art – Page 6

Freedom found in art

Riva Lehrer, author of Golem Girl, recently spoke on the topic Art Celebrating JDAIM (Jewish Disability Awareness, Acceptance and Inclusion Month). (photo from JBF)

Artist, writer and curator Riva Lehrer spoke at this month’s Cherie Smith JCC Jewish Book Festival on the topic Art Celebrating JDAIM (Jewish Disability Awareness, Acceptance and Inclusion Month). Lehrer’s work focuses on issues of “physical identity and the socially challenged body.”

In the Feb. 7 Zoom talk from her home in Chicago, Lehrer discussed her 2020 illustrated memoir, Golem Girl,and her life as an artist born with disabilities into a world determined to “fix” her. Later in life, she found freedom through the flourishing disability arts movement.

Lehrer was born in 1958 with spina bifida. Throughout her early years, the message she received from those around her was that she was broken and would never have a job, a romantic relationship, or an independent life.

The memoir is comprised of two parts. The first deals with growing up in a time when people with disabilities were supposed to be hidden away from the rest of the world. The second looks at reaching adulthood after being raised to think that she was a mistake.

“I grew up thinking I was always wrong and always needed to be fixed, not just from medical professionals, but from everyone in society, who treated me like something to stare at or feel pity for. A lot of the book is taking that apart and addressing why people are stigmatized,” she said.

During Lehrer’s youth in Cincinnati, most children with a condition like hers were institutionalized. There was not a lot of modeling as to how to parent a child with disabilities. Lehrer, however, does credit her mother, who had worked as a medical researcher, for being much less fearful of the situation than an average parent might have been and for refusing the inclination to have her institutionalized.

Lehrer attended a school for children with impairments. “When you are surrounded with others like you, you are just a kid. You stop thinking you are different,” she recalled. The downside, however, was that kids at the time were not encouraged to imagine what they could be as far as a career, and high schools and colleges were not obligated to admit people with disabilities.

“The force of the message that I was a mistake was pretty powerful. By the time I was 12, I knew I was going to live in a body like this forever,” she said.

A resulting feeling of self-loathing persisted until her mid-30s, when novelist and disability rights activist Susan Nussbaum invited her to meet with a group of artists in Cincinnati. Lehrer reluctantly agreed to go and found it a life-changing experience.

“The sight of a lot of disabled people who were not hiding, and who were also funny and bright, gave me a way to understand my life and not just endure it,” she said.

The group showed Lehrer that disability is an opportunity for creativity and resistance. Finding inspiration and empowerment from people in the group, Lehrer asked them if she could paint their portraits. Even though she worked in portraiture, she “was very aware that she never saw images of people with disabilities ever, in museums or classes, only in telethons. It was never anything good.”

Nowadays, she said, her main interest is how people deal with and survive stigmatization. These are at the forefront of the 65 images contained in her book. Among the works she shared at the talk were a charcoal portrait of Nomy Lamm, an amputee musician, political activist and director of Sins Invalid in the Bay Area; a charcoal image of Mat Fraser, a British actor, writer and performance artist who was a regular cast member in American Horror Story: Freak Show television series; and a painting of Liz Carr, a British comedian, broadcaster and international disability rights activist.

“There is such a story behind each of these people,” Lehrer reflected.

As for the title, Golem Girl, Lehrer revealed a lifelong fascination with monsters. “One of the things monsters do is that they break boundaries,” she said. “Dead and moving, animal, person, person and machine, there is always something that violates a boundary. I was thinking how much this is like disability, that people don’t understand the disabled body. They think it is not human in some way. It is treated like it is alien.”

Lehrer is a faculty member of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and an instructor in medical humanities at Northwestern University.

The discussion was moderated by book festival director Dana Camil Hewitt.

Sam Margolis has written for the Globe and Mail, the National Post, UPI and MSNBC.

Poetry and painting flourish

Pnina Granirer launches her new book, Garden of Words, at the Cherie Smith JCC Jewish Book Festival Feb. 9. (photo from JBF)

“Unexpected and unplanned, like small gifts offered by a kind friend, poems have been forming in my head ever since I was a child,” writes Pnina Granirer in her most recent book, Garden of Words. “Unexpected” is the perfect word for Granirer, who continually reinvents her artistic self.

Garden of Words is a beautiful mix of Granirer’s painted “words” and her written ones, her more distant past and recent experiences, including the loss of her life-partner of more than 65 years, in August 2020. The book is dedicated to Eddy and the final poem (“Goodbye”) and image (“Eddy Studying During Power Outage,” 1957, charcoal on paper) are of him.

