By Liam McLean Photo Courtesy of Lawrence Au *Permission to reprint granted by the Vancouver Arts Colloquium Society Four and a half years ago, Lawrence Au returned home from a trip to Japan with a new vision. While visiting a mall attached to the Tokyo Skytree, he came across a floor devoted entirely to restaurants. An advertisement for a green tea café featuring a brilliant image of a bright green Matcha drink caught his eye. The advertisement stunned Lawrence and made him curious. As far as he knew from his experience living in Vancouver, Matcha was sort of a yellowish green or brown colour, not the vivid green he saw in the mall. He decided to go to the café and find out for himself. “I ordered an iced Matcha tea and sure enough it was that colour. And when I tasted it, it was very refreshing, very rich, completely unlike anything I’ve had in Vancouver before,” said Lawrence. “And that’s when I realized what true Japanese Matcha really is and I almost instantly fell in love with it.” The branding and tea culture also left an impression on Lawrence, and he visited Kyoto later on his trip where he was further exposed to the beauty and depths of Japanese green tea history. Returning home from Japan, Lawrence searched everywhere for a similar Matcha experience but was unsuccessful. He realized that the Matcha served here was actually green tea powder and had nothing in common with the authentic drinks he had in Japan. “And so, at that point, I decided to start my own business by recreating the experience that I first had in Japan,” said Lawrence. “That was basically my guiding light: what should I do in creating a brand that would...

BY JIYOON HA   Food waste is a mounting, $31 billion problem in Canada, and a problem that’s happening at every level: grocery stores, restaurants, farms, and most notably, households. Because it’s an issue so widespread across the nation, but happening in the unseen pockets of the food industry, it’s often glossed over as an issue too big to tackle by the government.   On an individual scale, this pressing issue smothers us with a feeling of simultaneous guilt and helplessness. Sure, we should work towards reducing our own food waste — after all, homes contribute to 50% of food waste — but with our increasingly fast-paced lifestyles, it’s difficult to exact the science of reducing our own food waste through frequent shopping for smaller quantities. Even if we can reserve a sliver of our daily lives for the supermarket to take on the zero-waste lifestyle, large figures, like $31 billion or 1.5 billion of overall food waste in Canada, can make it feel like our own individual dedication to saving the environment isn’t even making a dent of a dent. Photo courtesy of Food Stash Foundation   One early Friday morning, I met with David Schein, the founder of Food Stash Foundation. Food Stash has a truly remarkable story: what began as a one person project, consisting of David and his trusty bicycle — and eventually, a Toyota Camry, has evolved into a full-fledged organization with committed volunteers, twenty-six food rescue organizations, over forty (and counting) food suppliers, and has recently achieved charity status — all over the course of ten months. According to their website, Food Stash has a “two-fold mission”: to “rescue food from producers and suppliers that would have been destined for the landfill, and to deliver edible food items...

By Lara-Sophie Boleslawsky Photo courtesy of Brian Feldbloom Permission to reprint granted by the Vancouver Arts Colloquium Society If you’re an animal-lover, this one’s for you. Sitting down and talking to Brian about his recent venture into the pet food industry, I didn’t really know what to expect. Of course our conversation invariably strayed to our pets, nonetheless the real story lies in-between these small pockets of pet-talk. ‘Naturally Urban Pet Food Delivery’ provides free delivery of pet food all throughout Vancouver, the Lower Mainland and Burnaby. It’s simple: pet-owners order their food on the Naturally Urban website and its delivered right to your door. Did I mention it’s free? I was fascinated to know what prompted Brian to start this business: “The reason I started was, I had my doggy, and we switched her over to raw food. I was a flight executive at Flight Centre and I used to have to work late and then I would have to run home, get my car, and drive out to the pet store before it closed,” Brian told me, “And I thought, this is so annoying, its such a stress and I thought: ‘There has to be a better way!’” And so, Naturally Urban was born, with Brian looking to service a need, one undoubtedly shared by many pet owners throughout Metro Vancouver and beyond. “The two markets right now that we are doing well with are seniors and people with disabilities and physical challenges. We love helping them,” Brian shares with me, but emphasizes that the service is available for anybody to use. Convenience is one Naturally Urban’s main functions. Brian cites his colleague Kris McRonney as an “integral” part of his business. “I mean, my business associate Kris has been with me from...

