Banana power kicked off the Feb. 27 Artesia coffeehouse at the Sunshine Coast Arts Centre in Sechelt.
Roberts Creek artist Anna Banana was presented with the Gillian Lowndes Award, — an honour given annually to an active artist demonstrating long-standing achievements, innovation and recent growth.
As a performance artist, conceptual artist and organizer of events, Banana has enjoyed a 45-year career in the arts, carried out a successful Banana Olympics and compiled the Encyclopedia Bananica. Her stamp art is renowned internationally.
The artist spoke to the coffeehouse audience about her forthcoming show in Victoria in September, inviting the public to attend. The show, 45 Years of Fooling Around with A. Banana, is a retrospective, showing in both the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria (AGGV) and the artist-run Open Space. Each exhibit will have interactive components; AGGV will host a Celebration of Mail Art, with an invitation going to some 200-plus mail-artists to create works on this theme. Gallery visitors will be invited to join the correspondence during workshops that Banana will be giving.
At Open Space, Regifting of the Bananas will display the more than 700 banana items (toys, kitchen gadgets, jewellery, clothing, etc.) that have been sent to her over the years. Gallery visitors will be invited to become new owners/custodians of the articles on display, for the price of completing a catalogue form describing the item.
Artist and award winner Elaine Seepish began painting just six years ago, after taking a workshop from Isobel Gibson during the Sechelt Arts Festival. It grew from there, she told Coast Reporter, and she now paints every day and is currently showing work at both the Gibsons and Sechelt libraries.
Seepish was the recipient of the Anne and Philip Klein Award that recognizes a visual artist pursuing an artistic passion developed late in life.
“I’d like to thank the Academy…” Seepish quipped as she received the award from the Arts Council’s Katherine Johnston.
The monthly Artesia coffeehouse that started in October 2003 was also in a retrospective mood. Steve Schwabl who performed in the early days of the coffeehouse returned to the stage with his guitarist buddy, Hacksaw, to sing and joke with the audience. John Marian who performed at one of the first ever acts for the Cellar coffeehouse, as it was then called, also returned Friday evening to sing in a Dylanesque voice and offer his unique perspective on life, aging and being alone.
