TERRACE STANDARD | INSIDE COMMUNITY EVENTS B2 ‘JUST A THOUGHT EV BISHOP Pm bored... not! | *M NEVER bored. O.K... I’m rarely, if ever, bored. [ had to qualify that because I have been bored a few limes in my life... when I was young. My mother, however, quickly cured me of that folly. She loved it whenever | announced in a nasally whine, “f’m buh-ord.” © “Good,” she’d exclaim happily. “I have hoping to watch TV or scam a ride to the swimming pool.,. not work! Yet, I’d have no re- course, no excuse, and no grounds to escape game or project that I desperately needed to finish... No. ] had wrecked ALL escape plans with those fateful words, “I’m bored.” I learned very quickly that being bored earned me exciling treats-like toilet scrubbing, garden weeding, and dishes... I miraculously found ways to entertain myself. _ Generally, almost any amount “happy” noise, play screaming, yelling, chortling and laughing doesn’t bother me a bit. But a whine? The tiniest whine from my kids instantaneously sets my teeth on edge. The only thing worse than a plain whine is the phrase, “I’m bored.” It drives me crazy! I think that it’s the words’ implication that sets me off. Going up to someone and annaun- cing, regardless of your tone, that you are bored, is the same as saying, “Entertain me, NOW.” J have no innate dislike of entertain- ing, I just hate to be ordered ‘ta do so. I think that as a society we are less able to _, entertain. ourselves than ever before. and, iro- nically, the problem may be due to the . fact that we now live in an-entertainment dri- ven society. Billions of dollars are made : annually off of the entertainment industry. '. Over 300 TV channels get pumped into homes via satellite. Home computers are _ commonplace. A lot of people have as many videos (or more videos) than they do books. A “-lot of people don’t feel comfortable in a quiet - house, Something has to be “on.” The problem is that when the volume is muted, the Playstation turned off, the monitor _ and ‘the TV- screen blank... -Our brains . sometimes appear to be too. We are so used to being fed by an unending river of noise and ' visual stimulation that when the noise and media visuals are gone, we think that our thoughts are too. We think, “I’m bored” but really it’s worse than that. Really it’s that we aré losing our ability to sit quietly and dream idly, entertaining ourselves with our own stream of thinking. As a generation, we’ve be- come so dependent on a daily inflaw of enter- tainment from outside sources that we've for- gotten how to amuse ourselves. It’s never too late though, The human brain _ is an amazingly resilient thing; stop force ' feeding it media thoughts and, yes, for a few “days it will feel weird but then, believe it or ‘not, you'll lose your appetite for TV... you'll actually crave other activities instead. Children, so often perpetrators of the “I’m so bored” lines, are usually better than adults at amusing themselves. In fact, I think that it’s us adults who unconsciously shut down their ability to entertain themselves. “You want to go outside? Well... No. NO} Just wait till after school, I don’t want you to gel dirty.” “Ack! What are you doing? You're making a terrible mess! Why don’t you go and watch TV? If you want a snack, I’Il make it.” “Qh, hon... [I’m tired. Can*t it wait till tomorrow? You can watch a show.” We often squash our children’s insatiable appetites for exploration and creativity be- cause we're busy, we’re tired, we need space... Most of us don’t want our kids to they do. . -. So where am I going with this? Am I saying * that we should never let our kids watch TV? No. Am I saying that we should jet the kids destroy the kitchen, the playroom, every , good set of clothes that they own every time they get a creative, self-entertaining notion? No! I’m saying that if we want kids who aren't . bored, who have a sense of wonder and excite- “ment and hope for the future, we have to nowrish these things, while they’re young, so that the qualities will last into their adult _. years. ‘i The best way to teach them is for us to re- . capture those feelings for ourselves. Stop the media deluge. Re- “program your mind to think, to debate, to question, to. explore. Entertain aren't 17"... os » Certainly! We all are, a work for you to do.” WHAT? WORK? | was . chores by insisting that I had urgent plans or a © watch a lot of TV yet we’re relieved when- DEMPSEY BOB with his latest work — a bronze bear mask. The Tahitan-Tlingit artist lives in Prince Rupert but works in Terrace. Balancing act Two carvers redefine an ancient craft by remaining true to their-artistic vision” By JOANNA WONG MASTER CARVER Dempsey Bob. aims a pool of lamplight at a bronze bear mask on the floor of - his workshop, drawing it out of darkness, Shadows fal! dramatically across a dynamic landscape of eyes and teeth, accentuating swelling curves and giving the mask a sudden life. “You put a piece under the light pretty much the whole way through the work,” explains Bob, his voice soft and deliberate. “It helps you see where to carve next.” The workshop is dark, height- ening senses and somehow mak- ing everything more noticeable. We're in a shed near the back of the Kitselas band office off Queensway Drive, and each gulp of air tastes of cedar. Tt’s quiet, but the roaring rush of the nearby Skeena River pushes easily. through the silence of the room. The shaded features of Bob. and his nephew, artist Stan Bevan, are powerful in the dark-. ness and look eerily. like carvings themselves. The two men, who frequently collaborate on projects together in the