A new exhibition at the Gibsons Public Art Gallery illuminates an intimate conversation across generations, anchored by a storied locale just kilometres away.
Deep Connections: Daughter, Father, Hopkins Landing opened on July 12, featuring mixed media works by Burnaby-based artist Tannis Hopkins and her father, Don Hopkins. Don, who died in 2012, was a grandson of Hopkins Landing founders George Henderson Hopkins and Isa (Ward) Hopkins.
Tannis’s extensive assemblage of works and archival images is framed by autobiographical narratives. On July 15, at a public reception hosted by the gallery, she explained that although she grew up in Montreal, she harbours a heartfelt connection to the beaches and homesteads of Hopkins Landing. Her parents lived there for more than two decades following Don’s retirement from the National Film Board.
“I really loved and admired my father’s work,” said Tannis, “and a dream of mine would have been the two of us having a joint show. As many of us do, as we lose key people in our lives, we start to wonder about our own origins, our own ancestry. And that led me to the thought that it would be a nice way to connect all of this.”
Tannis has shown her works in dozens of group exhibitions throughout B.C. and Mexico. Deep Connections is her first solo appearance on the Sunshine Coast.
The expansive collection of artworks samples the breadth of Don’s prodigious output in media from acrylics to sculpture, and complements it with Tannis’s equally-diverse forms of expression. In a blue-tinted watercolour evocative of 19th-century Japonisme, she depicts the courtship of her grandparents atop the local landmark of Soames Hill. Her deft ink sketches depict the carefree spirit of the annual West Howe Sound Regatta. A reverential portrait in oils of Landing founders G.H. and Isa Hopkins is enveloped in a summary history rendered in roman type.
“The mythos [of Hopkins Landing and its surroundings] already exists and I’m just bringing it to light,” Tannis said, “so that people can appreciate even more the broader spectrum of looking into where we come from and our close relationships and their origins. In doing this as a way of honouring, I don’t think I have made it any bigger than it already is; I’m just presenting it in another way.”
The influence of Don, a self-taught artist, on his daughter Tannis, who began her professional career in art and design at the Ontario College of Arts and Concordia University, is evident in manifold ways. Respective self-portraits reveal stylistic parallels. Nearby, Don’s clay sculpture of Tannis’s childhood physiognomy — head bowed, hands clasped in referent reflection — reminds viewers of the many ways that fathers mould their daughters.
One of Tannis’s most poignant paintings depicts a spectral procession of her forebears walking the beach at Hopkins Landing. Driftwood logs reflect the sunlight. Saltwater-slicked stones gleam iridescent. The figures’ faces show strength and contentment.
“I think that’s where my parents are, and will always be,” said Tannis. “That piece [titled They walk the beach] did not come easily. I extrapolate, and think they’re all there — not just my family, but many families who settled there and have been there just as long.”
A selection of artworks by Don Hopkins are available for sale with proceedings benefitting both the Gibsons Public Art Gallery and the Hopkins Landing Heritage Path Society. The latter group, formed in 2010 to protect a waterfront esplanade originally constructed by G.H. Hopkins, is raising funds to build a retaining wall that will shield the walkway from rising seas.
Deep Connections remains on display at the Gibsons Public Art Gallery until July 30.
