Octad is an exhibition of eight different ways of apprehending the world.

Eight artists, each bringing six decades or more of lived-experience, have

come together to share their work in the community. Their artistic sources are

gleaned from the land around them, from the place they live, from the objects

they find, from the people who move through their lives, and from the events,

joyous and catastrophic, that shape our human experience. From these, the

artists have found their "manner" and "style,; their own way of expressing how

they apprehend the world.

The land is an especially strong presence in many of these works. The seashore

and estuaries of Vancouver Island provide a template for Laurel Karjala to

explore our transitory sense of place in nature. The narrow inlets, estuaries,

and fjords of Vancouver Island with their ever-changing weather and tidal

patterns are elusive subjects. In paintings and ink drawings, Karjala attempts

to capture the liminal passage between seasonal changes, night and day, and

near and far. Only the horizon is constant and provides an anchor in works

such as Horizon IV - Winter (2022) and Juncture II (2022). The horizon, however,

like our own sense of being in the world, is evasive. It is ever present but never

fully realized.