Kitselas carving shed, look on intently at the mask. It sits luminous in lamplight, speaking multitudes. Bronze is a relatively new ma- terial in First Nations artwork, and making it come alive is no simple task. “People think it’s easy,” Bob says of his art. “But it’s like wri- ting a new slory or a song.” A sign for the times SECTION B JENNIFER LANG 638-7283 He and his nephew Stan Bevan are currently working on a new commission for the Vancouver airport. JOANNA WONG PHOTO A new song — only fF with the added chal- |; lenge of harmonizing |f with a rich tradition of distinctive melodies. Pieces like the }-@ bronze bear mask f.: symbalize Bob’s ef- forts to balance the |. strong traditions of his |: Tahltan-Tlingit ances- tors with the demands of being a contempor- ary artist. _ “T talk about tradi- tional but when you think about it, every- thing has at one time been contemporary,” he says. “Great pieces have a way of becoming tradition- al through the use of the people.” His pieces are certainly in use - as one of Northwestern B.C.’s most recognized First Nation art- ists, Bob’s artwork is featured in museum collections worldwide: and is highly coveted by private collectors. At one of his first major exhi- bits in Vancouver in 1989, a col- lector on the board at the Museum of Modern Art in New York walked in and immédiately bought out the show. Nice work for the boy who once got a C— from his art teacher while growing up in Prince Ru- pert.. “It made me more deter- mined,” Bob says, smiling slight- ly, “We're having a reunion and I'm going to look for [my teacher}.” Fortunately, Bob’s early artis- tic trauma seems to have only Stan Bevan: made him™ more ing to the future of northwest coast art. “@ Bob, who first m lcarned to carve Bfrom local ac- Meclaimed = artist # Freda Diesing, has worked hard to bring new vitality to the ancient craft. “IT learned by teaching,” he says. “It forces you to only see what you know.” Bob has shared what he knows since he was 24 years old, running classes and workshops for young carvers from all over northern B.C., Alaska and the Yukon. Already, former apprentices such as Bevan have reached in- ternalional recognition for their crafismanship and have begun to teach as well, “You've go to know the tradi- tional first before you make a contemporary work that looks like it belongs,” says Bevan, who has been teaching. since 1982, -The two artists aren’t alone in their struggle to adapt old ways to the 21st century. The pair have recently returned from a conference’ in’ New Zealand, where indigenous visual: artists from all over the world — gathered for workshops and dis- cussions. “We were talking about what is traditional? What is contempor- ary? What's happening today and committed to giv-. know it. In art you - how do people deal with that?” Bob says. Bob and Bevan left the ‘confer- ence filled with fresh inspiration, and have plans to put on a show with Maori artists in Vancouver in 2003. “There’s a lot of similarities,” says Bob of the Maoris. “They're going through a lot of the same things as us.” One of Bob and Bevan’s more high profile collaborative efforts are two massive masks that are on permanent display in the domestic terminal of the Vancouver airport. The two are currently working on a new comission for the airport, and a roughly carved cedar struc- tures sils unfinished in the corner of the shed. “It’s a secret;" says Bob of the final form the piece will take, Bevan also has an upcoming show lined up for a gallery in Vancouver, and Bob will display new work in Prince Rupert at an exhibit set to open July 12. But while work demands that both men spend an increasing amount of time on jet planes and in exotic locales, both are proud to call the northwest home. “Where you live affects your art,” Bob says. “Down there [in the city] you're bombarded. If you stay too long it affects you — this is a powerful place.” As the bronze bear mask em- “phasizes, however, Bob is open to negotiations with the modern world, Art and everything else, he says, is evolving all the time, “It’s changing,” Bob says. “We live now.” that ‘silly thought, that far fetched fantasy. My. ’ husband Likes to say, “Tm allowed to dream By JENNIFER LANG AN OLD city sign wel- coming visitors to Terrace has found a new home. The large Welcome to Terrace sign that used to greet airline passengers on the tarmac has been refur- bished and relocated to - Highway 37 across from the entrance to the airport. Restored to its former glory for the beautification society by Colin :Goodall and Len Broggemann at . Northern Signs, the bright blue sign was Installed just in the nick of time for-the’ - Communities in Bloom contest, “This will be the first thing the Communities in Bloom judges will see when they come into town * July 27,” acting president Myrna Rolfsen says. The Greater Terrace Beautification Society is now hoping another com- munity group will adopt the sign and do some land- scaping, treasurer Conrad - ‘Ganzenberg says. The society has. “hands full: maintaining ore. : vious landsdaping. projects ‘in Bloom chairman, Steve | at the Saan store, the Sande Overpass and at the four-way stop at the High- way 37/16 intersection. The society is hoping businesses and individuals in Terrace will pull toge- ther to ensure the town. looks its best ‘when the judges arrive, ~~ Terrace’s Communities Scott, has sent letters to local businesses asking them to sweep. sidewalks, pul. flower ‘baskets ‘near storefronts, and’ ensure BEAUTIFIERS Conrad Ganzenberg, Myrna Rolf- sen and Howard Chafin with the nearly new sign. windows are clean.