This collection is a very personal work that shows Granirer’s powers of observation, both in her paintings and drawings, as well as in her poetry. It also shows her strength via her willingness to be vulnerable.

photo - Pnina Granirer — Pnina Granirer *(photo courtesy JBF)*

Two poems are part of the book’s foreword. The first, explains Granirer, who was born in Romania, “expresses the joy and happiness of a 10-year-old when on August 23, 1944, the Soviet Red Army entered our town, on the day that the cattle cars were waiting at the train station to take us away to the concentration camps. It had been a narrow escape, indeed!” The second is the title poem, in which Granirer notes that she is a painter, “I speak with paint and brush / my words are written / with colour and with line.” But, she recognizes the power of words, their ability to “conjure a Universe”: “I should so like to plant / a garden of words / in my field of colours // and watch them grow.”

Garden of Words has six sections: Sea and Stones; Pandemic; Dancers; Memories of Spain; This and That; and Closure. Her poems are short, concisely capturing the ephemerality of life – not even stones are permanent, the ebb and flow of water covers and exposes them, reshapes them, while they absorb past lives (fossils) and form sculptures. Stones offer inspiration and company to Granirer, who listens to their “quiet whispering.”

While all of the paintings Granirer has selected for this book interact wonderfully with her poems, reinforcing their themes, particularly powerful is the interplay between the poems about COVID-19 and artworks that had, of course, other meanings when they were created years ago. The new poem “All Together Now,” which starts, “This novel enemy is democratic. // In its indifference / all prey is equal,” is followed by the 2008 painting “Utopia – All Together Now,” which features four people dancing within a diamond-shaped boundary. One dancer’s head and their left foot cross the barrier. With dancing as one of the activities that has been restricted during the pandemic and the fact that we’ve all had to create bubbles (diamonds?) within which we can socialize safely, this probably once-joyous painting takes on a more sombre joy.

There are also sparks of sombre humour in various poems, including “Visit with El Greco” and “City Woman.” And the fear is palpable and relatable in the prose poem “Grenada,” which includes the stark reflection: “Five hundred years after the Inquisition, the burnings and autos-da-fé are pushed out of memory, conveniently forgotten, but the ceremonies persist; the dark past is not taught in Spanish schools. It has been turned into an Easter celebration, a parade, a fun event.” But, for Granirer, the crowds are ominous, evoking images of the Inquisition: “I am a Jew and it is coming for me. I am a Muslim and I am afraid. I am a Black woman and here is the KKK coming. I am terrified. The sight of those pointed hoods unleashes a flood of emotion I did not know I was capable of. My anxiety is close to panic.”

There are happier reflections. “Pas-de-deux,” for example, describes two men, each flying their own kite, but close together: “They leap / they dance / they bend and kneel / they sway from side to side / and turn as one.” When the men and their kites finish their dance, they receive “scattered applause from the small gathered crowd.”

At age 86, Granirer continues to create in new and meaningful ways. She launches her new book at the Cherie Smith JCC Jewish Book Festival on Feb. 9, 1 p.m. Visit jccgv.com/jewish-book-festival.

Space beyond time

Sky Lilah’s new exhibition, Quantum Sky, is at Art @Bentall this month. Quantum Sky is an exploration of consciousness and what that means to the artist. This self-study is done using various mindfulness techniques, then interpreted through visual art. One dominant theme is the use of chakras, with 21 separate works, three per chakra, dedicated specifically to interpreting the meanings held within. As such, the exhibition is an exploration of an aspect of themselves through her art and letting others into that process, with the intention of creating a space beyond time.

“A lot of it is just trusting the process, which is I guess why I paint in the first place, which I find funny because I’m so organized in life. And when it comes to artwork, I find I just need to start and figure it out as I go, as opposed to planning it all and then starting,” said Lilah.

– Courtesy Art @Bentall

Lively driftwood sculptures

Victoria artist Tanya Bub’s current exhibit at the Art @ Bentall Gallery features life-size works of animals that occupy land, sea and air. (photo from Tanya Bub)

“Working with driftwood has given me a great appreciation of the power and beauty of nature. The shape and colour of every stick of driftwood hints at its history. Maybe a root had to bend around a rock while it was growing, maybe sand and water smoothed its edges over a period of many years. Then,” said artist Tanya Bub, “I combine all of these diverse natural sculptures to create an animal or person that looks alive because it borrows from the evident life forces that shaped the wood. There is something almost magical about extending the life of once-living wood by turning it into art. I’ll keep making driftwood sculptures as long as I am able.”

