On Wednesday July 21st at 7pm at Harbour House, Richard Meech will be on hand to introduce his just-released one-hour documentary. As part of his West coast tour (the film is also being screened in Gabriola and at the Okanagan Film Festival) the producer/director will also host a Q&A after the show.

“Just think: there is a humble jungle plant that has the ability to affect the consciousness of the one species that can determine the fate of all species – just when that need is greater than ever.”
– Richard Meech, Producer/Director “Vine of the Soul”

Can a sacred plant from the Amazon heal our minds and spirits? For centuries, indigenous people of South America have used ayahuasca, a psychoactive plant medicine, to cure all manner of psycho-spiritual ills.

Today, thousands of Westerners, seeking healing and spiritual awakening, attend ayahuasca ceremonies around the world to drink the vision-inducing tea and experience dramatic transformations in their lives.

“Vine of the Soul” is a documentary that explores this brave new world, offering insights into the nature of faith, mystical experience and self-healing through a heightened state of consciousness. Filmmaker Richard Meech follows key protagonists as they journey to Peru – and back home to Canada – capturing in verité style both the life-altering epiphanies and nights of terror encountered after drinking the sacred brew.

Throughout the film, in-depth interviews with Peruvian and Canadian shamans, ethnobotanist Dennis McKenna, addiction expert Dr. Gabor Maté and scholar Kenneth Tupper speak to the increasing use of ayahuasca outside the Amazon and the potential benefits for Western medicine, personal spiritual growth and a new understanding of nature.

“In the mid 1990’s I started hearing about Westerners going to the Amazon to participate in traditional ayahuasca ceremonies,” recalls Meech in a recent interview. “These people were not the usual collection of anthropologists and enthobotanists doing fieldwork, but ordinary folks looking for emotional healing and spiritual awakening. And a few of them were apprenticing with the master shamans to lead their own ceremonies back home.

“I decided to meet some of the Westerners who drink ayahuasca and find out how it has affected their lives. I could never have anticipated nor imagined the emotional depths and spiritual journeys I would be privileged to witness.

“In learning about ayahuasca both through the filming process and my own ceremonial work, I have come to appreciate that there is a wide gulf in our popular understanding about the nature of healing. Living with a profoundly material worldview leaves very little, if any, space for what can be called the ‘spiritual’. Spirituality and healing? What does spirituality have to do with healing? A lot more than I had thought, it turns out. With ayahuasca one can have a direct connection with the divine or source of all creation, something one actually experiences, viscerally, in the depths of one’s own being. It can be healing on the most profound levels.

“How extraordinary then, at the turn of our twenty first century that we should be rediscovering the power of the sacred medicine, ayahuasca, that has been around for thousands of years. Perhaps it’s just a coincidence, a measure of good timing.”

Studio # 24 – Antonio Alonso Madrona Gallery

“My work is a constant exploration of form, in the pursuit of balance, harmony and natural elegance. My aim is to reveal the treasures hidden within the tree and I strive to discover the shape in them that is so alive that one never tires of looking at it.”

The Salt Spring Studio Tour offers a year round opportunity to meet local artists and artisans and experience the creativity that abounds on this wonderful island. Please follow the sheep signs and enjoy.

Studio #23 – StoneRidge Pottery and Flowers by Design

Beth has been an independent floral designer since1993. She studied fine arts  at the Vancouver School ofArt and textile design at the Banff School of Fine Arts and Northwest Handcraft House. She has participated in master classes with  respected European and North American floral designers.

Gary  has been a potter for 38 years. He is a master ofthe craft. After receiving a BA at UBC, he studied ceramicsat Northwest Handcraft House, and fine art at Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design. His work has been exhibitedand collected in Canada, the USA, Australia and Japan.

The Salt Spring Studio Tour offers a year round opportunity to meet local artists and artisans and experience the creativity that abounds on this wonderful island. Please follow the sheep signs and enjoy.

Saturday July 10 – 2:30 – 4:30

Marion Pape and Susan Wetmore saw this amazing performance in Duncan and have invited the troupe over to Salt Spring as a special celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the Canadian Voice of Women for Peace.
Guaranteed to amuse and inspire.

