The Bowen Island Garden Club is pleased to present acclaimed Vancouver artist Glenn Lewis for a discussion and slide presentation of nine archetypal “paradise elements” of gardens, illustrated by his photographs of gardens from around the world.
Lewis was a central figure in Vancouver’s prolific avant-garde art scene of the 1960s. Over time, he has become increasingly inspired by paradise myths, nature, and topiary, which in turn motivated his extensive travels around the world photographing gardens, as well as his commitment to preserving rare and regional botany.
Gardens are universal, but why do we actually create them? According to Lewis, gardens represent humankind’s first home, our primeval place in nature, allowing us to put aside “the world of red dust” (our busy workaday lives) and become free and focused in the natural world. Like the mythical Garden of Eden, which houses both the tree of knowledge and the tree of enlightenment, gardens in their ceaselessly changing seasons remind us of life’s impermanence and the endless cycle of birth and death.
Lewis’ work has been exhibited extensively across Canada and abroad. Besides his work in multi-media, performance, and conceptual art, he is a gifted ceramicist, having studied under the master potter Bernard Leach in Cornwall, England in the early 1960s. Lewis has also enjoyed a career as an educator, arts administrator, and arts programmer. He has served on numerous boards and councils including the Vancouver Art Gallery Board of Directors and the Western Front Board of Directors.
Glenn Lewis will present “Looking for Paradise: A Journey Through Nine Stages” at the Legion Hall on Saturday, November 18 at 3:30 pm. Tea will be served following the talk and audience Q&A. Tickets are $5 at the door, with admission free for members of the Bowen Island Garden Club.
