Michael Gurney interviews Author and Artist teams from the 5th Annual Art & Words Festival, at Gibsons Public Art Gallery, including:
Karen Webb, Artist & Paula Shadel
Marion Crook, Author & Michelle Nielsen, Artist
Margot Hallman, Artist & Peter Toews, Author
Serena J. Trinder, Artist & Rose Clarke, Artist & Author
M.J. Milne, Author & Doris Biddle, Artist
Catherine McNeil, Author and Musician & Stephen Murphy, Artist
Tag: GPAG
GPAG: Karen Webb Interviews Artists & Authors at Art & Words Festival
Karen Webb, Author, Artist, Actor, and Educator interviews Artist and Author teams of the 5th Annual Art & Words Festival at the Gibsons Public Art Gallery, including:
Elaine Seepish & Michael Healey
Robin Lamarche & Paddy Meade
David Kipling & Landyn Funk
Lynda Manson & Kathleen Vance
Joan Fletcher & Lorraine Gallant
Del Lobo & Sheri Peters
Jo Forrest & Michael Gurney
GPAG: Book Launch and Conversation
Join former Gibsons resident and Edmonton author Theresa Shea to celebrate the launch of her new novel, Dog Days of Planet Earth. Shea is the bestselling author of The Unfinished Child, and the Alberta Book Award and Guernica Prize winning novel The Shade Tree. Her new book weaves together major environmental and political issues of the mid- to late-20th century that remain urgent today, and asks what we’re willing to risk for our personal convictions in a world where powerful and unjust forces often oppose them. Animal lovers, earth lovers, justice lovers, and story lovers alike won’t want to miss this event. Open to the public.
Books will be available to purchase.
GPAG: Artist Talk with Janine Dunn
Join us with exhibiting artist Janine Dunn on Saturday, August 8th, 2pm – 3pm. Free and all are welcome to attend!
Illustrating symbolic dimensions of celebration, abundance, and scarcity, Janine Dunn’s exhibition we mark the seasons in love features landscapes and human figures appearing in nebulous pastoral space, with a felt sense of emotion and relationship between the characters. Janine Dunn is an artist and farmer living in Gibsons, BC, who shares stories of daily life on her farm and brings forward topics resonating within the current moment through her artistic practice. She draws on personal impressions of motherhood, animal husbandry, degradation and repair, shared labour and hospitality, and isolation and solitude. Working with industrial, agricultural, and domestic materials, she collaborates with the weather and elements to develop her canvases. Dunn has exhibited her work in solo and group exhibitions on the Sunshine Coast and throughout Vancouver, and was commissioned to create The Landing Eye, a permanent public art installation in Gibsons Landing.
GPAG: Artist Talk with Lisa Blackwell
Join us for an Artist Talk with Lisa Blackwell on Saturday, August 15th, 2pm – 3pm. Free to attend and all are welcome!
Informed and inspired by the practice of observing the living world and the forces of nature, Lisa Blackwell’s exhibition Earthly Emergence features handbuilt sculptures created from clay. Lisa Blackwell grew up in Sechelt, on the unceded territory of the shíshálh Nation, and is now living on the unceded territory of the Lekwungen people in Saanich BC. Considering an Indigenous perspective is integral to her work, as an act of decolonization and reciprocity. She was taught handbuilding by Sto:lo ceramics artist and cultural caretaker, Laura Wee Láy Láq, and has been working in clay for the past thirty years. Blackwell attended Alberta University of the Arts and in 2023 earned a BFA, Majoring in Ceramics with Distinction, and also won the Board of Governors Award for top ceramics student. She has taught, sold, and exhibited her pottery in California, Alberta, and British Columbia. At the heart of everything she makes is her growing understanding of ecology in all of its complexity.
Art Exhibition: GPAG – LISA BLACKWELL | Earthly Emergence
to Aug 18. Informed and inspired by the practice of observing the living world and the forces of nature, Lisa Blackwell’s exhibition Earthly Emergence features hand built sculptures created from clay. Blackwell views the biological imperative of growth and the mutual symbiotic relationships between flora, fauna, and fungi as sources of hopefulness and optimism; these primordial connections, represented by Blackwell’s biomorphic sculptures, have much to teach us about cooperation, altruism, and collaboration. An exhibition on display in the Main and Eve Smart Galleries July 23rd – August 18th.