Not to forget there is the freshly baked and grown strawberry shortcake you shouldn’t miss!

Bring your family and friends-there’s lots of space!

Submitted by Marion Pape

Thursday July 8, 2010 -  Jeremy Fisher, Said The Whale, Hannah Georgas & Aidan Knight Present The Malahat Revue concert at Artspring- their first stop on a bicycle powered tour that winds its way throughout the islands and ends with a performance at the Vancouver Folk Fest.

Salt Spring audiences were wowed by Jeremy Fisher’s performance last year at Art Spring.

Hannah Georgas is currently considered “the hottest commodity in the Canadian indy music scene,” ( Chart Attack Magazine)

Knight and Said the Whale are both part of the Peak Performance Project Top 20 – and also well-respected in the indy music scene.

The tour was conceived by Jeremy Fisher who has toured across North America by bike three times and at 33, doesn’t own a car. Fisher endeavours to do as much as possible by bike. It’s with that ethic in mind that The Malahat Revue will hit the road on their bicycles, playing six shows from July 8-18. With only a single support vehicle to carry drums and larger gear, the musicians will carry more portable gear with them, and rack up over 500 kilometers as they pedal from gig to gig in a little more than a week.

With eight musicians together on stage, playing a selection of favourites from one another’s back catalogues, it will be an unpredictable atmosphere of spontaneity and experimentation. One thing is certain: The Malahat Revue will be the greatest show made up of four bands touring on two wheels that you’ll see all summer!

See the clip of their impromptu performance today in front of the CBC building in Vancouver, as they kicked off the tour.

Vancouver Sun Article: here.

Tickets are $21 at Artspring. 250-537-2102. Show is Thursday July 8th.

Friday July 2, 2010:  Salt Spring welcomes this great musical group from Calgary to Moby’s stage.

Los Morenos crosses numerous stylistic barriers, a mix of rumba, flamenco, jazz, funk and eastern sounds with an infectious dance beat, much to the delight of audiences everywhere. Their sound has been described as ‘Spanish erotica, laid on a bed of groove’.

With over 3000 shows to their resume, Los Morenos performance highlights include a private engagement for the Governor General of Canada, Junofest 2008, mainstage at the Edmonton Folk Festival, and opening for world music superstars Angelique Kidjo, Juan de Marcos Afro-Cuban All Stars, Cesaria Evora, Alpha Ya Ya Diallo, Third World and many more.

They are currently on tour across Canada.

www.myspace.com/losmorenosmusic

Studio #17 – Full Moon Jewellery

Stephanie Artz and Simon Rompre make unique, handcrafted jewellery in silver, gold, copper, and brass. They use lost wax casting, hand fabrication, fusion method, and other techniques, and incorporate natural gemstones (garnet, amber and amethyst among them) into many of their designs.

“We take inspiration from our majestic surroundings – seaand forest, shore and mountain – giving them form through our dustinctive use of combined metals often colored with various patinas.“

The Salt Spring Studio Tour offers a year round opportunity to meet local artists and artisans and experience the creativity that abounds on this wonderful island. Please follow the sheep signs and enjoy.

“Welcome to the 3rd Age – the world of the active retired – of the over 60’s – of the first wave of Baby Boomers. The age of exploring, trail-breaking and pioneering. Of shared insights, learning new skills and making a difference in our communities. Of tackling Ageism head on and carving out a new role for older people.”

This is the world of Salt Spring author, father, grandfather, activist and baby boomer Terry Oliver.

On June 16, Terry releases his second book in his third age trilogy, “Blue Eyed Boy.” We caught up with him to discuss his very interesting author viewpoint and what brought him here, to Salt Spring Island.

What is the concept behind Third Age World?

“We are an ageing population in almost every western country in the world. What does this mean for us as individuals and communities? The 3rd age world is the idea that when people reach the over sixty age – the active retirement age, they enter a new stage of life – a period of exploration, of contemplation, of investigation of the possibilities of this 3rd age of their lives when they are freeing themselves from the responsibilities of job, family, householding. Ageing has a different agenda and this is the time to find out what it means to each of us, based on our life experience,” he explains.

