Doug Alcock, Riley Alexis, Asahna, Rylan Broadbent, Glenn Clark, Briar Craig, Robert Dmytruk, Jen Dyck, Janine Hall, John Hall, Joice M. Hall, Angela Hansen, Fern Helfand, aj jaeger, Byron Johnston, Judith Jurica, Jim Kalnin, Reg Kienast, Wanda Lock, Molly March, PeeBee, Mary Smith McCulloch, Steve Mennie, Marcella Moser, Rhonda Neufeld, Destanne Norris, Julie Oakes, Gary Pearson, Crystal Przybille, Amber Powell, Bryan Ryley, Kevin Spetifore, Chuck St. John, Kent Tate, Heidi Thompson, Kate Tooke, David Wilson, Deb Wilson

Embedded in philosophy since a worldwide (what a concept!) pandemic raised a specter of the possibility of being unable to share what artists create, separated as we were, there is now a sense of gratitude. The opportunity to appreciate the latest works from our valley (and slightly beyond), in the company of the artists, is welcomed. We also have a surprising increase in the number of artists for during that time of disappearance, new artworks began to appear, and the output is even deeper, truer and more specifically here than ever. We have been and come back. We are more familiar with the hither and yon.

Artworks are ephemeral, despite the diligent work of museums and collectors to keep them safe long after the makers pass. Matter disintegrates and our bodies can leave before the artwork supporting the notion that making art may be a drive towards immortality. With the awareness of a new age, hesitatingly called the Anthropocene, the impacts of human endeavors have been revealed to carry consequences beyond historical imagining or contemporary ken. Yet if anything defines the uniqueness of the human condition, it must be the persistent and ongoing spark to do, to make, to create. Fashioning through justifying words, around concepts as vague as 'progress' or 'mankind', we have pushed in a direction equally unknowable (ahead) while we experience the air and the waters losing their natural authenticity in the stir of our wake.

A daunting haunting but … there is ART. The artist makes with everything or nothing in mind, bowed by the responsibility of being or inspired by the open-ended freedom that has been held as a masthead within the arts.

Does art just add to the bulk of the load or take some weight off? Art is a response to the call to make – a thought blooms into an idea and the invitation to make is accepted. Then the art piece must be seen, passed on in order to connect, from one wandering, wondering pilgrim to another. And since this relatively small geographical area contains a potent well of creativity, we present these insertions into the milieu of things as necessary impulses of visual heat.

Art brings us into the company of angels expelled from a bowdlerizing beyond, shining and attractive by sheer will – chutzpah from hither and yon.