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A small room inside a bay window. A single bed, a table and chair, and a sink. I could manage something larger, with more conveniences, but I could never match the view.

A couple of days ago I purchased a used copy of a paperback book already in my possession. Unlike the one on my pile, this one had its cover attached. However, no sooner did I present the book to the cashier than it slid from its cover onto the counter between us.

Yesterday afternoon, with the skies grey and the wind wet, I read the essay entitled "Absence of Design in Nature -- The Prodigality of Nature and the Niggardliness of Man," which immediately brought to mind Poe's "The Domain of Arnheim" (1849). Here is the opening paragraph from "Absence":

In the parlour to which I have retired from the heat there is a chair and a table, and a picture on the wall: the chair was made for an object and a purpose, to sit in; the table for a purpose, to write on; the picture was painted for a purpose, to please the eye. But outside, in the meadow, in the hedge, on the hill, in the water; or, looking farther still, to the sun, the moon, and stars, I see no such chair, or table, or picture.

Jerry Pethick

Regina Hackett identifies herself as "the former art critic for the Seattle P-I," a newspaper that left her, not the other way around. Now she publishes her reviews similarly to how the P-I publishes today.

Here she weighs in on a 2010 Seattle Art Museum retrospective by the late-Hornby Island artist Jerry Pethick. Included in her review is an image of one of Pethick's greatest works, Wheelbarrow & Cabin (1987-1988), a hinge work that links the lens-based practices that have come to characterize Vancouver art (Ian Wallace, Jeff Wall, Stan Douglas and Vikky Alexander) with the sculptural montage/installation works of more recent artists, such as Brian Jungen (see below).

Hornby Potters

Wayne Ngan, whose ceramics have recently found their way into the collections of some of the world's best-known contemporary art dealers, might be Hornby Island's most sought after potter, but it is Heinz Laffin's plates, bowls and cups that we break bread over.

The Book of George

The Comox Valley Art Gallery's The Book of George: The Life and Art of George Sawchuk included a "Canada Day Potluck" at the home of Sawchuk and his long-time co-vivant, Pat Helps. The event included back porch readings by Elizabeth Bachinsky and Terry Glavin, with parenthetic remarks by the exhibition's guest curator, Grant Shilling.

In addition to Sawchuk's backyard forest sculpture garden, visitors were invited inside his studio/workshop.

The following day I paid a visit to the CVAG, where Shilling toured me through the exhibition, much of it taken up with Sawchuk's "portables"

but also photographs and drawings, some of which Shilling brought out from the back room. Like this one:

This weekend I will write my review of The Book of George for Canadian Art, which should be online  around the middle of the month.

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A Poem By Peter Culley

As mentioned in yesterday's post, Peter Culley is among the contributors to Jesse Birch's Black Diamond Dust exhibition. Culley is a South Wellington-based poet, photographer and blogger whose poem "Fruit Dots" is also the title of a book he published with Tsunami Editions in 1986.