Victoria-based Bub currently has a solo exhibition on display at the Art @ Bentall Gallery. Called Mind Games, Defying the Art Space, the exhibit – which runs to the end of the month – features life-size works of animals that occupy air, land and sea.

In addition to the Art @ Bentall show, Bub has two separate outdoor installations of her sculptures. A large driftwood cat can be found at Kits beach (at the corner of Whyte and Arbutus) and a driftwood “giant” lives between Wreck and Oasis beaches (at the corner of N.W. Marine and Agronomy).

photo - Tanya Bub's solo exhibit - Mind Games, Defying the Art Space - the runs to the end of the month — Tanya Bub’s solo exhibit – Mind Games, Defying the Art Space – the runs to the end of the month. *(photo from Tanya Bub)*

Bub studied oil painting and ceramics at Emily Carr University of Art + Design, and did figurative work based on life drawings. She has a degree in fine arts from Emily Carr, as well as a degree in the philosophy of science from McGill University in Montreal. She worked as a computer programmer for a couple of decades and had her own website development company. The finding of a piece of driftwood during a walk on the beach was a game changer. Since 2019, she has been making her sculptures depicting various creatures, including the occasional human.

“I came to Victoria in 2003 with my husband and daughter to be near my mom,” Bub told the Independent. “I wanted a second child and realized I needed family and community nearby to raise a family with grace. I passionately loved art as a kid but shelved it as a young adult to pursue a more practical career in programming. Now that my kids are all grown up, I’m allowing myself a second childhood and spend about 12 hours a day creating art with absolute abandon!”

photo - One of the many creatures sculpted by Tanya Bub, whose works on on display display at the Art @ Bentall Gallery — One of the many creatures sculpted by Tanya Bub, whose works on on display display at the Art @ Bentall Gallery. *(photo from Tanya Bub)*

Also on Bub’s CV are two physics books that she co-authored with her father. While perhaps not immediately evoking any connection with her artwork, Bub explained, “Both the relativity and quantum mechanics books begin with a simple premise and extend from there with small logical steps, building complexity bit by bit, to tell the tale of the universe. My sculptures also all begin simply, by combining one piece of wood with a second. Then another is added and another, eventually resulting in a complex unified form made up of a thousand different pieces, that tell a unified story.”

And part of Bub’s story is her Jewish heritage.

“I’ve always identified strongly with Judaism, which for me is more of an approach to life rather than strictly religious beliefs,” she said. “My grandfather, Percy, was the embodiment of Jewishness. He had an irrepressible curiosity and an almost childlike joyfulness, which allowed him to marvel at and appreciate the simplest things. That, combined with a deep respect for intellectual pursuits and, above all, the high value placed on family, was at the core of hisJudaism. These ideals inform my approach to art, physics, family and life in general.”

To see more of Bub’s artwork, follow her on Instagram @victoriadrifter or visit her website, tanyabub.myportfolio.com.

Chanukah Market at JCC

Chanukah treats will be plentiful at the JCC Chanukah Market. (photo from JCCGV)

Come celebrate the Festival of Lights on Nov. 28 at the first-ever Chanukah Market. From 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. that day, the parking lot at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver will be transformed into a marketplace for all to enjoy.

Under large heated tents, visitors will be able to shop at arts and crafts vendors, peruse affordable art, seek out that perfect gift, enjoy live, all-ages entertainment and participate in family activities – or just soak up the ambiance and enjoy a nosh from one of the food vendors on site. The day’s festivities will culminate in the lighting of the first candle on the chanukiyah at sundown.

Performances will include the music of Tzimmes, singer/guitarist Anders Nerman, children’s entertainer Monika Schwartzman, the Vancouver Jewish Folk Choir, singer-songwriter Auto Jansz, the klezmer sounds of the Klezbians plus other bands and singers, dancers and surprises. Kids and their families will find lots of things to do, from playing on bouncy inflatables to joining in some hands-on art-making specially designed and delivered by the JCC early childhood department.

More than 20 vendors will be on tap to offer jewelry and other creative, useful and decorative items and chachkas. In addition, an 11-member arts and crafts group is presenting an exhibition and sale, offering items such as giclée prints, ceramics, woodwork, glass design, photographs and textiles.

Food trucks and vendors will offer Mediterranean and Mexican cuisines – and Chanukah treats, including latkes and sufganiyot.

