Lee Robinsong
Artist

Lee Robinsong was a student of the late Sir Kyffin Williams RA, the Welsh landscape painter, and Anthony Green RA, the renowned contemporary British painter. After completing further studies in fine arts and graphic design in Winnipeg, Manitoba, he became the art director for the Greenpeace Chronicles, Canada’s first environmental publication.

In 1980, Lee moved to British Columbia’s Cortes Island, where he co-founded the Hollyhock Retreat Centre and began to paint full time. Here he refined his signature “Circulist” style. Influenced by the Cubist perspectives of Picasso and Braque, and the Cree teachings of the Medicine Wheel, Circulism ties together the belief that you can view an object from every direction simultaneously and that everyone views the same object differently. Lee’s Circulist paintings offer the viewer a subjective, holistic view of the natural world.

Over a thirty-year period, Lee created 35 Circulist pieces portraying the beauty and power of landscapes in British Columbia’s Desolation Sound and in Glastonbury, England. Many of these circles were painted in Hollyhock’s Raven building, which was once his studio. Lee’s works are now included in collections across Canada, the US and Europe. Lee Robinsong lives in Victoria, BC, with his wife Patty Loveridge. He has two daughters, Erin and Kaeli Robinsong.

Joanne Thomson
Artist

Joanne Thomson is a professional Artist and Illustrator with a passion for helping adults discover their own creativity through painting and drawing.  With a Master’s degree in Adult Education and training as a Registered Nurse Joanne spent many years teaching Nurses and Care Aides.  Now she turns her teaching skills toward assisting adults to use art-making for self-discovery or just for the joy of it.

Currently, Joanne is concentrating on two very different themes in her artwork: the external and the internal. Landscapes are portrayed in vivid colour as vast sweeping vistas or intimate inner forest spaces. The ‘Bottled” series is an expanding body of work using the bottle as a visual metaphor for human communication and a satirical commentary on its failings and limitations. Deceptively simple on first glance, both themes are characterized by Joanne’s clear lines and clean colours.

Joanne Thomson lives in Victoria BC. She gardens, dances, sings, bakes and spends a great deal of time painting. In her spare time she teaching others how to draw and paint.

Amanda West
Artist

Show Title: She Can’t Fake Exactly What It Is

Trained as a biologist, Amanda West has worked in the areas of microgravity science, film production and research into the cultural effects of new technology.

A student of Marshall McLuhan, British cybernetician Stafford Beer and Tibetan Buddhism, she uses work and play to explore the nature of reality, in an ongoing attempt to strike a balance between the terror of being alive and the wonder & beauty of being alive.

This collection of collages was borne of grief, fuelled by searing encounters with love and with death.

Dean and Dudley Evenson

Dean Evenson is a true visionary of the Ambient/New Age musical genre - a prolific musician and composer, entrepreneur, media pioneer and co-founder of Billboard-charting independent music label, Soundings of the Planet.

Brooke Maxwell Trio
Pianist, Vocalist, Band Leader, Teacher

Brooke Maxwell is a singing piano guy who sometimes likes to carry a saxophone.  A music educator, performer and song writer, he can be found playing all kinds of music in his many different  jobs: jazz, swing, 80's pop, R&B, 50's rock, church hymns, soul gospel tunes, and fiddle music.  

He received his education through Berklee College of Music and completed a teaching degree at UVic in 2001.  He is currently kept very busy as an elementary music teacher at Selkirk Montessori School, the musical director at Esquimalt United Church, composing original music for Victoria's comedy troupe Atomic Vaudeville, and a regular musician in Victoria's vibrant music scene. 

Brooke is very excited to be performing at SpiritHeals.  Check out brookemaxwell.com to learn more!

Lyle Povah
Musician, Educator

Lyle Povah is a singer/ percussionist/ guitarist, writer, and recording artist with a special interest in African drumming. He has studied and performed worldwide and is a pioneering educator in areas related to health and creativity, spirituality, community and corporate team building, and intergenerational learning.