Join us for the opening reception of this exhibition on Saturday, July 25th, 2pm – 4pm. All are welcome!
Art Exhibition: GPAG – JANINE DUNN | let us mark the seasons in love
to Aug 18. Illustrating symbolic dimensions of celebration, abundance, and scarcity, Janine Dunn’s exhibition we mark the seasons in love features landscapes and human figures appearing in nebulous pastoral space, with a felt sense of emotion and relationship between the characters. Looking at themes of Fasting and Feasting, ancient practices in many faiths, and at our modern condition of food insecurity, inflation, and nutritional deficit, Dunn uses paintings and monoprints to translate these themes into images of the modern agrarian. An exhibition on display in the Main and Eve Smart Galleries July 23rd – August 18th.
Join us for the Opening Reception on Saturday July 25th, 2pm – 4pm. All are welcome!
Art Exhibition: GPAG – GSINDLINGER | Untitled
to Aug 18. An offering of confrontation, emotion, and dialogue on the seemingly inherent conflicting aspects, both internal and external, of the human persona. gsindlinger’s exhibition Untitled features mixed media pieces reflecting a fundamental process of resolution; a centralized need to complete or validate a significant emotional, psychological, or perceptive experience by creating a physical facsimile. These works represent an honest and vulnerable expression of difficult subjects, some reflecting less desirable elements of humanity and the human experience. An exhibition in Joe’s Lounge on display July 23rd – August 18th, 2026.
Join us for the Opening Reception on Saturday July 25th, 2pm – 4pm. All are welcome!
GPAG: OPENING RECEPTION | Janine Dunn, Lisa Blackwell, gsindlinger
Join us for the Opening Reception of our newest exhibitions on Saturday, July 25th, 2pm – 4pm. All are welcome!
In the Main and Eve Smart Galleries, Janine Dunn’s exhibition let us mark the seasons in love features paintings illustrating the symbolic dimensions of celebration, abundance, and scarcity. Lisa Blackwell’s exhibition Earthly Emergence features ceramic sculptures informed and inspired by the practice of observing the living world and the forces of nature. In Joe’s Lounge, gsindlinger’s mixed media pieces are an offering of confrontation, emotion, and dialogue on the seemingly inherent conflicting aspects, both internal and external, of the human persona.
GPAG Members’ Exhibition | PRESENT TENSE 2026
to July 19th. Join us to celebrate the creativity of our community during Present Tense, our annual exhibition featuring the work of GPAG members in all different mediums and styles. Present Tense began with GPAG’s inception in 2003 and it’s still growing. Twenty-three years later we continue to invite all member artists, makers, and creatives to exhibit their work as a fundraiser for local artists and for GPAG. You will find works in all different mediums and styles, including paintings, drawings, prints, pottery, photography, textiles, sculpture, wood working, and much more. There is truly something for everyone! Plus, in Joe’s Lounge, find our Members’ Tiny Exhibition featuring artworks under 6in x 6in at a set price of $40 each!
Join us for the Opening Reception on Saturday, June 27th, 2pm – 4pm. All are welcome!
GPAG OPENING RECEPTION | Present Tense 2026
Join us for the Opening Reception of our Members’ Exhibition Present Tense! All are welcome to join us on Saturday June 27th, 2pm – 4pm, to celebrate the contributing artists.
Present Tense began with GPAG’s inception in 2003 and it’s still growing. Twenty-three years later we continue to invite all member artists, makers, and creatives to exhibit their work as a fundraiser for local artists and for GPAG. You will find works in all different mediums and styles, including paintings, drawings, prints, pottery, photography, textiles, sculpture, wood working, and much more. There is truly something for everyone!
GPAG: Book Binding 101
Learn to bind your own books for journals, chapbooks, or art books with Stephen Murphy at the Art & Words Festival, Sunday, August 23, 10:30 to Noon.
Learn the essentials of bookbinding including: papergrain and folding, sewing, and forming signatures to create a basic pamphlet book suitable for journaling or art projects.
GPAG: Photography Composition Workshop for Every Sort
A Hands-On Workshop – No experience necessary. Bring a lunch or buy one.
With Michael Healey
When registering for this workshop send in a photo you’d like to discuss from the POV of composition. In class, tell us about the image and what attracted you to take the photograph.
Before the workshop look through the “Elements of Composition” online. Search “StudioBinder the Elements of Composition”, download the free guide to photographic composition. Or, learn as you go at the workshop.
