I’ve been looking forward to attending the opening of the current show at West Vancouver Museum for quite a while. Burnaby Mountain resident Dorothy Doherty and I drove the roughly one hour to West Vancouver and found the museum in a charming stone house. The museum’s mission is to promote art, design and culture, and not, as I had slightly expected, to showcase local history.
There are two gallery spaces and for this show the first one is devoted to the work of Tam Irving and the further gallery features Sally Michener’s pieces. Both artists live in West Vancouver, in Horseshoe Bay, and both were instructors at Emily Carr College of Art and Design (now EC University) and importantly for me, they were the ceramics department when I was a student there 1991-94.
Female Point of View 2016
Apart from their years teaching full-time, both artists have a had impressive careers in the ceramics world, but in very different styles. Tam was always the functional wheel-throwing person and Sally was the hand-building and sculpture person. But all along Sally was known for her multi-part and often mosaic-covered sculptures, and Tam had moved away from studio production of functional ware to explorations in wall-mounted installations and table-top forms.
Now that they have retired from teaching both have remained incredibly active in their studios. UBC Museum of Anthropology Ceramics professor Carol Mayer has curated this impressive show of recent work by both artists and the West Vancouver Museum, the NorthWest Ceramics Foundation and other organizations have contributed to the production of a very attractive catalogue. Photographs of all the works in the show are included as well as essays by both artists and Carol herself.
My photos are, as usual, quick shots taken at the opening, to give you an idea of the event. But the show is well worth the drive over the bridge, and the catalogue will be a good souvenir of work by two of the most important clay artists in BC.
Unfortunately Sally was suffering from a cold and was unable to attend and several of her long-ago students were hoping to see her there. I trust she’s better now. I thoroughly enjoyed the chance to catch up with BC Potters’ Guild and Shadbolt Centre folks, fellow Emily Carr students and many other clay keeners including present and retired Emily Carr faculty. Yes, some Raiders were there!
This blog features Sally’s work and I’ll show Tam’s in the next one. If you click on the photo of text you’ll be able to read Sally’s essay, which describes her work in this show far better than I can. I simply enjoy the vibrant colours of the ceramic shards and ceramic and glass tiles she uses on her torsos, pillars and ‘inside-out’ moulded forms and am impressed at how much work is involved!
