Opens October 14!
Join us for the Artist Reception on
Saturday, October 17, 7-9pm
The invitation is to look up.
In The Moon Also Rises, seven island artists turn their attention toward our nearest celestial neighbour. Each artist offers a different way of seeing, experiencing and responding to the Moon. Across a multitude of media, including painting, printmaking, photography, sculpture, video and poetry, the exhibition shifts back and forth between the tangible and imaginal, the known and mysterious.
While the moon has provided us a consistent presence in the sky, it has also offered a powerful vessel for humans to make meaning of. Consistently inconstant, it marks time and generates tides. The moon illuminates dark nights, shines during the day and has long been associated with dreams, desire and psychological transformation. Simultaneously intimate and immense, the moon acts as a repository for the symbolic, whether playful or contemplative, and has always captured the imagination of humanity.
One moon. Seven artists. Seven perspectives.
What does the moon awaken in you?
Exhibition runs
October 14
thru November 7
public domain imagery courtesy of NASA
About the Artists:
Wendy Morosoff Smith
Wendy Morosoff Smith is a contemporary Canadian painter and printmaker whose work explores and reflects the spiritual aspect of the landscape. Blending abstraction and landscape symbolism with the study of light and space, Wendy creates meditations on place, time, the elements, memory and perception.
Wendy studied printmaking at the Santa Reparata Institute in Florence, Italy in 1990, and furthered her studies at the Emily Carr University in Vancouver. She lives in the Comox Valley on Vancouver Island, painting, printmaking, teaching workshops and mentoring other artists in her studio overlooking the Salish Sea.
For the past nine years, the full moon has been a central muse and source of inspiration for Wendy’s artistic practice. Drawn to its quiet presence and ever-changing relationship with light and darkness, she sees the moon
as both a physical presence in the landscape and a metaphor for transformation, renewal and the passage of time. Its cycles offer a reminder that nothing remains fixed: darkness gives way to light, absence becomes
presence, and what seems to disappear eventually rises again.
Paulette Bibeau
Paulette Bibeau is a visual artist whose creative journey spans the realms of movement, mindfulness, and fine art. Beginning her artistic career as a modern dancer and choreographer she performed professionally across the art scenes of Toronto and Vancouver, cultivating an intuitive understanding of form, rhythm, spatial awareness and discipline. Transitioning her mastery of movement into wellness, she later spent years teaching yoga and expressive movement as healing.
Today, based in Courtenay, Paulette channels her expressive energy into painting. After years of exploration she has landed in the realm of abstract realism finding delight in a style untethered by form where she can unleash her creativity. Her choice of colours, subject and textures are a visceral response to what appears at any given moment on the canvas and the spark of try this, and now this, and now this.
Natalie Nickerson
As a mother and teacher, poet and artist, Natalie is surrounded by questions and stories, laughter and light, and the many thousands of things that help us bring meaning to our lives. She loves working in mosaics for their capacity explore how countless pieces can become something new through relationship in much the same way.
When working with tiles, her process is part meditation, part magic trick. She loves the choosing, breaking arranging and rearranging; she rarely knows where a piece is going until it begins to tell her. Natalie’s work often speaks to cycles, intuition, darkness and illumination; she is drawn to mystery and the profound wonder of transformation.
This moon-themed show felt especially close to her heart—she hopes that the work brings forth something tender for everyone: a quiet wondering ​​about what moves beneath the surface, what
connects us and what becomes visible when we allow ourselves to look up, look inward and listen.
Kristina Campbell
Kristina Campbell is a multi-media artist who has lately been contemplating the moon for inspiration, imagining what it might look, sound and feel like to be in the company of our closest celestial neighbour.
To create her immersive moon portraits, accompanying moon poems and songs, and her cheeky Moon Peep Show, Campbell has combined painting, drawing, poetry, sculpture, projection, shadow play, audio soundscapes and video collage to include you in her playful wonderment … and yes, it is a bit like being invited into the workshop of an eccentric inventor.
This return to play and experimentation has driven Campbell deep into unfamiliar territory, collecting electronic components, digging through her video archive, experimenting with cold wax and oil
painting on paper, and hunting through the aisles of varioushardware and dollar stores, not quite sure what she is looking for, but feeling certain when she finds it. Collecting components at her studio is followed by a process of experimental building that involves a lot of glue and varieties of tape, and leaves Campbell both concerned about looming deadlines and delighted by her results. Her heartfelt desire is that she will share her wonderment and reverence with you, forever changing how you say hello to the moon.
Jordie Robinson
Jordie Robinson is a local musician, music teacher and piano technician. Being a versatile cellist keeps him busy and connected in our thriving arts community.
Jordie has been drawing off-and-on his whole life. As a small child he filled scraps of paper with small patterns, dots or circles. Then he made cards with humorous comics for family and friends. As an adult he came back to drawing mainly through his daughter, Celeste, who is a natural artist and an inspiration. The two would draw side-by-side for hours, and her carefree and fluid style made Jordie jealous. He noticed that his daughter had the ability to remember the shape and essence of animals she saw outside, and once inside she could draw them... not only perfectly, but also with charm. Jordie has learned that charm is a combination
of simplicity and truth (as in beauty). His memory game project is an attempt to get charm into his drawings.
Jordie's artistic style is influenced by a love of animals, love of cartooning, love of seriousness, and an unconscious urge to be gently provocative.
Fay Melling
Fay is an artist based in Saanich who paints ocean scenery, flowers and people, and has a nearly daily practice of capturing sunrise and the moon when it is full.
She is fascinated by pink clouds, reflections on water, and how sun rays both pass through and sparkle on thin petals.
A self-described “nerdy-girl”, Fay regularly contemplates
our collective existence on this precious planet with its unbearably thin, life-protecting atmosphere. She was riveted by the Artemis II experiences shared in April
2026 and is delighted to be part of this Moon show.
Ed Varney
Ed Varney is a visual artist, curator, poet, editor and publisher. He has exhibited his work in over 300 exhibitions in North and South America, Europe, Japan and Australia.
Varney was a member of Intermedia, co-founder of Intermedia Press, Artropolis, The Poem Factory, and the Cascadia Poetics Lab. He is also a master printer. Varney has published 19 books and chapbooks of poetry, 9 artist books, and edited several anthologies and literary magazines.
Varney is currently a curator at The Museo Internacionale de Neu Art, a Research Fellow at the Specific Research Institute, and editor of Dada Zine. He lives and works in the rainforest on the East Coast of Vancouver Island.