villagevibe Photo: Caitlin Croteau
Photos: Trish Richards
May 2008 : News and views from the heart of Fernwood
Pick and shovel gallery >> by Trish Richards
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n the evening of Tuesday, April 1st 2001Fernwood Rd was overflowing with an excited crowd of some 130 people who had come to celebrate the opening of Strongback’s Pick and Shovel Gallery. Long a dream of Strongback partners Adam Warrington and Rick Thomas, the gallery will provide an outlet for what Adam terms their “undermarketed friends who are such great artists.” As Adam says, “I’ve been encouraging anyone with skills and talent to build for outside. The work Strongback does is too nice to be decorated with plastic resins and lawn gnomes.” The Gallery’s opening exhibit featured works by Strongback regulars Ben Nolin, Robert Ives, Cecil Planedin, Delayne Corbet, and Jason Balaam and by Strongback friends Mike Butler, Birgit Piskor, and Kyla Hubbard. The eclectic exhibit ranged from a series of etched oil canvases, to recycled metal sculptures, to funky stained glass, to concrete birdbaths and exquisitely carved black slate tabletops.
As Adam tells it: “We are focusing on but not limited to stone/metal/wood and concrete. Robert is displaying his paintings in the Pick and Shovel gallery at this time – we also will be showing and stocking hand-cut wood block prints on shirts or anything else, all work by Cecil Planedin.” Much of the art is of recycled material. “All our black slate pieces, by Cecil, are taken from unwanted pool tables. The metal figures are the way Mike Butler relaxes on the weekend (he works as a welder full time).” Personally, what caught my eye was an exquisite heron, imaginatively crafted from recycled metal pieces that perched in the corner quietly observing the festivities. I admit I was sorely tempted to hijack it from the lucky Fernwoodian who I met on his way home to hang it from his rafters a few days after the opening. Okay, if I can’t have it, maybe we can arrange for something similar to grace Fernwood Square as part of the square revitalization initiative. Strongback’s final words on the opening: “We’d like to thank everyone who came out to show support. Special thanks to Gerald Hogrefe who
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Fernwood’s own gets M award
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ernwood NRG’s long-time staff member, Cornerstone Collective Records founder, and Cornerstone Café music coordinator, James Kasper, was recently awarded Monday Magazine’s prestigious M Award for the “Hardest Working Person in Local Music.” Congratulations James! To see more and hear his music head to www.geocities.com/ kasper1970.
Bike lab gets wheels >> by Caitlin Croteau
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irst thing in the morning at Vic High and most students are hunched over their books. Not the kids in Technology 10, Bike Mechanics. They’ve taken over the tennis courts and are out playing a rousing game of bike polo. It’s similar to the sport enjoyed by Prince Charles, except one rides a two-wheeled contraption rather than rides a four-legged one! Cheering on the students is their teacher, Mike Drew, as well as members of Victoria’s Bike Lab Society. The Bike Lab Society is the non-profit sector of Recyclistas Used Bike Collective. Their goal is to promote bike culture in young people by teaching them how to build, fix, and have fun with bikes. Students in Technology 10 strip bikes down and rebuild them again, learning all the names and functions of parts as they go. They also take part in fun activities like scavenger races and obstacle courses, as well as learning how to make bike art. As a bonus, they get to keep the bikes they’ve been working on once the class is finished. Kori Doty, one of the Bike Lab members, points out a student-built bike: tiny and coloured bright pink, its
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in this issue Banners rise in the neighbourhood Page 3 Feature: Fernwood: A Place to Be Page 4 Intrepid at the fringe of Fernwood Page 7