What inspired you to write these books?

“As a third ager myself, I wanted to explore these ideas and possibilities and so I loosely based the plots and characters on people who were in similar positions and how they might cope with this change in their lives. I also wanted to travel outside of a western culture to get a different – eastern perspective on how to live one’s life.”

The Blue-Eyed Boy follows the two main characters, Barney and Alice and their family from the first novel in the 3rd Age Trilogy, called In Hot Pursuit. As empty-nesters, they decide to go their separate ways, Barney to Asia, to the Far East in search of answers and insights, and Alice to a new relationship, a life in academe and her passion for the Roman period and its reflection in the values of the Georgian era and its architecture.

The story moves back and forth between them and the working out of new patterns in relationships, post-60.

Readers have been raving about the books since the first one came out in 2007.

“Read the book, be inspired. It made me think of using these special years exploring in a more creative way,“ writes a reader from the UK in a review about In Hot Pursuit on the Third Age website.

“This novel is a very enjoyable  read with lots of twists and turns that kept me turning the pages. Being a ‘third-ager’ myself, I understand the longing of the main character, Barney Roper, to find meaning at this late stage of his life.”

“I am a few years shy of becoming a 3rd ager. However, sharing the adventures of Alice and Barney through reading this book makes me take a more optimistic look toward aging. I look forward to many great personal adventures to come. You can’t help but admire the unrelenting nature of Barney Roper and his desire to experience all that life has to offer.
A good read!” Mary Pitchford from Brantford Ontario writes about The Blue Eyed Boy.

As for his own story – Terry was born in a small gold mining town in northern Ontario, and was educated in southern Ontario in and around Toronto. After university and teacher training, he moved to the UK to work in the theatre which he did off and on for over a decade. “I wanted to write and direct plays, not act in them. It took me a long time and two broken relationships to realize I was never going to earn enough to support a family so I returned to teaching and adult education.

It was only after I retired – entered my third age – that I took up novel writing. Prior to that I had always seen myself as a playwright. Since then I’ve divided my time between the UK and Canada – the west coast and now Salt Spring Island.”

Terry moved to Salt Spring a year ago.“I have been searching for a real community for a long time and this comes close to embodying much of what I wanted to be involved in for this period of my life.”

Terry Oliver will be featured on CFSI Radio on June 16th with Karen Hudson and will be discussing his new book release.

Follow Terry’s blog: The Third Age Chronicles. He welcomes comments and discussion on his posts. Visit his website to read book excerpts and for information about where to purchase his books in the UK and North America.

The last book in the the trilogy  ‘A Single Step’ – will be released this coming  fall/winter.

Salt Spring artists prepare for 2nd Annual Masterpiece Weekend

June 18-20th, 2010 – 24 artists with some diverse interests including yacht racing, Islamic mathematics, and Italian sustainable living, all share one passion: creating their ‘best work’ for Masterpiece Weekend.  Salt Spring’s premier art event boasts works by nationally and internationally renowned artists with eclectic backgrounds and sensibilities that attract art collectors from around the world.  This year each artist will create a piece specifically for the weekend, presenting never before seen works in the Bateman Gallery at ArtSpring, the Island Arts Centre.

Artist and gallery owner, Jill Louise Campbell has lived on Salt Spring for 20 years, a transplant from Montreal via Victoria, BC.   Campbell has also spent time in Italy where the landscape of a remote valley in southern Tuscany has inspired her latest art offering. “In my new work, I am drawn into the “joie de vivre” of simple times in tiny hamlets, strongly fragrant with earth supporting a way of life sustained over generations by families that still farm their same land. Food is celebrated in their markets and tables. Life on Salt Spring Island leans to the simple too. We walk in baby steps, nursing the idea of sustainable living. Our farms and farmers give me remembrances to this sweet life in Italy.”  Her new work titled, “Simple Life on a Tuscan Farm”, supports her dream of living in a peaceable world in step with a pace that gently nurtures a kind way of living.

