Gallery #1
Rabbit, Rabbit, White Rabbit: Amber Powell

About the Artist

Amber Powell grew up in Winfield, BC.
She studied art at Okanagan College in 1987-88, and continued her education at the University of Victoria where she studied printmaking and drawing. 
Powell graduated from University of Victoria in 1991 with a BFA, majoring in printmaking.
She went on to do commercial art and design for 10 years and continued to produce  her own work as a member of a Vancouver studio and gallery.

After returning to the Okanagan in the year 2000, Powell became a founding member of Gallery Vertigo and continues to be a studio artist at the gallery. 

Artist Statement:

In Western folklore, Rabbits have played a curious role.  Rabbits can represent rebirth, renewal and fertility.  The happy, hypoglycemic Easter Bunny is a key mythological figure: heralding in the Spring by distributing fertility symbols (eggs) and aphrodisiacs (candy).  Many, if not most, people assume that Rabbits are good omens and bring good luck: for instance, one widely held tradition holds that if a person can remember to say “rabbit, rabbit, white rabbit” or simply “rabbit, rabbit, rabbit” upon waking up on the first day of each month, then that person is bound to have good luck.  Rabbits are a delightful surprise when pulled out of a magician’s top hat, and, naturally, everyone knows that a Rabbit’s foot kept in your pocket is lucky.
Despite these friendly modern associations, however, Rabbits are traditionally strong omens of bad luck and ill-will.  They are evil animals.  Despite what many people believe, the “white rabbit” incantation is not meant to call upon rabbits to bring luck, but is rather a spell to banish them and their foul influences from your life.  Rabbits are portents of death, fear, and violent change: if you see a Rabbit running down your street, you’d better be sure to check your fire insurance!  The association between black-cloaked magicians and rabbits is based on the belief that Rabbits are common witches’ familiars with potent powers; and the “luck” of a Rabbit’s foot is grounded in the fact that the Rabbit once attached to the foot has been forever dispatched.  In other words, the foot, like the broomstick of the wicked witch, is a talisman of the absence of the rabbit, and it is the absence which is lucky.
Good or bad, there is no denying that the power of the Rabbit is in change, risk, and luck.  It is with those qualities in mind that I have associated various found images in this collection of collages: in their positions and juxtapositions, these images are meant to illustrate fear, hope, and luck: they depict the risk-takers, the outsiders, the dreamers, the lucky… and, of course, the Rabbit, who is always behind the scenes, influencing outcomes with fluffy-tailed deviousness.
Stylistically, in producing this series I have been influenced by the collage work of Joan Miro, whose images gained tremendous strength through the use of contrast, balance, and – a device I borrowed unapologetically! – lengths of string to illustrate connections between concepts. (Amber Powell)

Gallery #2
Pinhole Photography: Sylvia Vandekerkhove

Artist Statement
My cameras create work that reflects my dreams and humours; blending the simplicity and ephemeral aspects of the world with the arcane and outlandish elements of imagination. Nostalgia and history, disregarded beauty and the mundane. My interests are in communication, language and metaphor, the force of habit, human nature and life cycles. 
I reckon photography is a conduit between past and present – a way to move moments forward in time and to let them be, therefore, relived.  Through combining photography with other media, I am able to keep with that time-travelling quality and to add an ambiguity and uncertainty to the look of the finished piece.  This is often reached through the use of maquettes and dioramas used like miniature stage productions before my camera. 

About the Artist
Sylvia Vandekerkhove was born and raised in Vernon, BC and has travelled in Southeast Asia, Japan and the West Indies.  She is self-taught in pinhole photography and has been experimenting with building, converting and retrofitting cameras for over 15 years.  She has made more than 50 cameras and regularly works with about 15 which allow for different film sizes and image qualities.

NOAA Members Wall Gallery

About knitified*.

knitified* is a knit graffiti artist working mainly in Vernon, BC.  She applies guerrilla knitting tags to her greater stomping grounds as well, with pieces popping up in Victoria, Kelowna and Kamloops, and also on moving targets like BC Ferries, Hawksley Workman’s tour bus and, like any graffiti artist worth her salt, on trains.

While she produces her graffiti knits single-handedly, many of her tags would be impossible to execute without the aid of an accomplice or two. 