The market is presented with the assistance of Canadian Heritage and admission is free with a donation to the Jewish Food Bank. For the full vendor list and more information, visit jccgv.com/chanukah-at-the-j.

– Courtesy Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver

Discussing Jewishness

Maxine Lee Ewaschuk, in a still from the documentary Periphery, which premièred last month at the Prosserman Jewish Community Centre in North York, and is available to view online.

On Oct. 28, the Prosserman Jewish Community Centre in North York hosted a hybrid launch for Periphery, a newly produced documentary film and photo exhibit that explores the lives of multiracial and multiethnic Jews within the Greater Toronto Area.

The 27-minute film features interviews with several individuals who might be considered as existing on the fringes of a homogenous, stereotypical notion of the Jewish world – a world that, in reality, is multifaceted and ever-evolving.

“What Periphery does for us is bring together a diverse view of our community,” said Andrew Levy, one of the event’s organizers.

From the outset, the film asks, “What makes a Jew? What do you have to know to be a Jew?” Implicit in those questions is another question, how can the Jewish community extend its tent to include those who might feel left out of the broader mishpachah, family? Notably, those whose parents are not both Jewish.

“There becomes a question of, can I say I am Jewish? When can I say I am Jewish? Is it ever OK for me to say I am Jewish before I complete my conversion, even if I am functioning very Jewishly in my day-to-day life. Sometimes, I say I am a Jew-in-progress,” shared dancer Maxine Lee Ewaschuk.

“Maybe I don’t know everything about what it is to be Jewish, but I am fiercely, proudly Jewish. It’s my experience and my experience is valid,” said actor Nobu Adilman, whose heritage is Jewish and Japanese.

“I knew my Indian grandparents super well, but I never knew where my Jewish grandparents came from,” said author Devyani Saltzman, who recounted a trip to Russia with her father to look into the roots of the paternal side of her family.

Saltzman also remembered an observation she had as a child of looking at other classmates who came from solely Hindu or Jewish families and thinking, non-judgmentally, “that must be really nice to know one’s place and space so clearly.”

In the cases of both Adilman and Saltzman, their parents married out of a love that transcended religious, cultural and geographic barriers.

“My father put a lot of his energy into my mother’s culture. He didn’t talk a lot about his upbringing. He was proudly Jewish, but he didn’t want to impose it on us,” Adilman said.

Adilman, too, related a kinship he has with other Jewish people who have gone through the same sorts of questioning that he has.

Ariella Daniels, Daniel Sourani and Sarah Aklilu each spoke of connections to places far removed from the GTA.

Daniels, who descends from Bene Israel Jews of India, explained that, for her, being a Jew represents several layers of identity – cultural, religious and national – and that the perspective she has of the world comes through being Jewish.

Sourani, who identifies as a gay, Iraqi Jew, focused on the importance of family – and the gatherings around Shabbat, holidays and lifecycle events – to his Jewish experience.

Aklilu, meanwhile, sees herself as Jewish, Ethiopian and Canadian. She told of the many times her Jewish identity has been called into question and, as a result, she has questioned who she is. Ultimately, she asserted, “I know I am Jewish and I feel that I don’t need to explain to people that I am.”

Tema Smith, a Jewish community professional and daughter of a Black father and Jewish mother, outlined the odd experiences she has had because people often assume she has two European Jewish parents.

“People say things that they would never say if a Black person were in the room. I feel completely unseen in those moments,” Smith said. “I feel trapped in these weird moments of having to swallow what just happened.”

For Asha, a Black and Jewish woman, her connection to Judaism is one that she described as developing and expanding. “I think, if you look Black, like I do, then you go through life as a Black person,” she said. “I don’t know if you have to choose internally, but it is chosen for you in the wider world. So, people don’t look at me and think I am Jewish. I don’t think that’s ever going to happen. If it did, it would be weird.”

While the experiences in Jewish spaces of those interviewed were frequently frustrating and alienating, it was also pointed out in the documentary that there are positive aspects to having a multiracial background. There is richness and happiness in belonging to different cultures and this, in itself, can be invigorating.

The screening was followed by a conversation with director Sara Yacobi-Harris, cinematographer Marcus Armstrong and film participants. Periphery was produced by No Silence on Race, an organization that seeks to establish racial equity and inclusivity within Jewish spaces in Canada, in partnership with the Ontario Jewish Archives. To view the film, visit virtualjcc.com/watch/periphery.

