August 3 to 28 PORTAL/PORTAGE in Sechelt

PORTAL/PORTAGE meditative nature installations in Sechelt, Sunshine Coast BC, new work by Meg Torwl, Claudia Medina-Culos, Liliana Kleiner, Diane Tanchak

August 3 - 28, 2011, with the Sunshine Coast Arts Council,

Doris Crowston Gallery, 5714 Medusa St, Sechelt, BC, Canada.

Reception August 3 2011, 7pm to 9pm.

Hours: Wednesday - Saturday 11:00 am - 4:00 pm

Sunday 1:00 pm - 4:00 pm

Wheelchair accessible.

PORTAL/PORTAGE is a collaboration between four artists who are each currently exploring in our work, humans as part of nature. PORTAL/PORTAGE combines Meg Torwl’s work in photo based video installations; Claudia Medina-Culos video installations and sound-scapes; Liliana Kleiner video work drawing on her photography, painting, and mixed media work; and Diane Tanchak abstract-realist style paintings. Each artist explores the nuance of location and the universality of story, cycles of growth and decay while negotiating our bi-national, or tri-national cultural identities and/or art practices, in places we each understand as home. These are the stories we collect, create, and carry from LAN (Local Area Network – an internet term) to LAND, to LANGUAGE; or images as a language bypassing spoken language all together. The exhibition is designed to be experienced as a rest, an emptying of the mind, a walk in the woods, a swim in the ocean.

Each artist has based part of their work on the Sunshine Coast or Gulf Islands of BC. Meg Torwl’s works Going Coastal (7mins, 2010), TIARIKA (11 mins, 2008), and AQWAI (14 mins, 2006) cover Roberts Creek to Rarotonga. Alongside work by Liliana Kleiner, her LUMINOZA INANNA (5 mins, 2010) draws from Galiano Island to the Gulf of Mexico. Claudia Medina-Culos’ Powell River based work, On the Trail (33 mins, 2010) and Heron Study (3 mins, 2010) was completed as part of a Masters in Media from Barcelona. Diane Tanchak's paintings A Dream of Trees (3mins, 2011) range from the Okeover Inlet to New York.

Audiences can negotiate the exhibition by way of 4 TV/DVD stations, each screening a different artists work, and listen to the soundtrack music or audio through headphones. Alternately the complete 90 minutes of work is projected into the gallery with audio coming through gallery speakers.

For more information about PORTAL/PORTAGE, artist bios, photos and videos.

Great article about PORTAL/PORTAGE in the Sunshine Coast Reporter by arts reporter Jan DeGrass. 

PS: Read about the Opening or check out photos of the exhibition opening.

For Technical Support thanks to VIVO Media Arts Centre, Paul Clancy, EnMedia Productions. 

Reading at SFU Writing and Publishing Graduation 2011

I am humbled to have been chosen by my peers to to read at the SFU Writing and Publishing Graduation 2011. I will be representing The Writers Studio from the Poetry and Lyric Prose mentor group. Trish Webb from Fiction, and Karen Lee from Creative Non-Fiction will also be reading. 

There will be a presentation by Dr. Helen Wussow, Dean, Lifelong Learning Unit, SFU

Certificates will be awarded in Business Communication and Professional Writing; Editing; Publishing; Public Relations; Creative Writing; Technical Communications. 

Wednesday July 6 7pm SFU Harbour Centre.

June 22 Reading New Work at the Roundhouse

Hi Folks! I will be reading new poems at the Roundhouse Tuesday June 21 2011 7pm to 9pm with The Writers Caravan. See you there! This is a free event. Fellow The Writers Studio readers will be Yaana Dancer, Dhana Musil, and Rua Mercier. More details below. Spread the word ( :

'Thursdays Writing Collective is hosting an evening celebration and reading for the culmination of its pilot project: The Writers Caravan. The project was designed to foster creative contact between city writing groups that might not otherwise intersect, by writing together on common themes and reading together in local venues. Members of three Vancouver writing communities participated: UBC Law students, The Writer’s Studio 2011, and Write Club! Literary Mamas. The connections were electric! You are invited to join us from 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM on Tuesday June 21 at the Roundhouse, 81 Roundhouse Mews (Davie and Pacific).  Find The Writers Caravan on facebook and online at: Thursdayspoems.wordpress.com'

check out photos from the event here

Reading with the Writers Caravan April 15

I will be reading with the Writers Caravan, a collaboration between the Thursdays Collective and The Writers Studio.

Friday April 15 2011
Take 5 Cafe
7pm to 9.30pm
429 Granville St (at Hastings)
Vancouver
Wheelchair access is at the back on Hastings St (604 697 9090)

Co hosted by Elee Kraljii Gardiner of Thursdays Collective and  Fiona Scott of The Writers Studio Reading Series. Featuring writers from the lively Carnegie Centre based Thursdays Collective, and The Writers Studio. Including my compatriot Rua Mercier, and my fellow Poetry and Lyric Prose students Dhana Musil and Yaana Dancer.

I will read a prose poem '8 Doors to Happiness' loosely based on a Buddhist poem '8 Steps to happiness'. In my disability friendly version, a journey via transit reveals the interconnectedness of all beings.

The Writers Caravan will feature more collaborative readings and a publication later in the year.

Canadian Women Studies Journal: Women and Cancer

I have a piece published in the Spring/Summer 2010 Volume of Canadian Women Studies Journal: Women and Cancer; Volume 28, Numbers 2,3. Apart from my poetry chapbook,  (in) valid, this marks my first publication in an anthology in Canada. Yeehaa!

 The Canadian Women Studies Journal:  takes a critical look at women and cancer with scholarly and creative contributions on: Challenging Existing Paradigms; Intersectionalities and the Biopolitics of Cancer Care; Cultural Politics of Cancer; Witnessing: Personal Narratives of Illness, Agency and Care; Poetry; Book Reviews. 

My piece Cancer Comedy: Would You Like Hormones With That? is in the Witnessing: Personal Narratives of Illness, Agency and Care section. I ponder amongst other things the relative media hype of illnesses like cancer as opposed to other less 'glamorous' disabilities we might have.

With contributions from over 50 women the whole anthology looks like quite the interesting read.