Bi Yuan Cheng is a seeker of the truth. Not truth in facts, but in feeling; not in evidence, but in experience. His pursuit as an artist is to convey the world as he sees it and share its impact with the viewer, to impart the sense of wonder it brings to him. “I always think if you do art, it has to come from your heart, from your inside world. That makes it really true,” he says. He was an artist from day one. Born in 1957 in Jinan, China, as a boy of six, Bi could often be found sitting at the side of the road with pencil and paper, sketching the passing cars or bicycles. “It just came naturally,”...
For 15 years, The Avenue Gallery has been in the midst of Oak Bay Village, attracting passersby with striking art works in its show window. This week, I dropped by for a visit with owner Heather Wheeler to talk about the past, present and future of one of Victoria’s premier galleries. Wheeler told me she grew up in a household where her mother was very creative, but Wheeler approached the world with a head for business. Beginning in the 1980s, she worked for Peter Dorazio, an entrepreneur who dominated the tourist shops on lower Government Street. At first, she was retail manager for his art shops:...
Bruce Edmundson’s elegant wood sculptures begin as bumps on a log, aka burls, so when he learns I’ve got a felled, super bumpy big leaf maple tree at my place, he’s happy to take a look. He’s brought along his friend Kent Mjolness, and they eagerly circle the massive, hollow trunk sections. There are plenty of visible burls, which are actually rounded growths formed when a tree is under stress from an injury, virus or fungus. I tell them I considered turning the maple into firewood. I detect some shudders. Burl wood has unusual texture, colour and figure (or appearance). Birdseye, resembling tiny...