At the workshop, we’ll go though composition guidelines using photos by famous photographers too illustrate guidelines, analyse, and critique the photos.
GPAG: Kinfolk & Coastal Creatures | Dungeons & Dragons at GPAG
Take part in a collaborative storytelling experience in this Dungeons & Dragons one-shot adventure inspired by kin-between: monsters/beasts/relations and the natural world of the Pacific Northwest Coast with Sarah Ellis Fox and Matt Klassen of D&D comedy podcast Adventure.exe.
Join a party of adventurers as they venture into a mysterious, ancient forest. Form bonds with the spirits of the forest and vanquish the real monsters who seek to harm the relationship between the (super) natural world and the people who rely on it. No D&D experience or supplies are needed, and players of all experience levels are welcome. Character sheets, dice and snacks will be provided.
Find more information and register online. Limited to six people – register soon!
GPAG: Monsters: As Relation + In Relation | Online Talk with Ronnie Dean Harris
A look at the realm of Coastal and Interior Salish Transformer stories as a relational matrix of storied ecology rather than a collapsed box of morality lessons and mythology. Free, with registration required; a link to the event via Zoom will be sent to you after registration. Please note that this event takes place online only, on Thursday June 18th, 6pm – 8pm. Find more information and register online.
Ronnie Dean Harris is a Stō:lo/St’át’imc/Nlaka’pamux artist, researcher, and community leader based in New Westminster whose work bridges music, film, sound design, and Indigenous land-based storytelling. Ronnie’s research explores Indigenous history, cosmology, genealogy, and policy, informing his community-based projects and facilitation work.
GPAG: Artist Talk with Jeannette Sirois
Join us for an Artist Talk with Jeannette Sirois on Saturday, June 20th, 2pm – 3pm. Free to attend, no registration required. All are welcome!
Jeannette Sirois is a queer visual artist based on Salt Spring Island whose work focuses on representation, identity, and visibility. Sirois has exhibited her work in solo and group exhibitions across Vancouver Island and on the Lower Mainland. She holds a diploma in Design, a Bachelors of Fine Arts, and a Masters of Education in Visual Arts. Beyond her own individual artistic practice, Sirois also mentors visual arts students and collaborates with emerging artists and curators on exhibitions intended to foster dialogue and connection. At the Table | The Architecture of Control is a portrait-based exhibition highlighting the lived experiences, identities, and truths of 2SLGBTQIA+ individuals, and examining the structures and systems that have regulated and defined trans and queer lives.
GPAG: Art Exhibition – KIN-BETWEEN: MONSTERS/BEASTS/RELATIONS | Curated by Kamala Todd
to June 21st. A multi-media exhibition curated by Kamala Todd that opens space for the in-between, sharing expansive cosmologies that blur binaries, uphold radical kinship, and question the idea of what a monster truly is. With works expressing cultural knowledge and practices that are rooted in the interconnected world, featured artists include Senaqwila Wyss (Squamish Nation), Siobhan Joseph (Squamish Nation), Bracken Hanuse Corlett (Wuikinuxv and Klahoose Nations), Savanna Todd (Métis-Cree), and Candace Campo (Sechelt Nation). An exhibition on display in the Eve Smart Gallery May 28th – June 21st, 2026. Join us for the Opening Reception on Saturday May 30th, 2pm – 4pm. All are welcome!
GPAG: Art Exhibition: JEANNETTE SIROIS | At the Table | The Architecture of Control
to June 21st. At the Table | The Architecture of Control is a portrait-based exhibition highlighting the lived experiences, identities, and truths of 2SLGBTQIA+ individuals. Large scale hyperrealistic drawings offer complete transparency, with differing conceptions of identity, vulnerability, and strength put prominently on display. Jeannette Sirois invites viewers to step closer, engage deeply, and contemplate the importance of being seen. While each subject’s story is distinct, together they convey a shared truth, asserting that what 2SLGBTQIA+ individuals bring to the table is the same as anyone else; the right to exist authentically and without fear. In an era of increasing hostility toward 2SLGBTQ+ communities, this project provides a vital space for visibility, dialogue, and empathy, and encourages reflection on the systems that determine who is seen, heard, and valued. An exhibition on display in the Main Gallery May 28 – June 21. Join us for the Opening Reception on Saturday, May 30, 2pm – 4pm. All are welcome!