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By Katherine Dornian Photo Courtesy of Bhavna Solecki Therapist, businesswoman, activist, healer, philosopher – it’s difficult to pin down an exact title for what Bhavna Solecki does, since her work is all-encompassing enough to defy simple description. As the founder of Inner Evolution Healing Centre and now as a member of the planning committee for the Kerrisdale Permaculture Garden, Bhavna seeks to foster mental, spiritual and community balance in everything she does. For the past 15 years, Bhavna has run her holistic practice with the goal of building communities around the pursuit of “mindfulness” – the harmony of the mind, body and soul achieved through healing foods, meditation, exercise, and other curative pursuits. Though she holds a BA in psychology, her practice is primarily based upon Shiatsu and ancient Indian and Chinese medicine. It also features a significant amount of spiritual counselling, which she believes is directly linked to mental and physical health. “Doctors may try to take away pain,” she tells me. “But you cannot do that unless you first identify its source.” Because of this, Bhavna finds that therapy becomes a very immersive experience; she cites the paramount importance of fostering relationships with her clients, putting empathy at the forefront of her approach to healing. “If you don’t feel it, you can’t help,” she says, and makes a point of telling me that she uses the word “help”, not “treat”. Her process must be team effort with the individual, who must be willing to fully participate. Since she gives full autonomy to her patients, she trusts that they will take that step towards healing when they are ready, at which point she is truly able to help them. It is this act of trust that Bhavna states is one of the most...

By Lara-Sophie Boleslawsky Photo by Noriko Nasu-Tidball     “When I teach, I am motivated by the students, rather than the content.” Bassett begins her interview citing her teaching doctrine. Her remarkable journey is peppered with people, daily encounters, art…in short, a cultural interaction with the Japanese language.           Nestled in the midst of the vibrant neighbourhood of Kerrisdale, Martha Bassett and I sit, enjoying the view of misty trees and dew-covered leaves and bushes before us. Bassett is currently a Japanese language teacher at the Senior Campus at St. George’s School in Vancouver. Yet, she is far from just an instructor in the language: Bassett is responsible for the inauguration of the Japanese language program at St. George’s. Since 1992, Bassett has been sharing her love of Japanese language and culture with her students. “In order to sustain interest, there is a lot of other stuff we do, other than language,” Bassett remarks. Indeed, in addition to the language itself students in her classes are exposed to Japanese food, film, history and art, to name a few.            We enjoy green tea, imported from Japan; its delicate simplicity seems to reflect our tranquil surroundings. It is here that we begin Martha Bassett’s remarkable journey. And it is here that we return full circle, like the ever-rising sun.                      Despite being born and raised in Southern California, Bassett remarks that Japanese culture was always a part of her early childhood. Her father, being a soldier in the Second World War, regarded the Japanese as a “worthy enemy” and Bassett recalls, “Asia was always in the background”. Her appreciation for Asian culture suited her well in her early adult years when Bassett found herself wanting to travel. With little formal education, Bassett was inevitably drawn...

