We offer local Arts & Crafts in a warm and inviting atmosphere. Sit and enjoy a delicious cup of coffee or tea and nibble on a home-made cookie or locally made pastry
It’s a rainy Friday afternoon and I’m sitting having a coffee at the Starbucks at the corner of 49th and Fraser. I like this Bucks for its international clientele, perhaps one of the most ethnically diverse areas of town. Although I’ve lived all over Vancouver, I have a fondness for this area as I spent the first 8 years of my childhood just a kilometre from here.
From the Brilliant mind of Bill Maylone – Maelstrom – available at the Gallery until 2020, for only $795
Just gearing up for my final days of operation before I close for the season on the 16th. This next period of opening is atypical for me as I’m planning on being open Weekdays rather than on a weekend – we’ll see how this experiment plays out, here are my upcoming hours of operation:
Monday December 13, noon til 4pm, Tuesday December 14, 9am til 4pm, Wednesday December 15, 9am til 4pm and Thursday December 16 9am til 4pm
“Somewhere Nearby Soon” Framed Acrylic, a Bathgate original , at the Gallery only $225
And, there’s still time to drop in and enjoy some of the lovely collage work that Famous Empty Sky has produced during the pandemic, “In Isolation Series” with a couple of new pieces added since last week!
These are also the last few days to pop in and grab a coffee and a delicious Christmas Baked Good – lovingly crafted by MJ Tiller…here are some of her creations:
The featured image for this post (above) was made by island (and National) artist Cedar Christie, who sadly passed away last year. It is on loan to the Gallery until her estate sorts out its final destination. If you are interested in purchasing this piece by Cedar, let me know and I’ll make inquiries with her executor.
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
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.
As I’m sure most of you would agree, the last year-and-a-half has been…strange. It’s hard to attach one word to our collective experience since early 2020…strange for some, challenging & tragic for others, a CERB/CRB fuelled holiday for yet others. Despite our individual and unique experiences though, for most, it has not been “Business as Usual”.
After a very busy season in 2019, and feeling a little sense of burnout, I closed in October of that year with a mind to taking a 6 month break before re-opening in the Spring of 2020. My intention was to spend more time with my partner Cathy, maybe take a winter vacation to Mexico, and use Shavasana Gallery as my “Getaway Studio”… a place to just go and chill…work on a few creative projects, and visit some of the lovely friends I’ve made on Mayne Island.
Obviously, it didn’t quite turn out as planned. I’m almost shocked to realize that I have now been closed for 21 months. Regional travel restrictions (between health districts) have just been lifted, and I am in the process of gearing up to re-open.
It’s like starting a brand new business – and I know I’m not alone in this. Sunny Mayne Bakery, The Groove (Das Nest), Tru-Value Foods, Mayne Island Books, Dragonfly Gallery, The SeaCuterie – and others – have all changed hands or are new businesses which started up during the pandemic. I’m looking forward to getting acquainted with them all as I re-integrate into MI culture.
Long story short (as I get ready to load up my van for a trip to Tsawassen, The Salish Raven & Mayne Island )I am planning on re-opening my little Gallery Café Studio Thing at 9:00 sharp on Thursday July 15…the coffee will be hot & fresh, cookies & squares will be yummy (now being supplied by MJ Tiller, as my good friend & baker Astrid moved to Ontario in 2020)and the Arts & Crafts will be available for purchase.
Please come by and say Hi – I look forward to seeing you! 🙂
* Special thanks to friend and artist Mary Jack for the lovely pen & watercolour sketch of Shavasana Gallery 😊 ❤️
Like most of you (I imagine) I have spent a good part of the last 14 months of this pandemic in anticipation of a “return to normalcy”, caught somewhere between hope for an end to masks and sanitizers and distancing, and disappointment when the finish line keeps getting moved farther down the field. As of this writing 50% of Canadian adults have received their vaccinations and this seems to be reflected in ever-diminishing numbers of cases and deaths. We seem to be heading in the right direction and for this reason I am more optimistic now about re-opening Shavasana Gallery & Café than I have been since March of 2020 when this ordeal began in earnest.
Most Mayne Islanders have received the first installment of their Pfizer/Moderna or AstraZenica shot and I received mine in late April. This provides some level of confidence as we slowly roll back the personal and collective restrictions that we have all been facing. I did come over to Mayne for 3 days this week – after a 2 month absence – for some much-needed (and essential )attention to the state of my business & surrounding grounds. It was 3 days of cleaning, organizing, mowing and weedwacking which really hadn’t been done since June of 2020. In some places the grass was up to my waist…and I’m not short.😆 On these very infrequent trips that I have made over the past 14 months, I always bring my own supplies and basically remain onsite to minimize my contact with others. I look forward to the day when this furtive and isolated behaviour is behind us.