Sam Margolis has written for the Globe and Mail, the National Post, UPI and MSNBC.

Culture Crawl’s 25th edition

Esther Rausenberg, Eastside Arts Society’s artistic and executive director. (photo by Adam P.W. Smith)

The Eastside Arts Society welcomes art enthusiasts to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Eastside Culture Crawl Visual Art, Design & Craft Festival in-person and online over two consecutive weekends, Nov. 12-14 (preview by appointment) and Nov. 18-21. The event’s landmark edition will offer arts patrons an enhanced opportunity to fully customize their experience and visit the studios of 400+ artists.

“As we look back on the past 25 years of the Eastside Culture Crawl, we are incredibly proud of the strong, resilient and inspiring visual arts community we have helped to support,” said Esther Rausenberg, artistic and executive director of the Eastside Arts Society, who is a member of the Jewish community.

“Through our annual Culture Crawl celebration,” she said, “we have not only boosted the careers and livelihoods of countless artists who enrich our city through creative vitality, but we have provided an essential outlet for the public to experience artistic expression and creative connection. The 25th annual Culture Crawl presents a special opportunity to acknowledge, pay tribute to and showcase the extraordinary talents and accomplishments of the visual arts community, while looking forward to an even brighter future ahead with the development of the Eastside Arts District.”

To maximize the Crawl experience and open accessibility for all patrons in Metro Vancouver and beyond, the Eastside Arts Society has created further improvements to its digital presence, including a newly designed and user-friendly website, an artist livestream schedule, appointment booking software and increased access to artists through 360° virtual studio tours.

For those visitors who wish to attend in-person, the Culture Crawl features two options. Based on overwhelmingly positive feedback from 2020, when studio appointment bookings were created for the first time, this year’s event will once again provide a preview weekend Nov. 12-14, reserved for appointments only, cultivating an intimate, interactive experience for both artists and guests. For those Culture Crawl enthusiasts wishing for a more traditional event experience, open studios will return for the event’s main weekend Nov. 18-21.

The Eastside Culture Crawl presents unparalleled access to visual artists practising a variety of different art forms, including painting, sculpture, pottery, photography, jewelry, glass art, furniture, and more. Visit culturecrawl.ca for all the festival details.

– Courtesy Eastside Arts Society

Capturing nature in photos

Micah Groberman with his son, Evan. (photo by Micah Groberman)

The current photography exhibit at the Zack Gallery, Discoveries: A New Way Forward, allows visitors a peek into the wilderness of British Columbia. A bird serenades the sunset. A bear crosses a road. A coyote glares into the camera. Even a Whistler bridge seems to lead to an adventure in the forests and mountains of our province. The photographer, Micah Groberman, talked to the Independent about his art and how the pandemic set him on his new creative course.

“Before the pandemic, I had a business with a partner, Ivan Solomon. We did many different things, but mostly we designed wall murals for children’s stores, hospitals and private clinics,” said Groberman. “After the pandemic hit, we couldn’t do it anymore, couldn’t stay inside the enclosed spaces for the long time it takes to create a large mural. Many places closed. School was canceled. I had to stay at home and take care of my sons.”

photo - Micah Groberman’s photo of a hummingbird feeding her babies was featured on CBC — Micah Groberman’s photo of a hummingbird feeding her babies was featured on CBC.

For Groberman, instructing his elementary school sons from a set curriculum was frustrating. “I’m not good at math,” he joked. So he found something else to do with his boys. He shared his passion for nature with them. They went for walks in local parks. And they took photographs.

“I started taking photos when I was about 9,” Groberman recalled. “It was with a simple camera, the point-and-shoot kind. I enjoyed it and did it for a long time, simply for myself and my family. During COVID, my photography took a more serious turn. I wanted to do it well. I wanted to learn. I watched videos on YouTube. You can find all sorts of useful tips online. I got myself some professional gear, a large camera. And I took photos. Many, many photos. I learned by doing.”

Groberman classifies his images into three categories: landscape, wildlife (which includes all his animal and bird shots) and fine art. The last category is the most inclusive. It overlaps with landscape and boasts some unusual shots, like a PNE ride from a rare angle or an old pickup surrounded by flowers that displays an uplifting message in its cargo bed.

photo - Micah Groberman took this photograph last year at the Richmond Sunflower Festival — Micah Groberman took this photograph last year at the Richmond Sunflower Festival.

“I took it last year at the Richmond Sunflower Festival,” Groberman explained. “The organizers put the old truck among the flowers, and I thought it looked interesting.”

