Dark comedy grew out of healing

Summer may have hit with a vengeance, but there’s no slowing down to a leisurely pace at the Fort Gallery.

The Fort Langley artists cooperative is currently hosting an exhibition by two local artist, and that’s on top of its monthly artists profile evening – dubbed First Thursday – happening tonight.

In fact, the gallery has found a way to blend the two. 

The First Thursday evening, happening July 2 from 7 to 9 p.m., will feature local actress Shelby Wyminga performing a short piece called Vicissitude.

Wyminga is an acting student at Trinity Western University.

“To me, the most important aspect of theatre is that it reveals truth, whether it is factual, easy, realisitic, pleasant or not,” she said. “I am particularly interested in theatre that explores how humans experience, interact with and deal with pain. This piece is a dark comedy that has grown out of some of my own experiences with the seemingly counterintuitive nature of true healing; that is, as one experiences healing, one appears more outwardly broken.”

In addition to her brief performance, the gallery night will also feature a talk by local artist Susan Falk and Elizabeth Anderson, whose show Visual Stories: From Cave Walls to Gallery Walls is on display at the Fort Gallery until July 12.

Falk, an internationally-renowned Langley artist, is joined by Anderson – an emerging local artist – in presenting this latest exhibition.

Visual stories through paintings can be traced back to when the caveman painted images from life on cave walls, Anderson said.

Today it’s much the same except the walls are now in a gallery.

And probably the circle remains the same: the story is told by the artist and it is not complete until someone connects personal experiences enriching the story beyond the artist’s own.

“We do not live in a vacuum,” Anderson said. “Our identity relates to our sense of place both the natural environment and man-made.”

Her piece, Be Still My Pounding Heart for We Are Not Alone, she said expresses the physical response she experienced when seeing the night sky outside of Hope.

“After dousing the campfire, I was surrounded by total darkness. The sky, however, was filled with millions of stars. It was overwhelming to extend my sense of place out into the vastness of space,” Anderson said.

In the meantime, Falk is showing some of the acrylic paintings from her successful solo show at Art Forum Jarfo in Kyoto, Japan portraying bears fishing or devouring their catch, as well as expressionistic portraits of sockeye salmon. 

Drawing on her environmental award-winning experience, Falk contemplated the wonder and magic of nature and sourced her images at the Adams River, a tributary of the mighty Fraser River in the British Columbia Interior – which hosts one of the largest salmon runs.

Their joint show opened in late June and runs Wednesdays through Sundays, 12 to 5 p.m. each day until July 12.

The gallery is located at 9048 Glover Rd. in Fort Langley. For information, people can call 604-888-7411or visit www.fortgallery.ca.