Even 3 or 4 months ago my guesstimate for re-opening was May…but that’s obviously not happening. My sense now is that all of us will feel more comfortable to completely re-engage with the world when we have had our second shot and when the regional numbers show a significant decline. Although we were initially told that the second round of vaccinations might be 4 months away, I’ve heard rumours that additional shipments of vaccine may reduce that to 2 months…or roughly late June, early July.
So, all that being said, I’ve got my sights set on a possible July re-opening. Hopefully, immunity will come with Cafés being allowed, once again, to have inside seating, and the opportunity to finally ditch the masks & hand sanitizers. I’ll keep you posted with a further announcement as we approach that long-anticipated day🙏😷
I miss you all! Hope to see you in person soon🙏❤️
xo
George
(I don’t know who took this photo, but she/he sent it to my pal Jordy in Vancouver as I was having coffee with him because “she knew he knew me”…small world synchronicity 🙏)
I thought it was time to do a little “shout out” to friends of Shavasana Gallery & Café and anyone else who follows my website or Facebook link to let you all know what’s happening with our 2020 season, which was scheduled to begin in early April.
Wow…what a difference a few short weeks and months can make in all of our lives. First, I just want to send all of you some good wishes for personal well-being during this unprecedented time. The pandemic has been creeping up on us but now it has arrived and I’m sure that you and your loved ones, like me and mine, are doing their best to follow these new strict rules for self-isolation and social distancing that will – hopefully – keep us all safe.
A few photos from previous art shows we’ve had at the Gallery – from our non-socially distant recent past 🙂
With regards to Shavasana Gallery & Café, I am following Federal & Provincial guidelines as long as they remain in place, and am respecting the requests of full-time residents of Mayne Island that anyone with a second home – like myself – remain in place until this crisis has passed. With all of this being said – I really do not have a clear picture of when I will, safely, be able to re-open. As of this writing (April 4), May is looking more and more unlikely so I’m hoping for a June opening…if conditions allow 🙂
I’m missing Mayne and all the terrific friends I’ve made there over the last 7 years! I look forward to this storm blowing over so we can all return to some semblance of normalcy, and sit together over a cup of coffee, surrounded by beautiful & clever art. Til then…here are a few more photos from happier times. 🙂
Weekly jam sessions, Saturday meditation group and various events and visits…
The rewards of running a Gallery Café on a small island are not always financial…as I think about it, in my own case, they’re not financial at all, because I really don’t make a lot of money at this gig. What the Art Gallery Café may lack in remuneration though is more than compensated…well, mitigated perhaps…by a depth & breadth of experience that I have come to cherish…tolerate…endure…and fear.
Mostly it’s been good…fabulous actually…how can you not love it when friends and neighbours drop in with fresh baked scones and home-made preserves just out of a spirit of generosity. It’s a very giving community and I’ve been the happy recipient of so much largesse…food of all sorts: smoked salmon, various teas and coffees, baked goods of all kinds, numerous bouquets of flowers, award winning sunflowers, canned items from homegrown gardens, and perhaps one of my favourites, the friends who showed up with an entire ice-cream maker full of freshly made blackberry ice cream…God that was good, perhaps the best ice cream I’d ever dipped my spoon into.
And the fearful? Well, at the moment the bucket of ice cream scares me as I try and shed 20 pounds after my winter excesses. All kidding aside though…it’s people. When you run a retail operation, as I do, it’s a public space open to all, and you never know who is going to walk through the front door. I’ve been fortunate, I know, as I can safely say that 99%+ of those who have graced my Gallery with their presence have been kind, funny, happy, bright and engaging.
And the <1% ?…mostly a garden variety of quirky individuals whom we all encounter from time to time who trigger our awareness mechanism in a way that speaks of unpredictability. We know that our ability to communicate and understand might be challenged and may try our patience. But these individuals are – ultimately – harmless and wander off on their quixotic journeys. Then there are the in-your-face recovering drug addicts who generate wariness and, of course, the irritating drunks who wander in eliciting anger, wariness and thoughts of self defence…
….and then there’s Colin*. Colin was the “1 in a 1,000” deeply troubled individual who walked in one fine spring morning and stayed for a year and a half. I’m not going to go into detail but suffice it to say that Colin’s depth of personal pain had created a malevolence filled with hair-trigger anger, paranoia and threats of violence which I became privy to on an almost daily basis. His appearance, and my exposure to his toxicity made me seriously consider closing my shop…and then, one day, he was gone!
The experiences I have come to value the most (next to buckets of ice-cream) are those which feel unique and fresh and unlike anything I’ve previously encountered. Situations or events which arouse my sense of the absurd….friends who drop in by horse, performance artists appearing with giant puppets, phone calls to help move a giant pot-bellied pig to a Church Fair, a friend showing up with a truckful of retrievers, a hunter coming in with a bag full of bloody deer hooves for “my art”, and, one of my faves, an elderly friend dropping off her late husbands collection of retro leatherwork magazines which I’ve captured in this short video “Adventures in Leather”
The magazines went to a good home as I decided against a new career in leatherwork. The adventure – now in its sixth year – continues 🙂
*Colin is the name I have given to “He who shall remain nameless”…
Hard to believe that summer is behind us already! I’m writing this on the morning of September 27 – just preparing to wind down Shavasana Gallery & Café for the slower Fall & Winter months. We’ve had a very busy open season (which currently extends from May through October) with 4 great Art Shows exhibiting the creative talents of 6 local artists, (Deborah Strong, Famous Empty Sky & Angie Carson, Pam Carr, and Linda Dzus & Nicole Rittemann) and a steady stream of wonderful visitors. I love my job!
