Beverly Koski

Artist Beverly Koski is a walking, painting example of the old adage, "Where there's a will, there's a way."

Beverly Koski

Perhaps it's living in the original 150 year old Cowichan Valley school house with its memories of studious children or maybe the fact that Bev was raised during the Depression by a self-sufficient mother and grandmother who encouraged resourcefulness and hard work that has made her a woman of intention - an idealist and a pragmatist.

At 59, after careers and motherhood, Bev enrolled in the Victoria College of Art. In the eleven years since graduating in 1998, her work has been shown in leading galleries in the Pacific Northwest and in Toronto and is held in private collections in Canada and the USA.

When the muse appears to Bev a good idea doesn't have a chance to grow stale. Her immediate set-to-it-ness, and inspired motivation carry it through to completion in acrylics, printmaking, and collages, which use everything from tissue paper dress patterns to toolbox bolts and metal washers. Because of the heavy textures and layering of her work she often uses door skin plywood instead of canvas. "Canvas is too flexible under the weight," she says.

Through her art she subtly approaches everything with the idea of possibility, including cleverly conveying the "delicacy" and "vulnerability" of honey bees and flies.

Artwork by Beverly Koski

Like a storyteller, Bev brings the past forward. "I like to capture things from the past before they're gone," she says. By collecting images and memories in her collages she connects the dots between art, life, and history. During renovations to the 150 year old house, Bev imbedded time capsules of family photos, and newspapers in the walls for future seekers of history. Her husband, Jeff Hunter builds her canvases in which he occasionally incorporates the original wood rescued during renovations.

The light from her sun-filled studio shines through a serenely-coloured, luminous stained glass window set in the door. It is a replica of "Maria," one of her collage pieces she loved but sold. Her studio is remarkably organized for a collector. Wicker basket suitcases, coloured bags, toolboxes, plastic boxes hold assorted tools and supplies. Like a mini Eiffel Tower, a tall, wooden easel stands impressively in the centre on the room.

A traveller, Bev finds that it's the psychological and emotional experiences with people that she brings home as souvenirs. Only recently did she notice an unintentional image of her memory of golden light streaming into a cathedral captured in a painting she'd done soon after a visit to Florence in 2007. "The chanting surrounded me, entered my spirit, so that, along with the visual beauty, I was able to transcend, or at least forget for a while, the hustle and bustle of the 21st century," she had written about that trip.

Yes, Bev Koski is also a gifted writer, generously sharing her wisdom, ideas and good business sense in her regular CVAC newsletter column; one topic being the importance of artists marketing their work. She encourages artists to promote their work because if they do not exhibit and sell it, she says, "They can become buried under their art; it breaks the spirit when no one wants it."

Following her into the kitchen and out the back door, then down half a dozen cement steps we enter the low-ceilinged basement, surrounded by sections of the original foundation. This is where some of Bev's work is stored and where her mat cutter and framing materials are set out on long work table for the final finishing. Under the house, in this cool, sturdy room it's clear that Bev Koski is a multi-generational artist straddling the present with one foot in the past, and the other in the future and seemingly, with enough energy to be in all places at once.