They were art healers, helping to nurture a sense of confidence and pride with the veterans and the frail at residential care centres in Metro Vancouver.
But through their art facilitations, the four women also became fast friends and wanted to share their artistic pursuits for the rest of the world to see as well.
Marianne Phillips was first introduced to Nancy Cramer two decades ago while working at the Brock Farhni Pavilion at Shaughnessy Hospital in Vancouver. Cramer had an unusual approach to her textile and pottery media as the North Vancouver resident had a bachelor of science degree under her belt.
A few years later, Phillips met Paddi McGrath and Anna Milton, who were also employed as art instructors at the George Derby Centre in Burnaby.
There, they had a big studio with a loom for weaving and a kiln for clay creations but they also taught painting, drawing and fabric arts to the residents.
Their goal was to make the vets and elderly feel comfortable and keep their minds and bodies active. In turn, some became very good at their chosen crafts and literary skills.
“It was a great job and very rewarding to see them progress,” said Phillips, who has a degree from UBC in fine arts and psychology.
But as the number of vets dwindled over the years, the arts funding from Veterans Affairs Canada began to change, too.
Still, the four women found time to get together and showcase their own personal projects at local galleries.
On Thursday, their latest exhibit will be unveiled at the Port Moody Arts Centre. It is called Messengers, a title representing the tangible and intangible.
Milton went literal and created a series of pigeons. For Cramer, McGrath and Phillips, they presented more an ethereal edge for the show.
Cramer’s messengers are typically animals, whom she believes communicate with humans in surreal ways. Whenever she sees a heron, for her it is a sign of reassurance whereas a crow is a symbol of her late father. Animals offer meaningful coincidences that we can’t ignore, the North Vancouver artist said.
Synchronicities also pop up in Phillips’ mixed media work and McGrath’s paintings and drawings — sometimes through dreams, intuitions, premonitions and signs.
PMAC curator Janice Cotter built on the Messengers theme with an exhibit about inheritance from Katherine Nielsen and Carlyn Yandle.
Both graduates from Emily Carr University of Art + Design, the pair explore traditions and beliefs and how they are passed down to the next generation. While Nielsen uses paint to look at personal identities, traits and views, Yandle unravels the years — juxtaposing quilting with QR codes in a kind of button blanket, for example.
Meanwhile, on the topic of traditions, painter André J. Prevost turns his gaze to aboriginal art and carvings in a series called Journeying with the Totems.
• The opening reception for Messengers, Inheritance and Journeying with the Totems is Thursday from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Port Moody Arts Centre (2425 St. Johns St.). The artists will attend and refreshments will be served. All three shows end Sept. 27. Call 604-931-2008 or visit pomoarts.ca.
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