Kim Naylor's Fishing Floats

                Photo by Kim Naylor

 

There is something about the ocean, which compels and fascinates. It is both loved and feared. It can be fierce and stormy but also serene, warm and inviting. It is a great mystery in itself. Throughout time, the oceans have given birth to many myths and legends. And after big storms, treasures are sometimes washed up onto the shore waiting to be discovered. I am not talking about pirate chests full of gold, but rather objects that fascinate beachcombers, artists and collectors; the hand blown glass fishing floats.

 

Collected for their beauty, history and journey, glass fishing floats are one of the rarest, most coveted beachcomb finds. They were first produced in Norway around 1840, in Japan around 1910 and were also intensively used throughout much of Europe, Russia and North America between 1940 and 1980. Ranging from 1.5 to 20 inches in diameter, the glass floats were used to buoy the vast webs of commercial fishing nets all over the Pacific Ocean. Although they have since been replaced by aluminum, plastic, or Styrofoam floats, most of the original ones remain stuck in a circular pattern in the ocean currents of the North Pacific and this is where they will remain until a storm sets them free and brings them to shore.

 

Handmade by a glassblower, recycled glass was typically used to make the vintage glass fishing floats. They characteristically have a plug or button of glass at the bottom to fill the hole left by the blowpipe used during the turning and blowing process of the glass. The fishing floats are usually round, but occasionally cylindrical floats shaped like rolling pins and dual floats were made. Most of them are shades of blue or sea-green, the color of recycled bottles; others are clear, amber, aquamarine, amethyst, blue, cranberry, purple, yellow and orange. The most prized are the red floats, as a small amount of gold in the glass was needed to create the colour, only rarely were they produced. When beachcombing, the beauty and the colours of these unique spheres truly stand out from the landscape when the sun shines through the glass as they hide above the tideline among the pieces of driftwood, the high grass or while tangled in shore-washed kelp. Finding one of these glowing treasures along the beach brings a sense of wonder to whoever finds them and this feeling is part of the fascination collectors and beachcombers have for them.

 

Growing up in a family of fishermen in Prince Rupert, on the north coast of British Columbia, artist Kim Naylor has always been attracted to the beauty and mystery of the glass fishing floats that embellished her grandparent’s house. It is then not surprising to see how this artist transforms the floats that fascinated her as a child into unique decorative floats, bowls, candleholders and jewellery pieces. Last week, I had the chance to interview Kim and asking her about the beginning of her artistic career; she told me: “Everything started one day, when my grandmother asked me if I could repair one of my grandfather's lavender floats. I used stained glass technique to put the pieces back together and give a new life to the broken float”.

 

 Working with genuine glass fishing floats found on a beach or plucked from the sea, Kim creates her unique art pieces by breaking the float in several pieces and putting them back together using a stain glass technique. This is done by applying a strip of foil to each piece and folding over the edges onto the front and back sides of the glass - this is called crimping.  After pressing and sealing the tape firmly against both sides of the glass, the pieces are soldered back together by heating an alloy composed of tin and lead. Kim then embellishes her sculpture with shells, stones or bull kelp, and a signature silver starfish is added to create a unique piece of art.

 

 Because the floats are so old and so rare, Kim reuses every piece, leaving nothing behind. The pieces of glass floats that were not used in one of her sculptures are tumbled in sand from Qualicum beach and water from the ocean. Consistently tumbling the glass pieces over a two weeks period until the sharp edges are smoothed and rounded will transform the discarded pieces of glass floats into beautiful sea glass, then worked into unique pieces of jewellery. Talking about her process, Kim shares how the accidental and the element of surprise plays a big part in her creations. “Because I break the glass floats with a hammer, I never know what I am going to get. I don’t have control over how the glass breaks, and this is part of what I like about it. The same thing happens when I put the pieces of glass in the tumbler, I have to wait and see how it all comes out. There are never two glass pieces that are the same and this makes this process all more beautiful.”