Many of his images, especially of wildlife, are fascinating because he has sought them out. In addition to artistic skill and adequate hardware, nature photography requires a great deal of perseverance and patience. Groberman has both.

“The bear that crosses the road – I took this picture from my car,” he said. “We were in Whistler, driving around, looking for bears. It took us three hours, until one walked out of the woods.”

Another of his amazing wildlife shots is a coyote on a piece of driftwood. “I noticed him hiding in the bushes on the other side of a stream in Richmond. I followed him for about five minutes, with only glimpses, until he came out and stared at me. I took the shot, but I was glad there was water between us.”

While taking his own photos, Groberman tried to share his knowledge with his sons. “My younger son wasn’t that interested,” he said, “but my older son, Evan, took to photography. I taught him, and he inspired me. Many of my photos in this show I took when I was with him. I think teaching him made me a better photographer.”

Groberman hadn’t ever exhibited his photos prior to the pandemic. He had never even thought about doing so. “It was just a hobby,” he said. “But, in 2020, I participated in a group show at the Zack. A couple of my son Evan’s photos were also on display. That’s how I first met Hope [Forstenzer], the gallery director.”

photo - It took a few hours of searching before Micah Groberman came across this bear and took its picture — It took a few hours of searching before Micah Groberman came across this bear and took its picture.

According to Groberman, the current show was supposed to be a double feature, including a sculptor as well. “But the sculptor didn’t happen,” he said, “so it became my solo photography show. There are 37 images in the show: 30 are mine, seven are Evan’s. We have a show together.”

The name of the show – Discovery – came from the experiences shared between father and son. “Our walks together were bonding,” said Groberman. “We discovered things together. Evan discovered new skills. I discovered a new way to move forward and I discovered teaching. That’s where the name of the show came from.”

Groberman hopes that his wall mural business will recover once the pandemic ends, but he also sees several new avenues for his creativity.

“I want to do more with my photography,” he said. “I’m exploring different options, trying to establish myself locally. I went to stores to offer them prints of my photos and postcards. I rented a bunch of my prints to a movie set. I entered local contests. One of my photos – a mama hummingbird feeding her babies – was featured on CBC. Another – a photo of a heron – won the Richmond banner contest last year in the nature category. You will see my heron on the streetlights in Richmond. I have an Instagram account. I’m just starting with photography, but I want to see where I can end up.”

Discover opened on Oct 4 and runs until Nov. 7. Learn more about Groberman’s work at micahgphotography.com.

Olga Livshin is a Vancouver freelance writer. She can be reached at olgagodim@gmail.com.

Nature-inspired artist

Two of artist Monica Gewurz’s paintings – “Silver Marsh” (above) and “Dawn II” – are featured in the exhibition of the Nature Trust of British Columbia’s Artist of the Year Award. “Silver Marsh” was inspired by a sunset at Addington Point Marsh, one of NTBC’s properties, which aims to conserve waterfowl and fish habitat, and “Dawn II” by a visit to Vaseux Lake in the Okanagan, an NTBC property that protects habitat for bighorn sheep and other threatened species.

Two of artist Monica Gewurz’s paintings have been selected by a jury to be included in the exhibition of the Nature Trust of British Columbia’s Artist of the Year Award. The joint show of the Federation of Canadian Artists and the Nature Trust opens on Oct. 18 at the Federation Gallery on Granville Island.

Before turning her focus to art in the past several years, Gewurz had worked in both the public and private sectors, in areas from commercial real estate to tourism to aboriginal issues. However, art was an integral part of her upbringing in Peru.

photo - Monica Gewurz — Monica Gewurz *(photo from Monica Gewurz)*

“For my parents, art was as important as science,” Gewurz told the Independent. “My mother was also an artist, and she exposed me to art at an early age – not just Judaica and Peruvian art but also art from different cultures. We traveled a lot. I always enjoyed visiting museums and art galleries. And I always had my camera with me, always took pictures. Landscapes and close-ups, textures and patterns always fascinated me.”

Upon graduating high school, however, she chose a different path.

“In the early 1970s, I was studying to become a veterinarian in Peru. At that time, South America went through some economic and political unrest,” she said. “Peru had a military government, and antisemitism was on the rise. My university was hit repeatedly with strikes and class closures. Getting an education was becoming difficult and dangerous. That was when I decided to move to Canada. With my parents’ financial support, I came alone to continue my studies at the University of Guelph. My parents immigrated later, in 1985.”

