Shavasana Gallery & Café December Hours

Posted on by Shavasana Art Gallery & Café

It’s been about three weeks since my last post and during that time I had my busiest weekend ever at the Gallery, BC was visited by the Atmospheric River Rain Disaster, and a new worrisome variant – “The Omicron” – has been discovered in South Africa which has WHO officials concerned.

Despite the pleasant distractions of a buzzing little Gallery Café it’s impossible to ignore the ongoing stresses of the pandemic and the plights of those affected by our regional disaster – my heart goes out to them all. I just spoke to my cousin Dona yesterday who has a small farm in Abbotsford and she and her family and her four horses had to evacuate to higher ground as their property was under 14 inches of water. Her 70 chickens seemed undisturbed by the chaos as their Coop was raised up above the flood, so they remained in place.

Just hours after learning of the new variant coming out of South Africa, I was walking along West Broadway in Kitsilano to go and pick up some Thai Takeout when I noticed this truck…”Omicron – A Better Way”

Of course, we’ll have to see what the new variant brings but until then, Shavasana Gallery & Café will be operating under existing pandemic guidelines for Gallery/Cafés’…masks are mandatory but Vaccine Passports are not, there is limited indoor seating (9 indoor seats at present with about 18 outdoor seats – weather permitting), and a hand-sanitizing station is available…here are our December hours:

Friday December 3rd, 10am-4pm, Saturday the 4th, 10am – 4pm, Sunday the 5th, 10:30am – 4pm, Monday the 6th, 10am – 4pm

I am also intending on opening mid month* as follows:

Monday December 13th, 12noon – 4pm, Tuesday the 14th 10am – 4pm, Wednesday the 15th, 10am – 4pm, and Thursday the 16th, 10am – 4pm (*this is a bit of an experiment as I’ve never been open weekdays before)

As many of you may be aware, I commute from Vancouver to Mayne Island to run Shavasana Gallery & Café. Over the years I’ve chosen to travel by public transit to the ferry and make my crossing as a Foot Passenger, rather than bringing my car, as it saves me thousands of dollars each year in travel expenses. I’ve come to appreciate Public Transit and find sitting on the bus to be relaxing and surprisingly quick, and I have to say that after all these years, I’ve never once considered assaulting a Bus Driver!😆

It seems strange that the Transit Authority has to remind people of this, or, it’s indicative of a much more dangerous job than most of us are aware of. I’m thinking of getting one for the Gallery, “Assaults on Curators will not be Tolerated”…

The featured image for this article is a carved icon we call “The Dancing Lady”…she has been on display at Shavasana Gallery on consignment with me for several years, and is being returned to the owner who “misses her”. The Dancing lady is a wonderfully intricate wooden carving by a member of the Oddar community in India…now I will miss her

Shavasana Gallery & Café – Fall/Winter Hours

Posted on by Shavasana Art Gallery & Café

As I write this, I am sitting at my desk in Kitsilano. The sun is out and there’s not a cloud in the sky, and my early morning guest – a crow which I have been trained to feed – is sitting on the ledge outside my window waiting for his (or her) daily pumpkin seeds.

Did you know that crows can control your thoughts and actions just by staring at you intently? 🙂

I have been somewhat negligent maintaining my Shavasana Gallery & Café website, my Clay and Bone website* ( www.clayandbone.com ), and completely AWOL with new episodes for my Podcast – The Accidental Curator** – ( https://www.theaccidentalcurator.ca/ ) which hit a brick wall in June as I prepared to re-open my Gallery/Café after a 21 month pandemic hiatus (if you are not familiar with Clay and Bone or The Accidental Curator please visit the websites…I’ll be adding new Episodes and updating Posts shortly)

There’s really no good excuse for not maintaining the Shavasana site because – as a business – my posts can be short, informative and to the point. Occasionally, I will have content for a story or an art show which takes more time and effort to write up, but in general, something like a change in my hours should be available quite promptly. My apologies, therefore, to anyone who follows this site for information about Shavasana Gallery activities, and before I go on much further here’s the situation regarding my Fall/Winter hours:

Fall/Winter Hours:

During this period – roughly October through March – I will not have regular weekly hours of operation as I do during my Spring/Summer Hours, however, my intention is to be open at least one weekend per month…usually coinciding with some kind of pertinent event/activity planned for the Mayne Island Community. As of this writing I plan on opening for the Mayne Island Studio Tour (of which I am a part)…and the hours for this will be Friday November 12th 10am -4pm, Saturday the 13th 10 – 4, and Sunday the 14th 10 – 4.

I also plan on being open in December for at least one or two of the weekend periods…dates yet to be determined. And beyond that in 2022? Stay tuned!👍

Here’s a little video I made of Shavasana Gallery on my last weekend in early October – as a momento of what had been my busiest summer in 8 years of business. I hit the ground running when I re-opened in mid-July and stayed busy throughout the season…it was hectic yet fabulous!🙏

This was my last day of Summer hours – October 3, 2021 -and I had a quiet moment to do a walkthrough to capture the Shavasana vibe, a little momento of a fabulous summer – despite the pandemic👍

(*, ** The other two sites are where I devote my energies to what I call “my creative process”, Clay and Bone is where I write up my Ceramic Mask-Making activity and also do a fair bit of short story creative writing. During the pandemic – when Shavasana Gallery & Café was closed – I created The Accidental Curator podcast as a place/project to do stories and interviews. When I recommence recording, the focus will be primarily on short story readings and a narrative that I am pondering/working on which will be a semi-fictional reverie.