The Comox Valley Art Gallery welcomes exhibiting artist Ted Goodden to the gallery this Saturday from 1 to 2 p.m. to discuss his artworks and his book.
The artist talk is followed by Discover Art Saturday! a free family friendly program of art making activities at the gallery from 2 to 4 p.m. Admission to the talk is also free or by donation.
Ted is one of three artists from Ontario exhibiting in the main exhibition space until July 7 in a show called Compound Eye: Visions, Views and Imaginings of Bees along with Stephen Humphrey and Sarah Peebles. Stephen and Sarah will travel from Ontario to give a talk on the evening of July 5.
Through an intensive process of inquiry, the artists use material, literary, technologic and scientific methods to investigate and present fact and fable. Ted’s artworks illustrate his book Glory Boy: a work of fiction in which he describes how the very first bee came into existence.
Regarding what to expect from the presentation, Ted says: “Glory Boy is an illustrated children’s book, the result of a sustained creative inquiry into the perennial question, ‘How should we live now?’
“When I began this project, it seemed to me that the growing environmental crisis required a new understanding of useful activity in the world and that the honeybee was a role model for human behaviour. Since the book was published, colony collapse disorder has redefined the way that this book is taken up in the world, underscoring the urgency of the underlying question.
“I am an artist however, not a biologist or a philosopher, and these concerns inform the background of my practice. In my slide-illustrated lecture I will explore the dialectic relationship between visual image and text in the construction of a children’s book.”
After completing his BFA at the University of Alberta, Ted apprenticed in stained glass for three years with Theo Lubbers in Montreal and one year as a journeyman apprentice with Patrick Reyntiens in England.
Goodden holds a City and Guilds Certificate in Architectural Glass from Swansea College of Art, Wales. His past cultural work includes serving as a board member of the Artists in Stained Glass and London Regional Art and Historical museums and being an executive member of CARFAC (Canadian Artists Representation), London chapter. Ted was the Stained glass workshop leader at Lester B. Pearson School for the Arts (Victoria, BC) from 2006-10 and continues to create, teach and lecture on the topic.
The CV Art Gallery is located at 580 Duncan Avenue in downtown Courtenay. For more information, visit www.comoxvalleyartgallery.com or phone 250-338-6211.
— Comox Valley Art Gallery