Scottish by birth and a transplant to Canada, Ronald Smith has an affinity for the sea.  Smith has travelled extensively, sailed across the Pacific and raced yachts through BC waters.  The one time Coordinator of Fine Art for the BC Ministry of Education, has painted for 60 years using light, colour and space to guide his artistic preferences.  His new work titled, “Inter Tidal” came to him while looking out his window at the water view of Wallace Island, the Trincomali Channel and Galiano Island, all within sight of his art studio.

For artist Ronald T. Crawford, his work is inspired by a recent trip to Tofino, on BC’s west coast.  “My work called, ‘The Resistance to Freedom’ was inspired while watching the white suds fade into the sand and then furl back into the ocean.  The contrasting patterns remind me of movements I equate with fundamentalism and the movement of water, freedom.” Crawford is also inspired by the show’s theme.  “I love the idea of each artist creating a single piece representing their best work. Each new painting is an attempt to create my best work and to be involved with 23 other artists’ means each piece has to stand on its own.  This is a great opportunity for each of us.”

The “Masterpiece Weekend” is an event organized by the Salt Spring Fine Art Group.  The Fine Art Group is: Galleons Lap Gallery, Jill Louise Campbell Fine Art Gallery, Gallery 8, Martinus Studio-Gallery, Pegasus Gallery of Canadian Art, Steffich Fine Art, Stone Fish Gallery with sculptor Allan Crane, and sponsors, Hastings House Country House Hotel and ArtSpring, the Island Arts Centre.  For future updates please visit: www.saltspringfineart.com and to learn more about the Salt Spring’s art scene please visit: www.artloversgetaway.com

Front Page Banner Photo: Rejunvenation by Steven Friedman.

Friday May 28th at Artspring - The Academy Presents …Dance! with special guests Robbyn Scott, Sonia Langer, Oria Atkinson and GISS dancers  joining Salt Spring Arts Academy teachers and students for a special evening of dance performance at Artspring, 8pm.

Robbyn Scott performs her recent work DVOT with GISPA teacher Sonia Langer and Academy teacher Naomi Jason.  The choreography in ‘Dwellings, Vertebrae and Other Tales, D-VOT (PHASE 1)’ is sourced from our investigations into the movement impulses we experience from deeply stored memories and the sense of ‘being home in our bodies’. This work is the result of collaboration with artist, Stephanie Denz, and was funded in part by the Salt Spring Arts Council, BC Arts Council and Salt Spring Coffee Co.

Oria Atkinson, local dancer and aerial artist will enchant us with a piece choreographed to a haunting cello cover of Metallica’s “Nothing Else Matters”.

GISS dancers Samantha Brunt, Ruby Barnard, Hannah Bielert, Meghan Burgess,
Rowynn Butler, Kenya Ellis-Ireland, Alexa Matheson, Merrillee Rowse, Alex Wilson and Sanja Zundorf contribute two pieces for the performance.

Academy teachers Naomi Jason and Sue Newman will contribute solo pieces and Salt Spring Arts Academy dance students round out the evenings entertainment.

Academy teacher Lisa Hall, has created three special pieces for this show utilizing the skills of some very young but talented and dedicated ballet students.  Julianna Ackerman, Zoey Johnson and Abigail Tamobline are a trio of teddy bears, Madeline Woodley and Samara Sladen-Dew are two fairies performing a lovely duet.  Beginner Pointe students and intermediate ballet students will contribute two pieces.  Anna Haltrect’s Explorations in dance class will perform three pieces, choreographed by Sue Newman, Adam Vickers and Anna. Suzanne’s Tap students Dianne Lehmann and Sophie Rouger will wow us with some rockin tap to Stevie Ray Vaughn. Adam Vickers Intermediate hip hop students will rock the show with two pieces choreographed by Adam.  Intermediate hip hop student Deena Whitcutt who will be the hip hop teacher next year for the Salt Spring Arts Academy will contribute a piece that she has worked on with fellow GISS student Hannah Bielert.

Show starts at 8pm May 28th at Artspring, tickets available at the box office.  $15 for adults and $10 for students/kids.  May 29th is the 2nd Annual Salt Spring Arts Academy student Dance Recital, at Artspring, show starts at 7pm, but with over 100 fulltime dance students, there are not too many tickets left.