By Sean Yoon Photos by Noriko Nasu-Tidball     If I were to ask you the question, “What is sake?” How would you respond? I think the prevailing image in most of our minds would be of something poured from a small, slender flask container called a tokkuri into small cups to drink exclusively with Japanese cuisine at a Japanese restaurant. This is arguably the more traditional image of sake, but rejecting this image and pouring sake from a Bordeaux style wine bottle instead is Masa Shiroki, an artisan sakemaker based in Granville Island. To Masa, sake is wine and it can be enjoyed in many different settings, not just as an accompaniment to Japanese cuisine. “I wanted people to consider sake as wine because it is called rice wine in the first place and people know that. Every time I ask the question to people, ‘So how would you translate sake to English?’ People pause for a second and reply, ‘It’s a rice wine right?’ You just said it. It’s a wine. So think of the sake I’m pouring for you as wine and in order to do that, I thought it would be important to change the image of sake visually, so I decided to use Bordeaux style wine bottles. At his store in Granville Island which is titled, “Artisan SakeMaker,” Masa currently produces fresh domestic premium sake called “Osake,” sourcing purely local ingredients from BC and is the first of its kind in Canada. The rice used for the sake is grown on leased land with partnering farms in Abbotsford and South Surrey, totalling 16 acres of farmland. Sustainability is a major concern for Masa, who takes special care to ensure that all of the sake being produced under his business...

By Sean Yoon Photos by Noriko Nasu-Tidball On the corner of West 4th Avenue and Stephens Street is a clothing business that strives to produce premium quality men’s casual/dress shirts, jeans, suits, coats and accessories personally tailored to meet your needs and fit you comfortably. A clothing label which began in 2002, this brand is Andy Yuen Couture, where Couture stands for tailoring using superior quality fabrics and materials. Alongside the use of premium materials is the quality of customer service with a focus on person to person, face to face interaction that is provided by Andy Yuen, who is currently functioning as the tailor, designer and CEO for the brand. Andy asserts that, “Great clothing starts with great fabric.” The Andy Yuen Couture label uses high quality fabrics such as Supima and Egyptian Giza 45 or 87 cottons carefully selected for their softness, strength and lustre, or brilliance of colour. New pure wools are also used, which are chosen for their long staple yarns, double twisted and milled in Italy for superior durability. In addition, they are certified to be clean and skin friendly. For Andy, clothing can often be described in terms of taste, where he says, “With food, you pay for the quality of taste and in clothing, it’s the feel and touch.” Andy devotes himself to bring awareness to and educating customers about the advantages in quality that premium fabrics can provide. Andy Yuen was 3 years old when he arrived in Canada with his family from Hong Kong. Having settled in a small town in the prairies with a population of around 1100 people, Andy’s father was looking for tailoring jobs as he was an experienced tailor by profession, but there simply were no opportunities available at the time....

By Jasmine Teng Photogtaphy by Jasmine Teng The WaterMe project is created by Jasmine Teng, a high school senior at Crofton House School. Jasmine grew up in Shanghai and moved to Vancouver five years ago. Ever since then, she has been an active member of the community and student at her school. Strongly connected to nature and the environment, Jasmine has always wanted to contribute to the community by bringing a little green into the city. Jasmine Teng is very involved in her school; she is a student leader and an active member of numerous extra-curricular. As it is her final year in high school, Jasmine has set a goal for herself to be more active in her community outdoor the ivy walls of Crofton House. With her involvement in local senior homes and this project along the way, Jasmine Teng hopes to leave an impact in her community before she goes off to college. Currently in her grade twelve year, Jasmine is putting together an art portfolio for college applications. Interested in both creative and academic aspects of design, Jasmine hopes to study both facets in university which consequently is actually how the WaterMe project came about. The WaterMe project was originally created in response to a prompt of an admission challenge. The prompt was to created a three-dimensional gift that demonstrated human spirit. When the word “gift” came to mind, Jasmine immediately thought of an interactive project. Being a student leader at her school, Jasmine has always been involved with her community. In her grade ten year, Jasmine was part of an outdoor education program at her school in which she spent a lot of time in nature and its surroundings. Ever since, Jasmine has tried to keep a conscientious mind and incorporate...

