What: Beyond the Path, group art show

Where: Cowichan Valley Arts Council Annex

When: Oct. 11-25

The artists in the Beyond the Path show have taken a turn on their artistic journeys and along the way found their own artistic voices. The result is an unusually diverse show from local artists Neil Fatin, Carmen Stanek, Astrid Notte, Bonnie Leighton and Brenda Isaak Takao, who will be presenting work in digital photography, painting (oil, acrylic and mixed media) and metal and felted sculpture.

Neil Fatin is an award-winning hobby photographer who has expanded his approach to photography from what is regarded as traditional, to an artistic rendition of his pieces using digital design. He uses the words of Ansell Adams: “The negative is the musical score and the final print is the performance.” Seeing the world thru an abstracted and reflective view, gives Carmen Stanek pause when playing with paints and other treasures. She steps off the path, and her imagination allows her to fold into another space and time, striving to “live simply so that others may simply live.”

Astrid Notte has lived on Vancouver Island most of her life and holds a Masters in Art Education. One of her artistic steps away from the well-worn path has been her joy of building puppets and her involvement with the Puppeteers of America for many years. Currently, her focus is on acrylics, mixed media and neuro art. Bonnie Leighton most often works in acrylic, oil and mixed media. Her process is a dance of surrender and curiosity that leads her to a reinterpretation of something fresh and unexpected. She has departed from her formal training in art with a random yet deliberate letting go.

Brenda Isaak Takao creates metal and mixed media pieces that tend to take on very feminine forms, flowers and seed pods. They are not always realistic and never what you would expect, but then she has always been just a wee bit of a rebel, and the path of least resistance has only ever slightly tempted her.