One More Saturday Night

Ooh-la! We had ourselves a time at the Two Waters Spring Fling, down in Vaughn Saturday night! I’ve watched this event grow every year and number six really drew a crowd. Here’s to the artists, the organizers, the volunteers and all the wonderful folks who came out to support Two Waters Arts Alliance.

As we came in the side door, my eyes immediately focused on a family portrait across the room. Not only was it a stunning charcoal creation, the people featured are also very dear to me. You see, I had the honour of officiating the wedding ceremony of Chuck West (a District 16 Fire Chief) and his beautiful wife, Sharon.

Artist Chris Bronstad http://www.chrisbronstad.com/ has given us the graceful lines and subtle shading of life in progress. Anyone planning a family portrait would do well to consider this elegantly understated medium. I made it a point to find him, after we finished playing, and shake his talented hand. He allowed me to show you this photograph of his work, a charming, humble man.

Here is “Chuck, Sharon and Lilly” by Chris Bronstad. I was sorry they were unable to attend and send them a kiss.

Tweed Myer’s work is often painted kinetic colour, which I adore. If you’ve been down to The Swiss, you’ve seen Tweed’s work on the walls; she often paints bands as they perform. This year the piece that really spoke to me was her pen-and-ink drawing called “Shaman Sunflower,” with visible speed in the strokes, catching the elusive spirit of the plant. Again, with such simple lines, space defines the form…and space allows a conversation with the creation. http://www.tweedmeyer.com/

I turned the corner and fell in love once more, this time in vibrant, tropical colour. Bev Pederson had painted two sea turtles, swimming across turquoise silk. Oh, if I had such a thing as “disposable income,” it would’ve disappeared faster than the time available to art-gaze between set-up and the cue to start the music!

On my way back to the stage, I had to stop just one more minute at Dale Goodvin’s close-up photo of a blood-red begonia. The edges blurred into a crimson mood, but the golden centre sharpened focus, to draw you into a possible world within the blossom.

Check out http://www.twowaters.org/ for wonderful Key Peninsula artists. Jazz Musette would like to thank them for the opportunity to “play when we work and work when we play,” as Frank Garratt so sweetly said in his introduction. We would also like to thank our faithful, fabulous audience. I’d like to give a special shout out to a wonderful man who gave me such a thrill when he told me that he reads our “In Your Neighbourhood” Blog. I believe he told me his name was Tim…though I can barely remember my own name at the end of a performance, so I might have to apologize for my Teflon-coated brain cells! Let me know in a comment.