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| Standing in a small alcove in my suite, Nippon, by Helmut Becker |
This past July, I spent
the better part of a week in Sorrento/Blind Bay, BC as one of three jurors
invited to judge art submissions at the annual Shuswap Lake Arts Festival.
Sorrento and Blind Bay are
two adjacent communities on beautiful Shuswap Lake just off the trans-Canada
highway west of Salmon Arm. Normally, the population swells during the summer
months, attracted by the exquisite beaches and holiday resorts … this year, it
was the lake that swelled and the beaches all but disappeared.
However, none of this
appeared to 'dampen' the spirits of the Shuswap Lake Festival of the Arts
Society, the group of dedicated and hard-working volunteers and artists who put
on this annual event. In 1984, John Edgar Patterson and a group of local
artists formed the Society and part of its mandate was, and is, to promote
public awareness of the arts and artists in the Shuswap Lake area.
Three jurors were invited
to judge the artwork submissions: Glasgow School of Art graduate, Alan Wylie,
award-winning BC artist, Janice Robertson and me.
We come from different
backgrounds and work in different media: both Wylie and Robertson are painters
from Fort Langley and I am a fabric artist from Nelson.
Having visited both
Wylie's and Robertson's websites I was, initially, a little intimidated by the
calibre and talent of my esteemed colleagues but, after I met them both, I
realized we were going to be a great team.
We had one day to judge
219 pieces of work … everything from fine wood carving to glass beadwork …
professional painting to amateur photography. Out of these entries, we could
award up to 33 ribbons. It was both a daunting and exciting task as we moved
around the displays assessing the composition, presentation, creativity,
technique … etc of each and every piece.
After a brief and
restorative lunch break, we soon devised an efficient system, the result of
which allowed us to agree upon and assign 31 ribbons to our 'favourite' pieces.
All 31 selections had a minimum of two juror endorsements. It worked out well
and we were clearly on the same page with most of our choices.
Meantime, when I wasn't
teaching a workshop or judging art, I was enjoying the luxurious accommodation
I had been assigned, a two-bedroom suite at Ingrid's Bed & Breakfast in
Blind Bay. Owned and operated by Ingrid and Helmut Becker, the accommodation
was exquisite, my hosts were attentive and fastidious and I enjoyed a gourmet
three-course breakfast each morning.
Helmut Becker is also an
artist working mostly in plaster and clay and has been a ribbon winner at the
Shuswap Arts Festival several times over the years. A number of his
three-dimensional pieces were displayed in my suite and each morning was like
waking up in an art gallery.
Despite the flooding, a
disabled ferry and some intense heat, this was a marvelous experience, made all
the richer by the generous and delightful people I met. Thank you Sorrento!
I'll be back.