After university, Gewurz worked for the Canadian government, but she couldn’t abandon her art. “My photography, jewelry and painting all started as hobbies. I needed an outlet to balance my hectic and stressful full-time job…. In 2000, I started making tribal and sculptural jewelry. I was successful enough to showcase my pieces in national craft shows and then commercially in some galleries, here in Vancouver and in the U.S.”

She knew that most professional artists had formal art education, so she enrolled at Emily Carr University of Art + Design in 2011. “I could study there part-time while working,” she said. “It would also allow me the opportunity to meet other artists.”

She finished her studies at Emily Carr in 2016. Coincidentally, she couldn’t continue at her government job for much longer. “Due to a life-threatening autoimmune illness, in 2017, I had to retire,” she explained. “That gave me the opportunity to embark on a new career as a professional artist.”

Gewurz’s paintings are mostly abstracts, reflecting the landscapes of the West Coast. “The force and energy of water and its associated reflective light, the interplay of shadows and colours in a landscape, have always drawn me in as a scientist and an artist,” she said. “The endlessly changing skies and the patinas of precious minerals mesmerize me. I am fascinated with the contrasting nature of life. I paint it all to provide an escape to a dream-like place.”

Fractals in nature and stylized figures frequently populate her paintings. She doesn’t strive for photographic correctness. “Painting in abstract challenges me to represent reality in a veiled, mysterious and intriguing way,” she said. “Abstraction and the use of texture allow me the freedom to change what I see and feel into my own expression. The artistic process is, for me, one of constant discovery and conversation. The painting speaks to me, tells me what it needs, and I respond.”

Although initially she used brushes, she said, “Lately, I transitioned to using mainly a palette knife and other unconventional tools. As a result, my art became more abstracted and complex.”

She bases her paintings on her own photographs and on her memory; she never paints on location. “I paint from the heart and intuitively,” she said. “I don’t paint anything specific in a landscape and that’s what I love about it – the process of being able to use the paint any way I want. I leave out a lot of visual information. That allows the viewers to use their imagination, to see and describe every painting in their own way.”

Gewurz gifts much of her art to charities and friends. “It is exciting for me to witness the connection some of my ethereal-looking paintings elicit in viewers,” she said. “It humbles me, when people I’ve never met immerse themselves in the layers, shades and textures of my paintings and then share with me how they are seduced into a visual, tactile and emotional response. When such a connection is made, I feel that I accomplished my mission. Of course, the cherry on the cake is when somebody buys a painting and becomes a collector and, many times, a friend.”

She shared one such a case. In 2014, an interior designer from Singapore saw one of her mixed media paintings at an exhibit and contacted her for a commission. The painting was two by two feet, said Gewurz, “but she wanted a much larger one, measuring seven by four feet, for her client, a new five-star hotel in Hong Kong. That was a turning point in my career and a huge jump in scale for me. That painting still hangs in their lobby.”

Mixed media seems to be Gewurz’s preferred style. She incorporates in her pieces ancient and modern materials, such as textiles, sand, rust, aluminum foil, copper and silver. She paints in multiple layers to seduce viewers in visual and visceral encounters. But, whatever the materials, her theme remains predominantly nature.

image - “Dawn II” by Monica Gewurz — “Dawn II” by Monica Gewurz

Gewurz’s love of nature led to her involvement with the Nature Trust of British Columbia (NTBC). “I am a donor and volunteer,” she said.

She is also an active member of the Federation of Canadian Artists (FCA).

“One of the main FCA missions is to outreach and raise awareness about conserving the environment and natural spaces,” she said. “Every year, FCA asks their membership to submit a proposal for a show that deals with social and environmental issues. I submitted the idea to have a joint show with NTBC, as they had a common vision, and also to take the opportunity to celebrate their respective anniversaries. Both director boards reviewed and accepted my proposal.”

Of course, she longed to participate in the show as well, since its underlying purpose – the conservation of British Columbia’s endangered habitats – is close to her heart.

“FCA holds several juried shows every year,” said Gewurz. “I regularly submit and often get juried in to showcase in them. This time, I applied as well. I was thrilled and honoured that two of my paintings were admitted. There was a lot of competition.”

Gewurz’s commitment to environmental issues extends beyond her participation in such shows and groups.

“I use upcycled materials in some of my mixed media art,” she explained. “There is beauty in repurposing materials because of their distinctive uniqueness and imperfect textures. Also, the fact of my using them conveys the message to the viewer about the importance of decreasing waste and minimizing our carbon footprint.”