 

 Through her intervention of breaking, adding and subtracting elements from the glass fishing float, Kim strips the original object of its purpose and gives it a new life. Every creation is unique and inspired by the ocean as well as the artist’s personal experiences. As a self-taught artist, Kim took something that only started as a hobby and turned it into a beautiful artistic career. Initially focusing on her sculptural work, she didn’t make jewellery until the early 1990’s. Until then she saved all the discarded pieces of glass knowing one day, they would bring her the inspiration to create something unique. During our interview, Kim told me how she has a very supportive husband who, a few years ago, transformed their old garden shed, behind their house in Errington, into an art studio. “I wouldn’t have the freedom I do if I didn’t have this creative space he built for me; I am very grateful.”

 

 The name Keeping Afloat, that Kim works under, refers to how the islands of fishing nets are kept afloat on the surface of the ocean by the means of the glass fishing float she uses in her creations. After talking with the artist behind this name, I realized how it is also synonym of transformation and rebirth; the transformation of an empty space into a devoted one, the transformation of a hobby into an artistic career and finally, the transformation of a forgotten object into a memorable art piece.

 

 

To view available work visit our website:

https://www.reflectingspirit.ca/artists/kim-naylor

 

 

An Interview with surf artist Becky Luth

 

Reflecting Spirit Gallery has rencently had the pleasure of interviewing the talented surf artist Becky Luth about her work and  her artistic passion. “Most of her art is related to the ocean and has been inspired by her travels and experiences surfing, diving, snorkeling and exploring the beaches and tide pools.”

 

Meet Becky Luth!

 

Q:  Tell us about your background; where are you from; where do you currently live?

I grew up on a farm in rural Montana and as a little girl, dreamed of becoming a Marine Biologist.  At 17, I moved to San Diego, acquired a Marine Biology degree and made those dreams a reality.  Since then, my husband and I have traveled around the world and have lived in California, Papua New Guinea and Tanzania.  We currently live in the Okanagan region of BC.

 

Q:  When did you start painting and how did it become your career?

Growing up, I knew next to nothing about art, as my dreams were in the sciences, so I didn’t actually start to paint until after I was married.  My husband, Rick, is an artist and I used to watch him draw and paint.  One day he explained to me how to use colour and it opened up a newworld to me and I gave it a try…since then, I have not stopped painting and exploring the discovery that art is a science, and science is an art.

 

In 2012, art became the focus of my carreer . After living in Tanzania, where our oldest son was severely burned.  We had to make the decision to return to North America for his medical care.  This unforeseen move made a drastic change in my life and career as we were now inland, much too far away from the ocean for me to continue my life as a marine biologist and avid surfer.  This time of re-defining came through in my art and I began painting my first surf paintings of bold line and colours.  I also made the decision at that time to take ownership of my art and began to sign them as Beki and no longer RLLuth (Rebekah L. Luth) which was just a hiding behind my husband’s artistic talent who signed his work as RLuth. Signy, at Reflecting Spirit Gallery, was the first to take on my work and has been such an encouragement to me to keep pursuing!

 

Q: What inspires you the most?

My inspiration is largely from what is tangible in nature, especially the ocean, I am intrigued with the patterns and rhythms that often reflect and help us to understand patterns and rhythms in our own lives. But my fascination lies in the intangible, the hidden realms of our imaginations, our dreams, and our mysterious connection with an invisible Creator that created a visible world for us to explore and appreciate.

 

Q: How long have you been surfing for and where are your favourite surf spots?

I have been surfing off and on for almost 25 years.  Some of my favourite surf spots are in California; (Ventura County and San Diego), mainly because they are breaks that I surfed all the time and really got to know them.  The cold water surfing has been a change, but I have enjoyed surfing Cox Bay and North Chesterman in our times out to Vancouver Island. But in my years of surfing, Costa Rica tops them all.

 

Q: How would you compare surfing to art or art to surfing?

In surfing, my personal philosophy is, “if a wave presents itself, take it!” There is no harm in trying. What I love about surfing is every wave is different, and every break is different. Every time you surf a new break, you have to get to know it; the bottom topography, and how it is affected by the tides, the swell direction, and the winds.

 

Art to me has been like learning a new break, it has been a difficult learning curve and I have spent most of my time getting stuck in the impact zone pounded by wave after wave, often drowning in frustration and despair.  This process is humbling but strengthens the muscles and produces a perseverance and determination that keeps one going. The thrill and success however of riding a wave makes the hard work so rewarding.  Surfing and art are my favorite ways to explore and appreciate this visible world.

