A truly one of a kind show is coming to the Ladysmith Waterfront Gallery this weekend with an ensemble of stunning weaving and leather creations from the surrounding area and Gulf Islands.
“This is the cream of the crop that we have on the coast here,” said Armando Dos Santos, an architectural draftsman by profession who has leather pieces part of the Duet – Baskets and Leather show running from Aug. 25 to Sept. 2.
“Shows featuring weaving are extremely rarely done and this is an opportunity to see an outstanding collection of weaving artifacts.”
A self-taught artist for the past 45 years, Dos Santos worked extensively with leather after fleeing from fascist Portugal in the early 1970s.
Making bags, vests and other pieces allowed him to get by as he moved around from Paris to Amsterdam.
“Nothing glamorous really, just a way to survive,” he said.
Dos Santos has created his own unique medium of using hardening pieces of leather and beautifully decorating them by burning it with an electric pen for the design and then detailing with silkscreen paints.
“I enjoy the creative process. It’s something that I developed on my own,” he said. “Some of my pieces are complicated with movable parts, all in leather.”
One of those he plans to feature at the gallery as part of the show is a working clock.
Try searching through Google anything close to what Dos Santos is crafting and you’ll come up empty handed.
“I enjoy the thinking process of actually coming up with something that’s never been done before,” he said.
Nanaimo’s Debbie McClelland and Sharon Cameron, Gabriola’s Bev MacDonald, Eveline Boysen, Marylyn Beaubien and Maureen Worthing, and Salt Spring Island’s Joan Carrigan and Susan Brown.
