Canadian Nice

Vancouver Island Stone Carving Symposium

By Renée Roberts

The people are nice, the shopkeepers are nice, friendly and warm with their greetings, the drivers are nice, even the highways are nice; prominently displaying “Prepare to stop” signs before major intersections, and polite thank you signs with reminders that “you may resume your speed” after construction zones.

I took my time travelling to Vancouver Island this fall for the Vancouver Island Stone Carving Symposium (VISS), taking the largest ferry I’ve ever set my sights on! Taking 300-350 vehicles with 3 restaurants and even a gift shop aboard!

On my way south from Nanaimo, I stopped in the town of Duncan for the Totem Pole Walking Tour. Several totems in town were carved by Tom & Doug Lafortune, so of course I had to text our buddy John Lafortune to find out if there was any relation. (No, but he’d noticed the names when he & his wife visited the town previously).

Next, I stopped at a well rated restaurant for lunch – the Urban Forest Bistro and was not disappointed with a piping hot chicken pesto panini. Then, onto Lake Cowichan… but not before I made another stop or two to pick up a few items like… my favorite maple cookies, a Coffee Crisp bar and some Salt Spring Cider (run by former NWSSA President Gerda Lattey).

After bumping along a very long gravel road, I arrived at the Lake Cowichan Education Centre. The first tent I came upon was Deborah Wilson’s Jade Tent! She then introduced me to Daniel Cline, who introduced me to several other participants from Kimberly Juda who lives just 20 minutes away to Terry Harlow all the way from Huston, Texas! John Fisher (aka Giovanni Pescatori on Facebook) was already at work hand carving a large marble piece of a sleeping child draped in a blanket holding a fuzzy teddy bear.

Sunday was primarily a set-up day, with a broad half circle of tents popping up against the tree line of the forest.  I was directed to a spot on the field and a room with a bed. After setting up my work station I wandered down a trail to the lake with a sandy beach, a fire pit, a swim dock and enjoyed the view of mountains, forest and water. Later that evening after a generous dinner, someone set up a contained propane fire and Sandy Cline shared stories of his introduction to his career in stone carving because a friend’s father was a prospector. This sparked his interest in geology and sculpture which has supported his family for over 52 years.

Day two begins with a hearty breakfast followed by the mandatory safety meeting, a stone splitting demo using feathers & wedges, then a tour of the tool room & perusing some stone, tools and equipment for sale.

Stone Splitting Tip: use a Bubble Level affixed on the back of the hammer drill to help keep your drill level & at the right angle.

VISS welcomed a gathering of participants from novice sculptor Maria from Esquimalt near Victoria, to Sandy Cline from Ontario who calculates he has carved over 6,000 sculptures in his 50+ history of sculpting. Sandy had several people gathered around carve soapstone loons or larger bear and Blue Jay forms ready for folks to start shaping.

Meals here are very generous and then some. It obvious the Scottish chef and kitchen staff take pride in their work. As we sat around the table after dinner discussing whether to have presentations of work, or walk down to the beach to catch the sunset, the kitchen staff let us know they had prepared pizzas for us to bake in the oven later if we felt a little peckish. After a few hours of animated chatting the pizza sounded like a fine idea and hit the spot before retiring for the evening.

Wednesday brought the sun… and Barbara Davidson! Barbara from Nanaimo was the first symposium director I worked with at Camp Brotherhood in 2012-2014. Lovely moments were spent catching up with her and partner Michael on mutual friends and reminiscing on Camp B and Pilgrim Firs symposia.

A few more participants joined us for the week. The afternoon was hot, so I took a few breaks to wander around the field and check out people’s progress on their work, chatting about stones, tools and design. Dinner was followed by John Fisher’s presentation and his philosophy of profile carving:

Always work the edge of your stone, keeping your line in front of you. A line is either right or wrong. If it needs changing, move a few degrees and cut another profile. With every strike it becomes obvious what stone needs to be removed.

On Thursday I got a little loony, shaping a soapstone loon from a precut form in Sandy Cline’s tent, I really like the blueish color of the soapstone sourced from Quebec. After lunch, Daniel demonstrated creating texture on stone with various tools from the bushing hammer, cross hatching with a tooth chisel, point chisel, gouges, etc.

In the evening Deborah Wilson shared images of her monumental to smaller scale works in Jade, granite and marble. I made a point of stopping by to see her Jade installation of “Lotus Unfolding” in Victoria in the courtyard of The Wade condominiums before leaving Vancouver Island on Sunday.

Friday – wait, how is it Friday already? I just got here! Symposium days fly by just as fast in Canada as they do in the states. I found space in Deborah’s Jade tent to start on some jade disks that I intend to make into earrings if I can manage to make them symmetrical. It’s a process!

 

Friday evening, brothers Sandy and Daniel Cline presented images of each of their works and photos of earlier events covering the 21 years of consecutive symposia here at Lake Cowichan and Thetis Island locations and the more recent rebirth of the event here after an 8 year hiatus.

They also discussed the Sculpture Splash show in April sponsored by the Vancouver Island Sculptor Guild in Esquimalt, BC. Sculptures of all different mediums are on display with workshops and presentations by artists.

Saturday brought the “Saturday Sampler”. Public visitors and friends are invited to attend for the day, learn about stone carving, visit with the artists as they work, or carve a soapstone loon. A couple of professional sand castle sculptors joined us, visiting with each of the other participants, stopping by everyone’s work tents to discuss tools, the variety of stone, and sand castle building for fun and profit!

Saturday evening was a fun auction night with competitive bids going for a large chunk of petrified wood, a lovely set of soft stone hand chisels, napped glass bases and a few lovely watercolors painted by John Fisher during the symposium.