Serendipity at ‘A Creature Chronicle’
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Serendipity at ‘A Creature Chronicle’

“I’ll be sharing my video story at an event in Langley,” Amy Dyck told us at the end of our March local arts council critique session. Maybe I should go to be a familiar face in the crowd, I thought. When I studied the details of “A Creature Chronicle,” however, I realized that stumbling upon…

New Art Book
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New Art Book

The work of London, Ontario artist Rosemary Sloot has been featured in Christian Courier many times, and now her beautiful paintings have been gathered in a book entitled Immigrant: From the Postwar Netherlands to Canada in 21 Paintings. The images and objects presented in intricate detail come from the Sloot family album and attic but…

Doodling on Passports
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Doodling on Passports

For this duet-themed column, I invited my daughter Isla to sit down with me. We’re both dual Canadian-British citizens. We talked about an image from Isla’s art portfolio, about exploring identity through art and the complexities of choosing how we express our senses of belonging. Isla: My high school art project focuses on my identity…

A Thought
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A Thought

if you look at the end / of a day, / at geranium streaks of sky, / a shot of sun fading in a vertical beam, / herds of clouds that flock to the west

‘Can the Holy Spirit indwell a cyborg?’
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‘Can the Holy Spirit indwell a cyborg?’

Daily advances in science and engineering are making it possible to alter humans mentally and physically. Our technological advances are quickly outpacing our ethics. Betty Spackman, an installation artist currently residing in Langley, B.C., is drawn to the gaps between our philosophies, belief systems and technological abilities. We accept pacemakers and functional eyes, “the crumbs…

The Rules of Art?
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The Rules of Art?

I love a good question mark. It was a dismal, late winter morning when I saw the sign outside the Museum for an art exhibition called The Rules of Art? As it had been a very long time since I’d visited a gallery and I had some time to myself that morning, I stepped inside,…

A menagerie on canvas
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A menagerie on canvas

In his short essay “The Truth of Space,” the British critic and philosopher John Ruskin asked his readers to perform a minor experiment. He asked them to draw two dark shapes on a piece of paper. The further back you go, he explained, the more indistinguishable the shapes become from one another, but you still…

Introducing the winners of CC’s ‘Map and Mend’ Art & Poetry contest

Introducing the winners of CC’s ‘Map and Mend’ Art & Poetry contest

During our Fall 2021 Art and Poetry Contest, we were delighted to receive contest entries related to our “map and mend” theme from digital art to pencil crayon, from well-established artists to people trying blackout poetry for the first time! Scroll down to find the five contest winners and three honourable mentions. First place for…

Nitekirk
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Nitekirk

Picture a still, quiet, spacious church late in the evening. The chairs have been rearranged, making open spaces and clusters of seating. In the centre of the sanctuary, there is an arrangement of candles, their collected light drawing the eye. Some people are sitting quietly and others walk slowly through the space, stopping at an…

Painting time

Painting time

When I was a child, we owned an oil painting like something from the Old Testament. It hung darkly over the green chesterfield in the living room, its complicated gold frame both beautiful and worrisome. On days when I was home from school with a bad cold, I would lie on that chesterfield, looking up…

The closing scene
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The closing scene

On April 20, Redeemer University made an announcement with two parts: first, that students are now able to enroll in a new Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) degree. And, secondly, that its French and theatre arts departments would be discontinued due to low enrollment. The business degree is being accompanied by the creation of new…

Everything is Art
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Everything is Art

Every week, I ask our church community what’s helping them get through the pandemic. As a minister, the answers I receive sometimes smack of that old joke from Sunday school where every answer is “Jesus!” no matter what the kids might first think. And, honestly, that answer is correct. For every Christian (I hope), Jesus…