• BEAN BENSON

  • NATALIE SCHULER

  • WANAKI MAEL BEDARD

June 17th - July 6th

EMERGENCE

Emergence explores the process of becoming. The works of three distinct artists- Bean Benson, Natalie Schuler and Wanaki Mael Bedard, create a dialogue between time, nature and self-discovery. The exhibition invites viewers to consider how what’s hidden reveals itself through transformation.

Through a mix of mediums, each artist’s work explores the evolution of organic forms and what arises from the unseen. Emergence is a celebration of the continual transformation that shapes both the natural world and human experience.

Events:

Meet the artists at our artist pARTy, Saturday June 20th, 6-8pm.

In pursuit of what shapes us

There are many ways to approach woodturning, but for Bean Benson, it's an adventure hunt. It begins with the pursuit of salvaged raw materials from ethical local sources, rarely collecting from the same person or place twice. Once the wood is back in her studio on Bowen Island and mounted on the lathe, her mission is to remove only what's necessary to reveal the bowl waiting within. Though she and her tools are the ones shaping and refining, much of the final form was determined long ago by the growing tree, and seeing it emerge is the ultimate reward.

For her first gallery show, Bean will feature works that reflect her love of the West Coast and the nature that thrives here. Her natural edge bowls follow the same undulations of each tree's bark and the growth rings inside. The result is a vessel that maintains its bond with nature and respects the great roots of her medium.

ARTIST BIO
Bean found a passion in woodturning shortly after moving to Bowen Island 13 years ago. From a small studio on her property, she works on a Canadian made custom lathe designed for turning green wood in the salty sea air.

To see more of her work and process, you can find Bean at @Woodtwirler


ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Bean Benson

Natalie Schuler

In my new work entitled Hungry Thoughts, I explore the relationship to eating and my body. This work is based on my own lived experience, having had to work through disordered eating.

Reforming and rewiring how I think and feel about food and being in my body, coming to a place of acceptance within myself.

I believe our basis for how we choose to eat and think about food begins at an early age, influences such as our parents, friends and society help mold our choices. What is said

or not said at the dinner table, the comments with double meaning and many others influence how we form our relationship with food and our bodies, which ultimately affects how we eat.

I interpret these beliefs, memories, and sensations to be in liminal spaces, where reality does not exist, with colour, light and the lack of light, creating windows into the self; each piece is a portal into this universe.

The presence of the fork in the paintings is a symbol for eating, nourishment, connection over shared meals and the weight of the challenges that can be faced surrounding the influences of eating. In some pieces the fork has been bent, speaking to the inner battle of choosing to manipulate how I would eat and think about food. Thread plays a central role in my work, symbolizing a fascia-like network — an invisible yet essential structure within the body that I interpret as a holder of memory and emotion. Stitching the utensils into the fabric of the canvas brings physicality to what is intangible to the eye, illuminating the spaces within where these feelings are being held. I use colour contrasts that speak to the contrasting points of view tha society is made up of. The use of pattern and the uneasy colour relationships vibrate to communicate the tension I felt wanting to reject my body, while also trying to control the narrative around what I would eat.

Eating and living in our bodies is a shared experience we can all relate to, fundamentally we will all experience it differently based on our own lived experiences. We all share in the complexities of determining how to live in harmony with the choices we make, the influences we have received and have on others when it comes to food and how we see our bodies.

ARTIST BIO

Natalie Schuler is a Canadian painter, raised on a prairie farm in Saskatchewan, she now lives on a small island that is part of the unceded traditional territory of the Skwxwú7mesh Nation just off the West Coast of British Columbia. She studied graphic design at the Medicine Hat College in Alberta, and finished with an Applied Degree in Visual Communications. Natalie shifted away from design to focus on her primary interest of fine art in 2017. She has shown her work throughout British Columbia, Canada.

Wanaki Mael Bedard

Exhibition Theme: “Creation Story”

Creation Story is my first cohesive body of work in stone, a series of experimental sculptures that serve as a dialogue between imagination and material. Each piece reflects my search for an authentic artistic voice, testing the limits of balance, form, and possibility while remaining deeply rooted in the natural beauty of West Coast stone.

The exhibition invites viewers to slow down, to see nature’s art through my eyes, and to reflect on their own evolution. Just as each stone carries its own history of time and tide, Creation Story is both a beginning and an offering: a reminder that wonder lives in the simplest of forms, and that the journey of creation mirrors the journey of life.

ARTIST BIO

I am a Vancouver Island-based sculptor with a creative mind shaped by stone, sea, and memory. My work is born of the beaches and forests of the West Coast, where as a child I built mandalas from driftwood, whittled sticks into small treasures, and found refuge in the raw materials of the earth. Nature has always been my companion, my teacher, and a place of safety when the human world felt uncertain.

To this day, my greatest joy is discovering a smooth, rounded stone and asking, 'How can I bring this story forward?'

My artistic motto is simple: Nature is the artist, and I am showcasing her work. In each piece I create, I seek to amplify what is already miraculous in stone: its texture, form, and mystery. I invite viewers to see what I see: that life itself is magical and the impossible is only a perspective away.

My inspirations include Salvador Dalí, Woods Davy, and Andy Goldsworthy, yet my truest influences are the losses, challenges, and transformations of my own life. Creativity has always been my medicine, a way to shape confusion and despair into something meaningful. Through my work, I hope to offer others the same grounding and wonder that nature continues to offer me.