By Sean Yoon Photographs: Sean Yoon/Alan Peng/Kenta Motoike   Situated within a ten minute drive from Kerrisdale Community Centre lies Southlands Farm, a rare plot of the last remaining class 1 agricultural soil in Vancouver. Being a much needed break away from the bustling noise of the city, I was pleasantly surprised when I found that Southlands Farm was not traditional in the sense where crops are grown in rows, but was instead highly efficient in the form of a polyculture space raising chickens, horses, ducks, honeybee hives; as well as integrating within the space a wide variety of produce such as apples, grapes, chicken and duck eggs, tomatoes, lettuce, kale, rhubarb, basil and other herbs. Feeling at ease among the sounds of people chatting, chickens running around and delightful atmosphere of the farm, I had the opportunity to walk around the farm and talk with Jordan Maynard, who is a manager and co-owner of the farm with his family.   Before I set out for the interview, while I was looking through the Southlands Farm website, I discovered that the conceptualization of Southlands Farm began in 2008 with a simple, but highly significant vision, which was and continues to be, “to farm in a sustainable way that could demonstrate to neighbours that true food security was possible within the city.” This statement raised some questions to my mind, such as what does food security mean and why is it an important concept to keep in mind in the context of Vancouver as a city? Jordan eloquently explained to me the concept of food security in Vancouver below.   “Food security is about having access to good food and in Vancouver right now and especially with the drought in California, we don’t have a...

By Ellen McLaren Photos by Keiko Honda When I arrived at the Marpole-Oakridge Community Center, the mood was busy and the people were bustling, making last minute rearrangements in the gymnasium, where the Vancouver Regional Heritage Fair Showcase would soon be taking place. After the giving the room one final sweep, Wendy Hallinan led Keiko and I toward the rows of projects, explaining that though the Heritage Fair has been an annual event since 2004, last Saturday (May 16) was its public debut. By taking place in the community center, members of the Marpole-Oakridge community were able to share in the knowledge that participating students, grades four through ten, had been readying for presentation since January. An adjudicator herself, Wendy would soon have the difficult task of determining especially standout projects. Hallways made from poster-board stretched from one end of the gym to the other, each one different from the next, covered in carefully lettered titles and bright illustrations. There were photographs and dioramas, miniature mansions and handmade brochures – some students even dressed for the part: I met a viking, a Scout, a basketball player and a young lady who had drowned on the RMS Empress of Ireland.  Giddy with anticipation, students darted here and there, eyeing their peers’ projects, reevaluating their own, and staying on the lookout for Janet Morely to ask her any last minute questions. Janet, coordinator of Vancouver Heritage Fairs, was doing some juggling of her own, fixing nametags and speaking with fellow organizers, like Marpole-Oakridge Community Association President Mike Burdick, who gave opening remarks at the kickoff ceremony. Before he welcomed and congratulated participating students, setting the rest of the afternoon into motion, I had the chance to speak with Janet (albeit briefly, her list of things to...

By Sean Yoon Photos: Noriko Nasu-Tidball   On May 4th, I met with two SFU graduates, Joe Bickson and Kevin Kimoto, are founders of a zero-waste initiative called Uproot. Uproot was founded in January 2015 and by working along with three other team members: Dayna Stein, Natradee Quek, and Danielle Vallee, the initiative essentially seeks to divert 100% of Vancouver’s wood waste from the landfill, appropriating the material instead into sustainable and useful products. Significantly, the project has already produced remarkable results, having diverted over 12 tonnes of wood waste from the landfill.   First of all, Kevin and Joe recall the crucial state of mind which marked the beginning of their journey towards the founding of Uproot: “I’m not sure what the origin of this is, but we’re both very passionate about waste and the environment. I think it’s just a part of our generation, which is understanding that we need to live on this planet more sustainably. So we began with this context of, okay we want to help our environment, we like to participate socially in Vancouver and we’ve found this need which is diverting wood waste from the landfill. There’s too much wood in the landfill, what do we do about it.”   Thus with a forerunning passion towards waste and sustainability, Kevin and Joe had formed a team through a minor program at SFU called “A Semester in Dialogue” in 2014, which initiated their shareable neighbourhood project done through an innovation hub inside City Hall called CityStudio. The shareable neighbourhood project aimed to connect neighbours and reduce waste through the production of a recreational sharing library, allowing for the sharing of recreational items, such as sports equipment. The search for wood waste to construct this library began locally for...

