July 07, 2009 | Tips from Us >
Victoria, Art Galleries & Artists
Find more information about Victoria - Art Galleries & Artists
I guess it must be living in one of the most breathtaking places in the world that allows our province's artists to create some absolutely incredible art. It seems that everywhere I visit in the province, one of the activities that occupies a great deal of my time is poking around at pottery or glass studios & art galleries, watching artists create masterpieces on street corners, carvers transform hunks of rough wood into intricate pieces...you get the picture. I can't always purchase the art I see on my travels but I have over the years managed to treat myself and now I have the odd bit on my 'travel wall' or on my bookshelf to remind me how fortunate I am to live here. But sometimes I can't buy direct from the artist in the community where I see them and that is why I delighted in stumbling across Side Street Studio in Victoria, a great art gallery that showcases all sorts of BC art... from glass and wood, pottery and jewellery and more. It is well worth a visit next time you are in Victoria...especially if, like me, you failed to pick up the dream piece you saw created while you were out exploring BC.
July 03, 2009 | Tips from Travellers >
Victoria, Art Galleries & Artists
Find more information about Victoria - Art Galleries & Artists
JIM ETZKORN
Potter, Jim Etzkorn, has received numerous accolades and awards, taught and presented to groups around the world, and designed the dinner service for the G8 Summit in 2003, but his day-to-day motivation comes from the hope that his work will find a place in the regular lives and hearts of families for generations.
Etzkorn, who lives and works in Prince George, BC, said it is the chance that his work might become a treasured family heirloom that most inspires him to continue what he started 30 years ago. 
“Like the exercises you might do leading up to a big race, the day-to-day stuff sustains me,” he said. “The contact with humanity is my affirmation. It’s not technological, it’s very personal, and it keeps me grounded.”
It was a connection with the pots of Asian history that inspired a style that he describes as “functional and decorative, utilizing traditional and contemporary forms, techniques and ideas”. Hypothesizing that he “might have been Asian in another life”, Etzkorn said he has always been drawn to the big, swelling shapes of Oriental antiquities and the primal spirit that seems to emit from them. 
He draws further inspiration from other artists, nature, and the Asian concept of wabi-sabi– a Japanese world view or aesthetic centered on embracing transitions over results. For Etzkorn, the transitions involved in making a piece of pottery-each piece is handled 15 or 16 times-can be as satisfying as the piece itself.
“The process is long and there are no immediate rewards,” Etzkorn said. “But when I’m working, I am totally in the present-it’s like time stands still. That something beautiful can start as a lump of mud, is still amazing to me.” 
Jim Etzkorn’s work can be found at Side Street Studio in Victoria.