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Light falling on landscapes

Mirror Mirror exhibit showcases eight Reframe artists delving into physical and subconscious

By Nicole Fitzgerald

What: Mirror Mirror opening reception

When: Sunday, Oct. 1, 6-9 p.m.

Where: MY Millennium Place

Admission: Free

Mirror Mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?

Art aficionados can reflect on their decision at the new Mirror Mirror exhibit showcasing the work of eight Reframe female artists who stretch their creative imaginings over photography, painting and printmaking at MY Millennium Place for the month of October.

While the famous line from the evil queen staring into a magic mirror only suggests a fairytale, the eight women’s artworks will explore the duality a mirror holds: both the physical image as well as its mirrored interpretation.

A single topic of landscape was used as the jumping off point for all artists, resulting in a myriad of emotionally and personally engaging visuals; everything from a lone orchid to a forest escaping through a barn opening.

Photographer and Pemberton artist Grace Gordon-Collins, one of the eight exhibitors, couldn’t resist trying to capture the light glowing on a freshly whitewashed Pemberton barn. Rich green evergreens popped out from the glowing white walls providing a makeshift frame.

Gordon-Collins was fascinated by Sir Isaac Newton’s theory of light being the equivalent of creative essence and how the brain filters a ray composed of multiple colours into a single uniform white.

This venture into a barn and prism of light resulted in Gordon-Collins’s White Light photograph series, which explores the subconscious — in this instance, how it interprets light.

“I liked the intellectual play of breaking down the light ray,” Gordon-Collins said. “You see it as white even though it is made of every colour there is.”

Gordon-Collins and her fellow artists formed the Reframe group, a network of like-minded artists who met during their studies at the Emily Carr Institute.

“We liked working together,” she said of the group. “We graduated two years ago, and really missed that exchange between artists we had at school. Once you get out of school, you start to work in a vacuum, which is not conducive to the creative process. So we started putting together shows — carrying on that academic wonderfulness we all felt there, but left behind after graduation. This group has allowed us to continue to grow and be more and more creative as a group.”

The group of Gordon-Collins, Joan Collins, Wendi Copeland, Leslie Disler, Celia Pickles, Jennifer Whittlesey, Corrinne Wolcoski and Valerie York have previously exhibited works at the Queen Elizabeth Gallery, YoYo Gallery and Concourse Gallery at Emily Carr.

To preview Reframe works, visit www.reframe.ca .

Meet Reframe artists at the Mirror Mirror artist reception Sunday, Oct. 1 from 6 to 9 p.m. at MY Millennium Place. Admission is free.