with its strong punch of red paint, uses fragments of writing that are wholly imaginary. “The language and the letters in that writing don’t belong to any nation,” Abdollahi said. “I created it because I believe that we are all the same people. We should have no borders and no different languages separating us. That’s why I wanted to have a show here, at the Jewish Community Centre. I feel like my art is a link that connects us all.”

Abdollahi’s works can be found in private collections in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Australia, Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Intersecting Landscapes runs until Oct. 12. For more information, visit sorourart.wordpress.com.

Olga Livshin is a Vancouver freelance writer. She can be reached at [email protected].