Lyle’s diverse career includes: workshop presentations at various conferences – the Society for the Arts in Health care (SAH), United Church’s “Faith Formation through the Lens of the Arts” and CRISH’s “Conference on Spirituality and Health”; sharing music with kids and teens one day a week for the past 18 years at B.C’s Children’s Hospital; residential facilitator at Bridgepoint Center for Eating Disorders in Saskatchewan; on the Faculty at the Haven Institute.

Anne Schaefer
Singer, Songwriter

Winner of Vocalist of the Year at the 2004 Island Music Awards, Songwriter of the Year and Artist of the Year at the 2005 IMA, and Favorite Jazz Artist at the 2006 M Awards, singer/songwriter Anne Schaefer has attracted national and international attention with the 2005 Canadian release of her debut album, Twelve Easy Pieces (Roadhouse Records/SRI).

Schaefer’s musical diversity places her comfortably in venues from intimate cafés and theatres, to festival main stages and concert halls. This flexibility has allowed her to share the stage with artists ranging from Canadian songstress Mae Moore, to jazz drumming legend Roy Haynes.  Schaefer is also a sought after session musician and has recorded as a guest artist on such albums as, Agua Del Pozo/Alex Cuba, Back to Francois/Rachelle van Zanten, Sacred Lines/Paul O’Brien, and many more. 
    
Anne is currently presenting her pre-production concert series leading up to her May 2008 follow-up CD recording for a 2009 Canadian release and. She is based in Victoria, B.C. on Canada’s west coast.

“…the best singer/songwriter you’ve never heard of…stunning debut album…simply sultry vocals…”
 – John Threlfall, Monday Magazine

“…stunning debut album…compellingly modern music about modern realities-performed by an artist in full possession of unique qualities: An exceptional voice, a poet’s eye, a courageous heart, and a damn fine set of guitar-picking fingers.”
– Gregg Quill, Toronto Star

Adrian Dolan and Zav RT
Musicians

Adrian's diverse musical background began with classical training on piano, violin, viola and a wealth of orchestral playing. In his early teens, he began studying traditional music with Daniel Lapp, and playing with the BC Fiddle Orchestra.

While his playing and composing earned awards at regional and provincial levels, he also began gigging with his own groups playing Irish, Cape Breton, Metis and old-time fiddle music. Shortly after taking up the accordion at age 17, Adrian began touring full time with The Bills, performing extensively at festivals and theatres throughout the US, Canada and Europe. Their explorations of global folk styles and inventive original music has earned them two Juno Award nominations and two Western Canadian Music Awards, including Entertainer of the Year.

Adrian has toured and collaborated with a diverse array of artists — Barney Bentall, The Arrogant Worms, The Paperboys, Ridley Bent and more recently The Chieftains. Over the past eight years, he has instructed fiddle, accordion, arranging, and piano accompaniment at workshops across Canada. He currently resides in Victoria where he juggles a busy schedule as a studio musician, producer, teacher and performer.

Zav RT (formerly Jamie RT) is an innovative fiddler, violist, pianist, composer, educator and community builder. 

As founder and artistic director of Fiddleworks Community Development Society, Zav is dedicated to sharing the joy of music, developing life and leadership skills, and building community through innovative music education programs.  She hosts one of Canada’s most successful summer music camps on Salt Spring Island BC, and loves traveling North where she teaches the joy of fiddling to youth in Canada’s remote Northern villages. 

A dynamic performer, Zav tours internationally playing her unique five-string viola and piano.  She tours with Canadian folk legend James Keelaghan and has shared the stage with Liz Carrol, Martin Hayes, Alasdair Fraser, Oliver Schroer, Daniel Lapp, Pierre Schryer, Colin Adjun, Catriona MacDonald, Jerry Holland, and Yves Lambert. 

As a composer, her original writing is winning international composing accolades, and is often featured on CBC radio and stations around the globe.  RT's first two original solo albums “Reach” and “Spark” received nominations for Canadian Folk Music Awards and Western Canadian Music Awards.

RT holds a Bachelor of Music in Piano and Composition from the University of Victoria, and currently lives with her inventor husband and two cats in their straw bale home on Salt Spring Island, BC.  For more information about Zav check out www.zavrt.com