By Lauren MacFarland   It’s a goal of any artist and Stuart Ward has managed to achieve it: to create something truly original. Based in Vancouver, Stuart is the head of Hfour, a design company which pushes the boundaries of art as an immersive medium, bringing his installations out of the confines of galleries and into public venues, making his work more accessible and interactive, introducing the public to art they might never have discovered. It’s a fine balance to strike, to create innovation while keeping it approachable, as he explains, “if it goes so far that you need to have a large explanation to understand it, then maybe the visual communication is missing something.” Public art which is funded by taxpayers should especially be something that can be appreciated by anyone of any age.  “I don’t think there’s going to be a great big cultural shift, but if one person who doesn’t want to go to the art gallery has an interesting art experience…they might wonder what there might be in the world.”  This year, Stuart’s work ranges from a light installation at the annual Cherry Blossom Festival to working with performance artists, merging the physical beauty of dance with projection mapping technology that turns the sky into a stage. But perhaps the most exciting project Stuart has in development is ‘Divine Lights’, a stunning mix of craftsmanship and video art that comes together to create art pieces that are both state-of-the-art and a callback to the stained glass masterpieces of centuries before. It starts with projection mapping technology, the projection of video onto a solid piece, but Stuart takes it one step further, displaying video on LCD screens behind an overlay. The video displayed corresponds to the lattice, and the result is...

 By Dave Wheaton Photos by Alison Verghese   A few weeks back I was given the chance to meet with the inspiring and ever-intriguing Bill McMichael. For the uninitiated, Bill played and continues to play prominent roles in several non-profit organizations across Vancouver. In addition to volunteering as the Board Vice President at the Pacific Community Resource Society, which offers social services and strives towards community development, Bill is the events coordinator for The Canada Japan Society of BC, the past President of the TESL CanadaFederation, the past President and Founding Director of the Vancouver Mokuyokai Society, and the project manager of Vancouver Yokohama Golden Jubilee. I could go on, but suffice it to say that Bill has had a tremendous impact on educational services and various communities here in Vancouver. Despite the impressive catalogue of achievements, Bill’s career came from simple beginnings. After travelling the globe in his late teens, Bill returned to Vancouver and began teaching basic literacy to refugees. Today, after having served a number of directorial and managerial roles, Bill has returned to the non-profit sector to continue doing what he loves; empowering marginalized groups to a communal level. “It’s kind of like going backwards”, he chuckles, thinking back on how it all started. “I was president of the national organization of teachers, a group that creates standards. I did that for many years and then I moved right back into the neighbourhood stuff” Bill considers his job to be the best in the world and I was eager to discover why. “There’s nothing like teaching”, he says, “My hobby is meeting other people and this is a great way to do it”                   Bill speaks with the honest energy of someone who loves what he does. He flies from...

Interviewed by Keiko Honda (Editor-in-Chief) Photos by Karney Hatch   An exciting time for urban farming and Vancouver! Prior to the upcoming Canadian Premiere of his documentary film, Plant This Movie, at Kerrisdale Community Centre in the evening of Friday, March 20th (Mark Your Calendar!), I interviewed filmmaker Karney Hatch about his incredible journey with Plan This Movie.    1. Where did the idea for the film come from? Something you knew a lot about? What attracted you to the world of urban farming as a setting for your new film? Why was it important for you to do a film about urban farming?   I grew up on a farm in Idaho, and when I was living in Los Angeles, I became aware of that city’s water issues, how they essentially steal most of their water from Northern California and neighboring states.  So then when you’re driving around the city and see all those green lawns, it doesn’t really add up.  They’re stealing all that water and not even using it to grow food.  I mean, the statistic that still freaks me out to this day is that lawn grass is the #1 irrigated crop in the U.S.  Talk about a terrible waste of resources!  So I started spending time and filming with the Food Not Lawns chapter in Claremont, a suburb of L.A., and it took off from there.  I also read Heather Flores’ book, “Food Not Lawns”, which was very inspiring as well.   2. What sort of research did you do with regards to urban agriculture movement (e.g., its history and economics, multiple stakeholders, city regulations, technology development, local economy development and marketing, community building, land use etc.) and how is this research represented in the storyline of the film?     I did quite...