She added, “Art can certainly open people’s eyes to how much our lifestyles imperil the planet. Art could encourage all of us to make positive changes.”

See more on Gewurz’s website, mgdesigns.org.

Olga Livshin is a Vancouver freelance writer. She can be reached at olgagodim@gmail.com.

Highlighting social goodness

The Nov. 1 online event Finding Grounds for Goodness includes the première presentation of Finding Grounds for Goodness in the Downtown Eastside, which was created during last year’s Heart of the City Festival. (photo from Jumblies Theatre)

This year’s Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival, which runs Oct. 27-Nov. 7, includes the screening of short videos from Jumblies Theatre and partners on the theme of “social goodness.”

Jumblies’ multi-year Grounds for Goodness project is an artful exploration of why and how people sometimes act in good ways towards each other. As it has adapted to community-engaged art-making during pandemic times, this project has generated a varied and whimsical collection of short videos with communities and artists from around Canada.

At the Nov. 1, 4 p.m., online event Finding Grounds for Goodness, hosted from Toronto by Jumblies staff, a sampling of these short films will be shared, including the première presentation of Finding Grounds for Goodness in the Downtown Eastside, which was created during last year’s Heart of the City Festival with DTES creative community members and Vancouver and Toronto artists.

Jewish community member Ruth Howard is the founder and artistic director of Jumblies Theatre, which makes art in everyday and extraordinary places with, for and about the people and stories found there. The Jumblies project was originally inspired by the history about the rescue of Albanian Jews during the Second World War by Albanian Muslim people.

Composer Martin van de Ven, an expert in klezmer and Jewish music, who has been involved in many Jumblies projects, told the Independent, in an interview last year about the DTES’s Grounds for Goodness, about besa, “an Albanian Islamic concept about hospitality and the need to help and protect guests and those in need within and beyond your community.

“In Albania,” he explained, “during the Second World War (and Italian and then Nazi occupation), this meant that almost all Jewish people living and finding refuge in Albania were sheltered and hidden, and Albania ended up with a larger Jewish population at the end of the war than at the beginning.” (See jewishindependent.ca/highlighting-goodness.)

The festival at large

The 18th Annual Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival is presented by Vancouver Moving Theatre in association with Carnegie Community Centre, the Association of United Ukrainian Canadians and a host of community partners. It will feature more than 100 events throughout the DTES and online.

This year’s festival theme, “Stories We Need to Hear,” resonates today as people grapple with the dramatic impact of the pandemic, ongoing displacement, the fentanyl crisis, and the reality of bigotry and systemic racism.

In the words of late DTES poet Sandy Cameron, “When we tell our stories we draw our own maps, and question the maps of the powerful. Each of us has something to tell, something to teach.”

The 12-day festival includes music, stories, poetry, theatre, ceremony, films, readings, forums, workshops, discussions, art talks, history talks and visual art exhibitions. The Art in the Streets program features surprise pop-up music and spoken word activities on sidewalks and small plazas throughout the historic district.

A few highlights of this year’s festival are We Live Here, a large-scale outdoor project projecting hyper-speed videos of Downtown Eastside artists’ artwork, produced by Radix Theatre; Honouring Our Grandmothers’ Healing Journey Launch, three days of ceremony, teachings and storytelling honouring grandmothers who traveled to the DTES (with Further We Rise Collective and Wild Salmon Caravan); and Indigenous Journeys: Solos by Three Woman, which profiles local artists Priscillia Mays Tait (Gitxsan/Wet’suwet’en), Kat Zu’comulwat Norris (Lyackson First Nation) and Gunargie O’Sullivan aka ga’axstasalas (Kwakuilth Nation).

Elder and activist Grace Eiko Thomson reads from and talks about her book Chiru Sakura (Falling Cherry Blossoms), which chronicles her and her mother’s journey through racism, and Eiko Thomson’s advocacy for the rights of Canadians of Japanese ancestry. In My Art Is Activism: Part III, DTES resident Sid Chow Tan shares videos from his archival collection that highlight Chinese Canadian social movements and direct action in Chinatown, particularly redress for Chinese head tax and exclusion. And the ensemble Illicit Projects presents Incarcerated: Truth in Shadows, three shadow plays dedicated to people who have faced unjust treatment in Canada’s incarceration system.

Other events honour various DTES performing artists and shared cultures. The festival involves professional, community, emerging and student artists, and lovers of the arts.

For tickets and more information, visit heartofthecityfestival.com.

– Courtesy Heart of the City Festival