I like to place my knits in all manner of spaces; park benches, light standards, plumbing, trees, door knobs.  While some of my tags are brightly coloured, I also like to experiment with camouflage also, using yarns of different colours and textures to blend into their surroundings. I think it’s fun to see how people react to my knitting.  When I tagged on the ferries, I sat back and watched as some people walked past without noticing, others glanced a bit askew and yet others would stop to touch the knits.  I like to see how the tags stimulated conversation.  They’re interactive.

Yarn bombing, (also called knit graffiti or guerrilla knitting) is a type of street art that uses hand-knitted fabric rather than aerosol paint, stencils or the like to “deface” public property. Knit graffiti is considered non-permanent, and, unlike traditional graffiti, can be easily removed if necessary. While some of knitified*’s work has stayed in place for months, others vanish within hours.  

Like other forms of street art, yarn bombing is not free from controversy.  In a nutshell, some argue that if a knitted item will not be used by the knitter, it should be made available for the needy who would benefit from the warmth they provide and that knit graffiti, like any other street art, is vandalism. 

Counter to this, others argue that knitters may do as they please with their yarn just as painters may do with their paint and that if someone needs the knitting to keep warm, it’s there for the taking. As to the point of vandalism, knit graffiti is easily removed and add a cozy touch to any urban atmosphere.  The controversy stands to highlight the art/craft cross-over.

Believed to have originated in the U.S. with knitters trying to find a creative way to use their leftover and unfinished knitting projects, yarn bombing has spread worldwide. A quick search on the internet will show a book published on the subject (Yarn Bombing; Improving the Urban Landscape One Stitch at a Time, Mandy Moore & Leanne Prain, 2009, Arsenal Pulp Press), Facebook groups, a Wikipedia entry and a plethora of websites and blogs run by knit graffiti artists and collectives all over the world.

knitified* has been yarnbombing for the past year, and has been documenting it on her blog since October 2009.  She can be found at www.knitified.wordpress.com.

Vertigo Window Gallery:
Watch for it... our new sign! All the better to find us now!

Recollections: Recent work by Gale Woodhouse
(The current exhibition can be viewed during college hours from now until September 15th. )

About Gale Woodhouse:
Trained as an art and design teacher and apprenticed as a production potter, Gale Woodhouse now has a studio in Vernon, British Columbia.
Formally educated at Nene University College and Leicester University, Woodhouse taught art and design in England for 4 years before entering Herefordshire School of Art to study Studio Ceramics. Following apprenticeships with two of England’s leading potters, Gale opened her own studio in 1981. After years of experimentation and exploration, teaching and learning, many exhibitions and shows, Woodhouse is accomplished in the applied art of pottery. She works her chosen medium with ease and dexterity and still finds joy and passion in the making of clay forms.
The artist’s work has appeared in solo and group exhibitions both in England and Canada.
Woodhouse is currently working as Artist in Residence at the Vernon Community Arts Centre.

Artist Statement
The work displayed here represents a small selection of a larger body of work produced during my tenure as Artist in Residence at Vernon Community Arts Centre.
I use clay panels as pages from a sketch book. I draw and sketch my experiences of landscapes directly onto the clay and then play with texture and colour to represent what I recall of places I have visited. I become acquainted with my scenery using this method. I recall and translate the ground beneath my feet, the forms on the horizon and details of changes bought about by weather and seasons. The panels are not only about how and what I remember, they are also about how and what I felt.
Pat McKay and I had known each other for several years before she asked me to join her in the project. We had never worked together and at the beginning struggled with how our very different materials and styles of work would come together.
It became evident very early on that the things we had in common, not our differences, needed to be explored for the sustainability of the project.
We both had a love of all things natural – hence why we both chose to work with natural materials, clay and wool. We both had a fascination for stone structures and the history they contained. Our research led us to the stories and myths surrounding the stone monoliths and walls of the ancient Celtic world and back to each of our heritages in rural England. The working title, "walls and stone structures," was set and the project took on a life of its own.
My chosen work, entitled Cellular Memory, developed following many visits to the stone circles and ancient burial sites in England. I have a particular affinity and fondness for The Rollright Stones in Oxfordshire, England, a site I have known since I was a child. The encased energy harnessed within the standing stones became the motivating spirit for the clay forms exhibited at the Sunshine Coast Arts Centre.
Surrounded by mythology and legend the Standing Stones hold the cellular memory of our ancestors. Within the ancient stone structures exists the emotional and spiritual heritage of ancient peoples, locked inside forever, a true time capsule. (Gale Woodhouse)