But, before we close for the season I wanted to remind islanders that Shavasana also carries a fabulous selection of crafts made by locals and off-islanders alike – incredibly talented artists in their own right who remain largely unheralded throughout the year. Although it may be a little early to start thinking of Christmas, the next two weekends will be your last chance to obtain arts & crafts at the Gallery before we close on October 6th.
We have beautiful jewellery & pendants from jewellers such as Cheryl Funk, Bill Maylone, Nekita Garcia, Hayley Rose Kershaw (Australia) & Laura Meza (Mexico)
Hand-Woven Rugs (Doreen Bennett) and gorgeous quilts (Genise Gill…now reduced from $150 to $95!)
Icons, artifacts, curios & carvings from India, Africa & the Northwest Territories (Innu)
From elegant & zen-like Suiseki rock displays (Bill Maylone) to functional hand-made dryer balls (Pam Carr)
And a great selection of cards (Famous Empty Sky, Deborah Strong, Toby Snelgrove, Stephan Cropper, Linda Dzus & Judie Hancock), photographic prints (Toby Snelgrove, Deborah Strong & Stephen Cropper) and sketches (Leonard Winchester)
We are also having a little Final Weekend closing celebration on Saturday October 5th between 3 and 5. There will be free coffee & yummy cake made by Famous Empty Sky, who will also be in attendance. Artist Angie Carson will also likely be here to participate in the fun – hope to see you there!
I’m just on the ferry heading to Tsawassen and have an hour, or so, to devote some words and attention to our new Art Show at Shavasana Gallery. Famous Empty Sky has returned to Shavasana for her third exhibit in as many years and she is sharing the stage with good friend and fellow artist, Angie Carson, who is back with her second show.
We had a fabulous opening on the evening of Friday September 6…the weather was cooperating, there was a great turnout of friends and art appreciators, Empty Sky had baked two delicious cakes & Angie brought a multitude of fruit & custard tarts. Guests were serenaded by the gentle guitar of Jim Heshedahl, and Rosalie Ripley even stepped in to contribute her beautiful voice to some of the arrangements.
And the Art! Empty Sky is a renowned Collage & MultiMedia artist and she has created a new series of pieces that reflect the title of the show “Images & Icons”. The majority of her new pieces are beautiful collages which include images of spiritual leaders from the various spiritual traditions – Buddha figures prominently; the Virgin of Guadalupe; Ganesh; Goddess of Mercy; Lohan and others. Her collages are vibrant and playful and draw the viewer in for deeper more reflective viewing. One young purchaser was moved to tears by her purchase! (she said that purchasing art has this effect on her as a very personal experience…perhaps it was the Blue Buddha effect!)…when asked how long it took her to produce a piece of art Empty Sky replied, “A lifetime”…so true.
Angie Carson never fails to amaze with her range of ability and talent. She is able to move comfortably between impressionistic landscapes (this piece is just gorgeous)
to expressionism, whimsy, cubist abstracts & collage (here are but a few examples):
Did I mention that she also won a Blue Ribbon at this year’s Fall Fair for growing the tallest Sunflower on Mayne Island? Her talents know no bounds! 🙂
(here is her prize entry being proudly displayed at Shavasana Gallery for public viewing)
I always like to do a walkthrough video of each new art exhibition at Shavasana Gallery when I find a quiet moment. A great way to participate in the beauty of Empty Sky’s and Angie’s art if you are unable to attend in person. The show runs until October 6 and is the last show of our season, so please drop in! – cheers!
We are just preparing for our final art exhibit of the season, Famous Empty Sky is returning to Shavasana Gallery with her friend Angie Carson (nee Liudzius) with a brand new show called, “Images and Icons”. I know that the artists have been busy creating new and exciting pieces for this show which is self-described as “quirky mixed media art”. I’m pleased to be welcoming F.E.S. back for her third exhibit at the Gallery which will also be Angie’s second show here. Although I’ve seen glimpses of Empty Sky’s colourful & thought-provoking new work, the talents of both women will arrive as a delightful surprise when we hang the new show next Thursday September the 5th.
We are having an opening reception on the evening of Friday September 6th between 6 and 8 pm. Please come by for a chance to meet the artists and to hear the Gentle Guitar of Jim Heshedahl. Refreshments and merriment will also be on hand – so don’t miss it! 🙂
Shavasana Gallery is located at 457 Village Bay Road, Mayne Island – Hope to see you there!
Art Gallery & Café 