These three new shows at the Visual Arts Centre are worth seeing

By David F. Rooney

Making art is an exercise in personal vulnerability. All of us — painters, sculptors, musicians, photographers, filmmakers and actors — put our souls on the line when create something new for public consumption.

That is very apparent in Jackie Pendergast’s one-woman show, Songs of My Heart, which opens at the Revelstoke Visual Arts Centre’s Art Gallery on Friday, September 5, at 6 pm. (Please click here to view the poster for these shows.)

Jackie has 30 pieces in this show, including 15 gorgeous scarves, that depict the highs and lows of her life in the UK and Revelstoke. Each piece is both visual and musical.

“Don’t you find that certain songs trigger particular memories, images and responses?” she asked as she guided me through her show.

Virtually all of the pieces in this exhibition are the kind of evocative fabric artworks we have come to expect from Jackie. I found that they not only stimulated my senses but in a couple of instances prompted long-quiet memories of my own to surge to the surface of my mind.

Each piece is named after a song so that what Jackie has created is — essentially — a musical and visual soundtrack to her life.

There are two other lovely shows opening at the gallery — Coreen Tucker’s Postcards from Revelstoke, and Zuzana Driediger and Cara Sharp’s Art of the Book — Book Illustrations. Zuzana recently published Radar the Rescue Dog while Cara has been busy illustrating her father’s fanciful My Twelve Brothers and Me series.

Coreen’s exhibition illustrates the breadth of her artistic vision with accomplished pieces like Universal Code, 9 Mile Sands and her exquisite Hemlock’s Ease. One of the first art works I purchased in Revelstoke was by Coreen and I have never ceased to enjoy her artistic offerings. I am sure you will appreciate them, too.

Zuzana Driediger and Cara Sharp need little introduction to local art lovers. Zuzana turns everything she touches into art and the bright full-colour images in her delightful little children’s book is no exception.

I think this may be Cara’s first show at the gallery and her illustrations for her father’s popular local children’s series are a terrific way to introduce herself to local art lovers.

These three exhibitions open at 6 pm on Friday, September 5, at the Visual Arts Centre. Please call 250-814-0261 or send an e-mail to info@revelstokevisualarts.com if you have any questions. In the meanwhile, here are some images from the show: