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I listened to Victor Cicansky on Gabereau
this week. [you don't know wha he ts, he
makes ceramic fruits and vegetables with
rather erotic overtones. A naughey
vegetable duo can be seen on the cover of
the current issue of Contact Magazine.

The divine Vicki must have liked hirn,
because sh: let him do a bor of talking
without those musical interruptions chac
the dull or incoherent guest receive from
her. Vie waxed enthusiastic on the subject
of clay, gardens and Saskatchewan (the last
despite Vicki's dishelieving interjections).
Vie was my advisor during graduate schexol
and he had an alarming amount of energy,
arising at 5 am to do tai chi in his garden
before weeding and whatever else one dees
in the garden { | am, to my shame, a non-
gardener). By 8 am he was usually hard ac
work in his snadio listening co CBC, thar
great unifier of pomers across the country.

I chink chat ic might be proved char
potters are che single largest constant
listening group for CBC a m radio. [don't
know a single one who isn'c already
depressed about che incipient doom of
Momiingside. Bur back co Vic he was
the reason | ended up in Saskatchewan
for my MFA. He blew through
Vancouver one autumn, very gale-like in
force, and convinced me that the prairies
would be a fine place to spend some me.
And he was right.

My only other sojourn through che great
flatlands had been in a 76 Honda Civic,
with six of us crammed into it, on a 36
hour drive from Edmonton to Toronto.
You will noc be surprised to know that |
had never, ever wanted to recur. Having
some lunatic theory that, in order to
understand any relocation, land must be
traversed by surface, | decided to go by
bus this cime. Greyhound was slightly less
crammed than the Honda, but had a

2 nasty way of pushing one our of che bus at

3am to experience the dubious charms of
the local coffee station. And nota single
ceramic cup to be seen, despire being
mere miles away from the famed Medalta
pottery of yore. | don’t know why, but [
had somehow gotten the idea that a
Medalta blanket pig might be acquired on
the trip. Too many white bread
sandwiches, perhaps.

But picture this, the bus rolls up to
Regina, an improbably tree-lined oasis in
the distance. [eis sunrise, with not a dor

of a cloud to be spied, and we roll over
the Wascana bridge, an exquisite product
of the Depression with clay balusters that
are formed and glazed like Egyptian lotus
bundles. The nexe auspicious landmark is
the Visual Arcs Department, a handsome
red brick building. | was enchanted
{particularly with the apartment | rented
owe blocks from my studio at $300 a
month). In all honesty, | must add that
had [ arrived in cwo months later, [
probably would have taken the recurn bus
to Vancouver.

Vic mentioned the unity of the art
community in Regina. [eis something !
miss. Here, | rarely go to an opening or
exhibit that doesn't involve clay, and the
people [ see there usually work in che
same meditum. In Regina, artists have
made a virtue out of necessity, and there
is a strong cross-pollination berween
different disciplines, as the populacion is
so small chat all artists must support each
other. Consequently, clay is far less
‘ghettoized’ than ic is here, with the major
galleries portioning out equal time to clay
workers as well as the more avant-garde
artists. And winter, horrible though it
sometimes is, is. a damned good cime to
spend in che studio, preferably with che
kiln constantly going! Wow, all that
nostalgia from a voice on the radio, | say
that CBC delivers good value for my tax
dollar...

Karen Opas

; Potter’s Guild of B.C. Newsletter

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