Salt Spring Island...an arts based community!

Yes, Salt Spring Island is an arts based community.

There are two parts to the artistic equation, though...yes, the creator party is the pivotal ingredient, but the recipient of the work is also integral. This is the audience function...although I prefer the description "appreciator". There is a vibrant audience participator on Salt Spring, too.

I like the saying above Matt Steffich's Fine Art Gallery in Grace Point Square. Attributed to Picasso: "art washes the dust from our souls".

Two other summation descriptions caught my eye recently: "art is the illumination of the unnecessary" and "playing is art". Evocative, both.

Sometimes, words get in the way and maybe the word "art" has become this limiting wall.

It's a big concept, encompassing all creative expression, and that trite word "art" might have become too small to catch the essence of the creative expression.

On Salt Spring we have painters, potters, sculptors, fabric artists, collage creators, musicians, singers, composers, poets, novelists, film producers, essayists, actors, script writers, set designers, costume creators, woodworkers, chap book printers, publishers, paper makers, photographers...you see? An arts based community!

And where would you file the soap makers, the cheese makers, the organic farmers creating amazing produce & restoring heirloom orchards, & the vineyards & the olive producers?

A very thoughtful community, for sure! And, with a listener/appreciator of what is created!

Want the flavour?

Meander the galleries in Ganges Village (Gallery 8, Steffich Fine Art, Pegasus Gallery of Canadian Art, Salt Spring Gallery of Fine Art), check out ArtCraft at Mahon Hall, plus the galleries at ArtSpring, & don't overlook the coffee house art shows, displaying of new works en route to gallery inclusions: Cafe Talia, Barb's Bakery, TJ Beans, SS Roasting Company, Marketplace Cafe, Penny's Cafe. Plus: pick up a studio tour map from the Chamber's Tourist Centre & do that discovery of each artist's studio.

Wow!

Enjoy.