 

 

Q: What other artists are you influenced by?

My husband, Rick, has truly been my biggest influence, as well as my 4 artistic sons and their freedom of expression.  As for known artists, I really like the bold lines of Van Gogh, the abstract shapes of Lawren Harris and the way AJ Casson paints light. 

 

Q: Could you tell us about your artistic style and technique?

I can’t say I really have a particular style or technique yet as I am continually growing and changing, but I would have to say most of my work has bold shapes and colour. To me it is an expression of living the inner life out loud and I feel I am still in the ABC’s of this visual language, with small stories just beginning to form.

 

Q: What is your favourite project or art piece you have done?

I have a few stepping-stone pieces that I am pleased with such as: Portal to the Sea, Vancouver Island Surfing, Whale Balloons and Where the whales Play.  Usually they stem from a new opportunity or they go along with a breakthrough of huge frustration.  So many times I have wanted to quit and the times I have persevered, suddenly there it is.  (it’s a lot like learning how to surf actually!)

 

Q: How has your style changed over the years?

I began by painting impressionist landscapes in oil, and explored watercolours in various styles, but it was in teaching art to a Grade 1 class that really freed me into a more abstract style in acrylics. My style keeps changing with the opportunities that present themselves. A recent event, “Art Wars” that I participated in, (we had 20 minutes to complete a painting), really opened up and broke me out of my “attention to detail” style and I am excited to keep painting in this new found freedom!

 

Q: What are your future plans and goals?

Our lives have changed so much that it is difficult to make future plans and goals, but I do hope that one day I can be back by the ocean surfing and sharing my art.  With some of the latest, more imaginative pieces I have been doing, I would love to see them in a children’s hospital as a means of healing through this visual language.

 

 

 

 

For more of Becky's work: http://www.reflectingspirit.ca/artists/becky-luth

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A window into the Northwest First Nation Art and Culture

 Brian Bob holding one of his yellow cedar carving: "Dancing White Female Wolf In Moon Spirit"

Through his art, Brian Bob creates a window into the rich culture of his First Nation heritage. He sees art as an ongoing, living and breathing process, and a way of expressing his profound respect for the world we are part of. Brian whose traditional name Qwuyutsapool translates in English to “policer of the wolves”, was born and raised on Vancouver Island off the Canadian Pacific Coast. Inspired by the legacy of his ancestors, he studied the work of his elders to learn the traditional techniques to the art of carving and has been perfecting it for the past 40 years.

 

From Left to Right: Brown Eagle, Black Killer Whale, Yellow Cedar Eagle

 

Brian’s father, Wilson Bob, was the hereditary chief of the Snaw-naw-as, a Coast Salish First Nation on the East Coast of Vancouver Island. He was a strong artist, hunter, logger, fisherman and political activist; and always encouraged Brian to express his culture through art. For the Coast Salish peoples, red and yellow cedar, known as the “tree of life”, is the traditional choice of wood used for carvings, canoes, paddles, houses etc, and this choice of medium is reflected in Brian’s artwork. Brian’s mother, Fran Touchie from the Nuu-chah-nulth First Nation of Ucluelet, also supported Brian and gave him the necessary tools to inspire his creativity and encouraged his beginnings as an artist. The Nuu-chah-nulth First Nation from the West Coast of Vancouver Island practiced whaling from traditional dugout cedar canoes that were hand carved by master carvers, a skill passed on from generation to generation. Being influenced by both families, Brian carries through his art, the uniqueness of the two Pacific Northwest culture and traditions.

 

Before being the carver he is today, Brian was first a painter. Traditionally, creating your own tools was part of the Nuu-chah-nulth process of becoming an accomplish artist. Brian embraced this tradition by making the paintbrushes he would use to paint out of his own hair. His learning process also involved studying the animals he would portray in his artwork. Brian would study the animal’s habits, their expression of emotions and the ways he personally connects with each animal. “When I work on a carving, of an eagle for instance, I focus and change my energy on the spirit of the eagle. This energy always changes depending on the piece I am working on and depending on the animal I am representing in my artwork. Some people see this process as a form of meditation; I simply call it becoming. It allows me to work on my intuition, to grow as an artist and most of all to see how we are all connected into a bigger portrait.”

