Skip to content

Where different views on Israel and Judaism are welcome.

  • Home
  • Subscribe / donate
  • Events calendar
  • News
    • Local
    • National
    • Israel
    • World
    • עניין בחדשות
      A roundup of news in Canada and further afield, in Hebrew.
  • Opinion
    • From the JI
    • Op-Ed
  • Arts & Culture
    • Performing Arts
    • Music
    • Books
    • Visual Arts
    • TV & Film
  • Life
    • Celebrating the Holidays
    • Travel
    • The Daily Snooze
      Cartoons by Jacob Samuel
    • Mystery Photo
      Help the JI and JMABC fill in the gaps in our archives.
  • Community Links
    • Organizations, Etc.
    • Other News Sources & Blogs
    • Business Directory
  • FAQ
  • JI Chai Celebration
  • [email protected]! video
Weinberg Residence Spring 2023 box ad

Search

Archives

"The Basketball Game" is a graphic novel adaptation of the award-winning National Film Board of Canada animated short of the same name – intended for audiences aged 12 years and up. It's a poignant tale of the power of community as a means to rise above hatred and bigotry. In the end, as is recognized by the kids playing the basketball game, we're all in this together.

Recent Posts

  • Who decides what culture is?
  • Time of change at the Peretz
  • Gallup poll concerning
  • What survey box to check?
  • The gift of sobriety
  • Systemic change possible?
  • Survivor breaks his silence
  • Burying sacred books
  • On being an Upstander
  • Community milestones … Louis Brier Jewish Aged Foundation, Chabad Richmond
  • Giving for the future
  • New season of standup
  • Thinker on hate at 100
  • Beauty amid turbulent times
  • Jewish life in colonial Sumatra
  • About this year’s Passover cover art
  • The modern seder plate
  • Customs from around world
  • Leftovers made yummy
  • A Passover chuckle …
  • המשבר החמור בישראל
  • Not your parents’ Netanyahu
  • Finding community in art
  • Standing by our family
  • Local heads new office
  • Hillel BC marks its 75th
  • Give to increase housing
  • Alegría a gratifying movie
  • Depictions of turbulent times
  • Moscovitch play about life in Canada pre-legalized birth control
  • Helping people stay at home
  • B’nai mitzvah tutoring
  • Avoid being scammed
  • Canadians Jews doing well
  • Join rally to support Israeli democracy
  • Rallying in Rishon Le-Tzion

Recent Tweets

Tweets by @JewishIndie

Tag: Zula

From graceful to outrageous

From graceful to outrageous

From the left: Zack Gallery’s Linda Lando and jewelry artists Julie Kemble and Barbara Cohen. (photo from Zack Gallery)

Just as our clothing defines us to some degree, so does the jewelry we wear. Our choices often reflect not only our likes or dislikes, but how brave we are and how adventurous. The current group show at the Zack Gallery, called Light, features a range of unusual jewelry, from stylish and graceful, to whimsical, to outrageous. Practically everything on display, with the exception of a couple of metal sculptures, could be worn, and the gallery supplies a mirror for those intrepid souls who dare to try the pieces on.

Presented by the Vancouver Metal Arts Association, the exhibit introduces jewelry made not only of traditional materials, like silver, but of many unorthodox materials and objects, some of which have never been considered for adornment, until recently.

“These pieces remind me of far-away places, of mystery and romance. Some of them – you need a large personality to wear,” said Julie Kemble, the association’s liaison for the show.

photo - Zula, wearing her own creation, which is on display at the Zack Gallery
Zula, wearing her own creation, which is on display at the Zack Gallery. (photo from Zula)

According to Kemble, the show’s title, Light, invokes different interpretations. “We want to bring light into our works, into the lives of our artists and the people who wear our creations,” she said, adding that the association encourages artists to use alternative materials as well, like plastic or fabrics.

As did several other participants in the exhibit, Kemble started out as an amateur artist. She was a university teacher for many years.

“I always liked art,” she told the Independent. “At first, it was a hobby, but it is much more now. I began with textiles and gravitated towards metal and jewelry about 20 years ago. Metal allows a certain immediacy. You see right away what’s coming out of your hands.”

She explained that this show is the association’s fifth annual one and the second at the Zack. “We want to increase the profile of art jewelry in Vancouver,” she said. “That’s why this is a juried show. We invited the judges and jewelry artists from across Canada.”

Some of those artists are professionals, while others are taking their first steps on the artistic road. One of the beginners is Raymond Schwartz, but nobody would guess that by looking at his sterling silver necklaces. Elegant, sophisticated and relatively smaller than some other pieces on display, they represent a more traditional approach to jewelry.

“I’m brand new to jewelry,” he said. “I started two years ago. I’ve always been artistic, always liked doing things with my hands, but my business was construction. Now, I’m getting older, so I began making jewelry. It’s like construction, but making mini things. I also paint oils, but jewelry allows both creativity and working with my hands; it fills the void.”

This show is Schwartz’s first, although he has already sold some of his pieces.

Barbara Cohen, meanwhile, is a professional jewelry-maker with years of experience. “My background was in textile before I switched to metal. Now, I’m moving away from metal, too, using more of other materials,” she said. “I like the scale of jewelry. It is portable art.

“It’s also the most understated form of communication. When you wear a piece of original jewelry, it often starts conversations. I curated several jewelry exhibitions. Sometimes, I would wear a piece from the show, and people would admire it and ask me where it came from. They didn’t notice it in a display case but they noticed it around my neck. Jewelry should be worn. That’s why we have a mirror in the gallery, so people could see themselves wearing our art.”

Her necklaces, asymmetrical and quirky, draw the eye. Their patterns and textures make people wonder and try to decipher the artist’s ideas. They definitely start conversations.

Zula, also a professional artist, represents an extreme trend in jewelry-making. Her pieces, part of her new Neon Love collection, are a bright acrylic extravaganza, playful and flashy and fairly large. They use geometric shapes and are not for the faint of heart. It is a new development for the young artist, an experimental departure from her more traditional plant-patterned collection in silver and copper.

“I had a health crisis recently,” Zula explained. “I lost my hair to alopecia. Now I’m bald, but I chose not to wear a wig. I asked myself, what is my identity now? If I was a brunette before, am I still a brunette? I had this colourful plastic in my studio and I started playing with it. I needed to be edgy, and my new pieces provide that. They interact with light.”

Many other artists are part of the Light exhibit, which runs until Nov. 12.

Olga Livshin is a Vancouver freelance writer. She can be reached at [email protected].

Format ImagePosted on October 27, 2017October 25, 2017Author Olga LivshinCategories Visual ArtsTags Barbara Cohen, Julie Kemble, Raymond Schwartz, Vancouver Metal Arts Association, Zack Gallery, Zula
Proudly powered by WordPress