    By Oliver Hockenhull  Photo Courtesy of Oliver Hockenhull         Beginning with some key definitions: 1.  The technological singularity is the hypothesis that accelerating progress in technologies will cause a runaway effect wherein artificial intelligence will exceed human intellectual capacity and control, thus radically changing civilization in an event called the singularity.   2.  Norbert Wiener, mathematician and philosopher, defined cybernetics in 1948 as “the scientific study of control and communication in the animal and the machine.”  The word cybernetics comes Greek κυβερνητική (kybernetike), meaning “governance”, i.e., all that are pertinent to κυβερνάω (kybernao), the latter meaning “to steer, navigate or govern”, hence κυβέρνησις (kybernesis), meaning “government”, is the government while κυβερνήτης (kybernetes) is the governor or the captain.   3.  The Anthropocene for the current geologic chronological epoch that began when human activities had a significant global impact on the Earth’s ecosystems.   We’re navigating rough waters, living in highly accelerated times and we haven’t caught up socially, culturally, intellectually, institutionally, economically nor ethically to the incredible capabilities of our computational technologies. It bares repeating —each of us is wandering around with the power of devices that are more powerful than the computers used to help land Apollo 11 on the moon — and what do we use them for? Typing to one another and downloading cute videos of our feline overlords. Our society and our politics are becoming increasing polarized, contentious, violent — though most of us would agree that our government system is falling to successfully manage our today let alone to envision a livable future  — and that our politicians and pundits are grotesquely over paid windbags of one sort or another — whose decisions are rarely wise. We will soon have the capabilities to realize the utopian dreams of generations — a united world living sustainability in creativity, peace &...

By Taylor Lecky Photos: Noriko Nasu-Tidball Special Thanks to VISUAL SPACE (film location)  Kobayashi Issa once wrote, “there is no stranger under the cherry tree.” Before my interview with Linda I knew I appreciated the sentiment behind the saying but I didn’t fully understand it. In honesty, when I was first asked to write an article on the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival, I had no idea what to expect. Apologetically, I stereotypically made an assumption that an individual of Japanese descent would walk in the Visual Space Dunbar gallery that rainy Vancouver Tuesday afternoon. However, I was extremely naive. Linda Poole, with all her golden haired glory, glided into the room as an elegant cherry blossom-like individual herself. Wearing a fuchsia pink skirt with matching leather shoes, a cherry blossom pendant and bracelet, you could not deny that she exuded passion for Vancouver’s sweetheart of tree’s.   “Is pink your favourite colour?” I asked while wearing my daily uniform of head-to-toe black. “No, I enjoy many colours. However, CBC did once interview me on T.V in which they started the session by filming these exact pink shoes. I don’t wear them much anymore,” Linda laughs. “But I do think pink looks good on everyone.” Linda’s demeanor is energetic and passionate while at the same time extremely calming.   Having lived abroad with the Canadian Foreign Service with her husband, a Canadian Ambassador, Linda says at the beginning she asked herself, ‘what does an ambassador really do? Let alone what does an ambassadors wife do?   “It was a fantastic experience and a privilege. I didn’t want to leave. Everyday I would see the Canadian flag flying above our official residence and I would just choke me up. You’re so far from home but your...