KALAMALKA VERTIGO
All are invited to view the works at Kalamalka Vertigo, located at Vernon's Kalamalka Campus of Okanagan College. The gallery is located just past the college lecture theatre in the main building adjacent to the college office.
"Kalamalka Vertigo" , located at the Kalamalka campus of Okanagan College, represents a joint venture between Gallery Vertigo and Okanagan College. This is the newest incarnation of the ongoing partnership between the two institutions. 

Exhibition Proposals: Please print a copy of our form and send it off to us with the information requested.
A selection committee reviews proposals once a year, usually in the spring.
Contact us for more information.
info@galleryvertigo.com
proposal form and information for exhibitions in gallery #1 and gallery #2
members wall application
window display

Previous Exhibitions:
2010:
Katie Belcher and Joanne Pringle - May 26 to June 12
Still Here: NOAA juried exhibition - Apr.13 to May 16
Susan Bizecki and Kevin Michael Witzke - Mar.9 to Apr.1
UBC Okanagan Students: Architecture Digress - Feb. 9 to Mar.4
School District 22: Incognito - Jan.12 to Feb.5
2009:
Headshots, Wheeltown: Noel Bullock - Oct.15 to Nov.7
Philomena Caroll, Margarita Alejandre, Sookinshoot - Sep.10 to Oct.3
Almost Famous Auction - August 22
Microbial Tales - Arthur Desmarteax and Allison Moore - July 2 to July 25th
Pfannschmidt, Newell and Mace - May 26 to June 23
Heidi Thompson and Stephan Bircher - Apr.21 to May 15
Lucky Number 7: NOAA juried exhibition - Mar.17 to Apr. 9
Social Spectrum: A Group Exhibition by UBC Okanagan Photograpy Students - Feb.10 to Mar.7
Fusion: Fourth Annual High School Exhibition - Jan 13 to Feb 17
2008:
Picasso's Cupboard/ Book Fair - Nov.25 to Dec.13th
not with a Bang, but with and SUV - The 7th Annual NOAA Members Open Exhibition - Oct.7 to Nov.1
the coming night - Jorden and David Doody / Typoportraits - kevin mcpherson eckhoff
Almost Famous Auction - August 17
Ten - Studio Artists - Current Work - July 29 to August 9 / Joanne Sale-Hook:Introduced Species - July 29 to August 17
Katie Brennan - Stasis Strategy / Floribunda - June 23 to July 19
Space (re)Constructed - Miranda Aschenbrenner / Memory/Recall - Suzanne Phillips - May 27 to June 21
March to May - Faith Moosang/Candies - Sabrina Ovesen
Sixth Annual NOAA Members Juried Exhibition - March 18 to April 12
Drawing Conclusions - UBC Okanagan Student Exhibition - Feb.12 to March8
The Wheel: School District #22 High School Students - Jan.15 to Feb.2
2007:
Picasso's Cupboard and Even Dozen
Mellow Yellow - The 6th Annual NOAA Members Open Exhibition - Oct.16 to Nov.10
Look What we Have Done.. Carolina Sanchez de Bustamante / Mutation - Howard Brown - September 11 to October 5
Almost Famous - Ken Jeanotte - August 7 to August 24
Zotz Collective - Kurt Hutterli - July 3 to July 28
Flesh nor Meat - Ila Crawford /All our Ancestors - Tanya Dubick - May 29 to June 23
Spectacles of Intimacy - curated by Lora Carroll - April 24 to May 18
Green - The Fifth Annual NOAA members juried exhibition - March 20 to April 14
Pressing Engagements - UBC Okanagan Printmaking Students - Feb.13 to March 16
Bugs - School District #22 High School Students - Jan.16 to Feb.3
2006:
Picasso's Cupboard, Studio Artists - Nov.21 to Dec.9
Fall Forward - Oct.21 to Nov.10
Helm, Seward, Began - Sept.8 to Oct.6