B.C. Creative Achievement Awards

Guild members Kinichi Shigeno and Sarah Lawless
were among five artists to receive 2008 B.C. Creative
Achievement Awards at a ceremony in Vancouver
on May 15. The awards were handed out by Premier
Gordon Campbell and Keith Mitchell, chair of the B. C.
Achievement Foundation, with each recipient receiving
$5,000 and a personalized seal for their promotional
materials. A showcase of the artists’ work will travel
throughout the province for the next several months.

Kinichi Shigeno was born in 1953, in Nagano, Japan.
In 1981, Kinichi immigrated to Canada, and in 1984, set
up his studio in Richmond. His distinctive and signature
ceramic style is his use of cobalt on porcelain or white
stoneware. He was commissioned to make place settings
for the Lieutenant Governor's residence in 1991. His
works are included in the Claridge Collection in Montreal,
the Instituto d’Arte in Italy, the Taipei Fine Arts Museum
in Taiwan and the Maltwood Museum and Gallery at the
University of Victoria, B.C.

Sarah Lawless is an emerging artist who graduated from
Kootenay School of the Arts in 2006. She creates a line of
“functional-sculptural” porcelain ceramics, throwing pots
on a wheel and altering them into fluid forms with soft
matte surfaces and earth-toned glazes. As a student, Sarah
spent a summer as assistant to Wayne Ngan. She received
two B.C. Arts Council scholarships and a purchase award
at the 2006 Orton Cone Box Show. Her work has been
exhibited across Canada, in the US, and in Japan. Her
home and studio are in Kaslo, B.C.

Established by the British Columbia Achievement
Foundation and the Province of B.C. in 2004, the B.C.
Creative Achievement Awards are open to both established
and emerging artists who create functional work, or
work that references function. Criteria include creativity,
originality, innovative approach, and aesthetics. For more
information, see www.bcachievement.com/creative

Recent work by Kinichi Shigeno.

Kinichi receiving
his award

Sarah receiving her award.

POTTERS Lichen Set, by Sarah Lawless.

COLUMBIA Potters Guild of BC Newsletter - June 2008 5