By Emily Cheung Photos: Noriko Nasu-Tidball Special Thanks to KIKORI (film location) When wood work artist Russ Gray moved to Vancouver with his wife 18 years ago, he developed a fondness for Vancouver’s unique climate, referring to the rain as “liquid sunshine.” It is this sanguine disposition which has been the vehicle behind his unconventional career path to date. Having grown up in Ontario, it was Russ’ high school art teacher who became the inspiration behind his passion for art. He was motivated by perspective drawing and the eclectic persona of his teacher. Meanwhile, his interest in Japanese culture stemmed from practicing martial arts, specifically Judo and Kendo, ever since he was a young boy. After high school, Russ spent some time in the military. He sang with the Canadian Armed forces as a lead singer. Russ recalls the days when he sang rock and swing, and often travelled across different countries including Germany, Israel, and bases across Canada. Afterwards, Russ travelled to Japan and it was there that he cultivated his skills in Japanese wood work. He began his training in Japan in the 1980s and deepened his woodworking expertise through experimentation and applying Japanese concepts into his own work. Russ adds, “Mistakes are part of the growing process.” Russ specializes in screens, lamps, paper shoji (paper sliding doors), panels, and other custom interior goods. Reflecting upon the paths he has taken in life, Russ muses, “Where you go determines where you will end up”. He believes that reinvention is achieved through circumstances. As for the origins of Kikori, a Japanese antiques and furnishings shop run by Russ, it started when his current business partner, Carol Yamamoto, came looking in his furniture workshop in Langley. The two later found out Carol’s husband, Robert...

By Lauren MacFarland Photos: Noriko Nasu-Tidball Special Thanks to Terry Sasaki Gallery (film location) Bursting with light and colour, Terry Sasaki’s gallery and clothing store are a unique blend of different cultures and versatile creativity, art of different mediums all telling the story of the man behind these beautiful works. For more than twenty years, Terry has been travelling the world, bringing his experiences to his work, and fusing the styles of East and West, the perfect mix for the Vancouver art scene, where so many different cultures collide. Relocating in the Lower Mainland presented new challenges and inspirations, allowing Terry to avail himself of new techniques and textures, always learning and evolving as an artist, constantly creating art that has inspired people the world over. Paintings are the main focus of Terry’s gallery in the Pan Pacific Hotel in Downtown Vancouver, his art instantly eye-catching and evoking his Japanese background, mixed with Western influence. “I get my energy from a lot of different places,” he explains, “and when my energy is good, then my art reflects that. If I ever feel tired of a painting, I move on, I try new things, because the most important thing about my art is that it reflects who I am and makes me happy.” In addition to his own pieces, the gallery also holds work from other local artists, as Terry recognizes the importance of giving back to the art community and giving other artists a chance to have their work seen. Interpersonal relationships hold a great amount of importance to him, and he counts friends from all over the world, including other many other diversely skilled artists. “When you take from different cultures, you have to give back to it as well,” he explains, and...

  Interviewed by Keiko Honda Lee Van Horn was born in November, 1939 into a large German and Irish Catholic community in Kansas City, MO. Because the US would soon be involved in WWII, and then men would be off to war, he and his mother moved into his grandparents home along with a variety of Aunt and cousins. It was a very safe and warm life for a young child. Lee continued to live in KC until he was 17 when he spent time in the US Army. Then it was off to University. Lee attended University at Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota. As he was always told by his father to “get an education,” he took this opportunity very seriously and got a triple major in literature, philosophy and social studies and a double minor in education and theology. He graduated cum laude. Lee the moved to Mpls, MN to teach in a local high school. Very early on he was selected to Chair the English department and to coach the tennis team. He also founded the second guidance and counseling center in the State of Minnesota. As a coach Lee’s team won two State tennis championships. This was also the beginning of a life long involvement in social issues. After all it was the 60’s. Lee became very interested in working with the youth of the city of Mpls and was eventually awarded the “Contact” award for outstanding work among the youth of the city. Lee was involved at the time in the anti-Vietnam war efforts counseling youth not to sign up for the war. He was not always successful in this effort and had a few students he taught in high school die int he war. Feeling a need for...