Author: Shannon Dooling

Painter. Writer. Thinker. Gabryel Harrison is an artist in the truest sense of the word. After spending nearly 18 years seeking solitude and quiet alongside the banks of the Fraser River in Southlands, she is ready to share that silence with those that wish to listen.

The old wharf had been home to a Japanese fishing fleet. Harrison transformed the building into a studio and an overall creative space. Canvases were arranged on the East facing wall in preparation for her upcoming show and a wood burning stove glowed bright orange, pulsing warmth and energy throughout the studio on a soggy Friday afternoon.

“I didn’t really want to be found,” admitted Harrison.

She said she had always felt that this space would be shared by many, but she had not always known exactly how. Growing to understand the importance of meditation in her creative process as well her every day life, Harrison began to wonder if others shared this “hunger for quiet and silence.” She decided to find out.

“I made the choice to make myself more visible,” said Harrison. She created a website with samples of her writings, paintings and outlining a creative workshop of sorts that she called, The Intuitive Path.

Harrison describes the series on her website as “a process and a practice to bring us into deeper relation with our own essential nature…mind, heart and hands explore these interrelations with brush, pen, spade, camera or clay.”

She now sees her studio as a space that she can offer to others, a space where they can begin their own journey into their own creative self. “I provide a container for that conversation to happen in,” she explained.

That container has produced a new collection of art for Harrison, blending her poetry with her painting. Her most recent collection contains pieces in which verses of her writing have been translated into braille and affixed onto canvases. A combination of gold leaf and oil paints massage the tablets and bring the words to life. In 2008, Harrison donated a similar gold leaf, braille piece that fetched $26,000 at a UNICEF Canada fundraiser.

Describing her motivation to get involved with UNICEF, Harrison said, “It’s what I can give back for the gift of being here.”

Gabryel Harrison’s upcoming exhibit opens November 4, 2010, at Winsor Gallery, 3025 Granville St. See the artist’s website at gabryel.com/index.html for details on upcoming series and shows.

It’s not every day that you come across a 22-year-old young man with a pet duck named Charlie stuffed tenderly under his sweatshirt. Then again, it’s not every day that you come across a young man like Jordan Maynard and a local farm like Southlands Heritage Farm.

General Manager and co-founder of the “magical oasis” that is Southlands Heritage Farm, Maynard is in his fourth year of studies at the University of British Columbia where he majors in Land and Food Systems. The Maynard family has lived and worked in Southlands for three generations and in July of 2009, they purchased the land at 6767 Balaclava St., combining a horse riding school, a therapeutic horse riding program and educational courses in urban farming. A new breed of farmers was born.

Maynard’s interest in farming first bore fruit in 2008 when he decided to clear land on his family’s acre to plant an orchard, some blueberries and some raspberries. Growing up on the fertile delta soil that composes Southlands, he was of course always aware that the area was a provincially protected Agricultural Land Reserve, where agriculture is recognized as the priority use and farming is encouraged.

As developers have continued buying plots of land in the hopes of someday being able to parcel off that land into sub-divisions, Maynard began to worry that they might one day get their wish of lifting the ALR status in Southlands. He set about to raise awareness of the importance of supporting local agriculture and when the plot of land on Balaclava Street went up for sale, Maynard and his parents seized the opportunity.

Maynard explained that he sees Southlands Heritage Farm as a learning facility, offering activities such as apple pressing, farm tours, pumpkin picking and a Young Farmers Summer Camp with a whole host of projects for kids. Having played a large role in helping to change the Vancouver bylaw that now enables residents to keep up to four backyard hens, it seems only right that Maynard’s farm also offer a course entitled, “Chickens 101: How to keep chickens in the city for complete beginners.”

According to Maynard, the courses and activities on the farm are designed to engage people of all ages and to make them start thinking and caring about where they are getting their food. “If people don’t understand the value of farming and eating locally,” said Maynard, “then why should they care about a farm in Delta that is going to be paved over into a highway?”

Though physically located in the upscale neighbourhood of Kerrisdale, Pacific Spirit Community Health Centre greets a much wider audience than might be seen strolling past the fine art stores, exclusive boutiques and five dollar lattes just two blocks away on West 41st Avenue.

“It’s not uncommon for us to see a homeless patient and a stably employed patient in the same day,” said Mark Haden, an addiction specialist and the supervisor of the addiction services program at Pacific Spirit. Haden explained that the health centre’s service area stretches from Oak Street to the University of British Columbia, resulting in a demographically diverse patient base with a wide range of health needs showing up at the Kerrisdale location.

Administered by Vancouver Coastal Health, the centre provides a variety of services at little or no cost to eligible patients in an attempt to address many health needs in one building. Informational leaflets, both in English and in some cases Mandarin, touching on everything from diabetes care to tips on how to quit smoking cover the walls of the waiting room.

According to Haden, all VCH community health centres offer addiction services that prescribe to a comprehensive, five tiered approach: prevention work with youth, counseling for families, individuals and couples, methadone, needle-exchange programs and at-home detox programs. Quoted in an article published on endprohibition.ca, Haden admitted that there were concerns amongst the community about the safety of the needle exchange program, but “that needle-exchange service has been in place for more than six years and I can honestly say that we have never had any of our fears materialize.”

While the needle-exchange program at Pacific Spirit is not highly used in comparison to the numbers at some of the other community health centres, Haden did say that figures vary anywhere from five exchanges a month to upwards of 30 exchanges.

Some might wonder just how far the walk from West 41st Avenue to 2110 West 43rd Ave. really is.

For more information on services and locations, visit Vancouver Coastal Health’s website at vch.ca.

Vivian Campbell, a local Musqueam Weaver, has had a long standing relationship with the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia, beginning when she was a teenager participating in the Native Youth Program and most recently as one of the featured artists at the museum’s first annual World Art Market.

WAM!, as the museum referred to the event, was conceived “in response to the growing demand for marketing opportunities for indigenous artists worldwide.” Vivian Campbell, a local Musqueam Weaver, was one such artist in attendance.

On Saturday, she and her loom were tucked back in the temperature controlled workspace of the Textile Research Room, offering demos and answering questions from visitors. Two samples of her work laid on the table in the center of the room. One of the wall hangings exhibited multiple styles and patterns of weaving in mostly neutral hues and the other, full of vibrant yellows and pinks, highlighted what Campbell referred to as her signature design style; symmetry.

“Every weaver has their own signature style,” Campbell said. She explained that a signature evolves along with skills over time.

Campbell’s lessons started back in 1997, when master weavers Debra and Robyn Sparrow began sharing with her the language of the loom. As featured in the 1986 book, Hands of our Ancestors: the revival of Salish weaving at Musqueam, the Sparrow sisters had embarked on a journey to renew the traditional art form. Campbell became a part of the movement and 13 years later, the language and the art of weaving passed down from her ancestors stills lives within her.

In a culture with modest amounts of written history, oral traditions and ancient art forms serve as windows to the past and bridges to the future. Campbell explained that her ancestors vicariously transfer information and messages thru weaving. “When I’m sitting at the loom,” she said, “those ancestors are right behind me.”

To learn more about upcoming events and exhibits go to the museum’s website at moa.ubc.ca/events/.