  Title: Salmon & Eggs

 

Driven by aesthetic values and influenced by his social, cultural and political background; Spirituality is what resonates the most intensely from Brian’s artwork. Transcending language barriers while sharing his spiritual beliefs and the beliefs of his ancestors is one of the most important aspects of his art. Through his carvings, Brian honours how everything in our world is composed of a same continuous energy or spirit and how everything is therefore interconnected. During our interview, he told me: “I was encouraged as a young artist to focus on the essence of the animal's spirit I am depicting in my artwork. To make a connection, to honour its role and its place in the cycle of life.” “Salmon and Eggs” [ See picture above], is a perfect example of how he visually honours and celebrates the Circular Way of Life through his art. This carving depicts a stained yellow cedar salmon featuring eagle heads carved along its upper body and carved salmon’s eggs with inlaid abalone shells along its lower body. Here, Brian tells the story of how Eagle's spirit lives within Salmon. The salmon gives itself as food to the eagle and gives up its own existence to support the eagle's life. By doing so, the spirit of the fish lives on and is therefore transformed into Eagle. The abalone shells decorating the fish’s belly, represents the eggs that will later grow into many mature salmons which will feed future eagles insuring that the cycle could begin again the following year.

 

When I asked him how he first started carving, he told me how his uncle, Tom Touchie, was a totem maker whose work reflects the Touchie family's connection to the Nuu-chah-nulth traditional territories and how Wallace Touchie, Brian’s grandfather, was a great canoe carver. “Everything my grandfather did, he did with the same creative energy in his life. That has been the biggest influence in my art and wanting to impress and honour them both, I followed their path and started carving.” Throughout the years, Brian developed his own distinctive style based on his personal intuition and desire to honour his Nuu-chah-nulth connection to his mother and his Snaw-naw-as relation to his father. Brian creates artwork collections of the animals representing the northwest coast of British Colombia to give a well-rounded presentation of the area and its culture. His iconography includes salmons, eagles, ravens, killer whales, hummingbirds, sea otters and these are only a few examples of the motifs that inhabit his artwork collections. Working mainly with locally sourced yellow cedar, one of the world’s finest type of wood, valued for its strength, extreme durability and outstanding beauty, he also works with white pine (also known as sugar pine), for its straight grain and uniform texture and often embellishes his carvings with abalone shells and copper. 

  Title: Red Salmon II

 

His carvings demonstrate a fine balance of traditional and contemporary art form and the talent of an artist who has master a unique style of woodworking. Traditionally, Northwestern woodcarvings were more abstract in style than Brian’s carvings. With his artwork, the animals represented are more easily recognizable as he embraces a more realistic iconography. All his work is hand carved on locally sourced wood, sanded and stained to add color or coated with a clear finish to protect the wood and enhance its beauty. His colour palette can go from a natural yellow cedar tone, to black, passing by red mahogany and some colourful blues. Brian explained to me how his colour palette is deeply connected to the different seasons. The reds and the blues are symbolic of spring and summer, while winter and fall are represented through an earth tone color schemes. For example, Brian represents the spring salmons in blue while the spawning salmons returning to their natal rivers are stained in vibrant a red, black or green. Brian also enjoys working with interference paint, an iridescent pigment that changes colour depending on the angle the artwork is viewed from. Traditional carving technique and subject matter are then brought together with a contemporary style and colour palette in Brian’s work to create a unique and personal view on the Northwest art.  

 

It is essential for Brian Bob to create works of art in an honouring way, to respect and honour the life we have been given and to demonstrate the significance of the concepts of “Oneness with the Creator” and “Oneness with all Life”.  His art practice is also a way of honouring and sharing his cultural heritage: “With my artwork I aim to create a window into the rich culture of my people. I like to honour the energy that my mother and the Ucluelet people passed on to me. And I would also like to mention how the Reflecting Spirit Gallery played an important role in honouring my cultural heritage and how it has always respected and encouraged the traditional teaching of our First Nations communities in a contemporary presentation.”

 

Title: Consumer - Ling Cod

http://www.reflectingspirit.ca/artists/brian-bob

 

 

 

Kris Walker’s Women Of The Sea