Victoria and her Monks

Victoria Jones, the art teacher at VIS has an exhibition of her work, together with her colleague Jamie Lowe, at iCat gallery for the next month.  It has been a joy visiting Victoria in the art room as she teaches, creates and inspires the students. Her series of drawings of monks capture their spirituality and the spirit of Laos.

Textile Art

The textile arts of Kiyoko Maki, a 70 year old Japanese weaver who has worked in Laos for many years were exhibited at i:cat gallery for the past month. Her work was divine, and creative, with three themes sky, cloud , wind. Some glorious wall hangings, scarfs, and items of clothing and an installation of objects and rugs made from denim jeans ripped up and then woven to form cloth.

Blooming Laos

Blooming Laos was a Photographic Exhibition on Saturday night at iCat gallery.  Three Korean photographers exhibited there work.  Some of the portraits were very good and captured the essence of life in Laos.

My friend and colleague Virginia is the Special Needs Co-ordinator in the elementary school, was also at the exhibition.

iCat gallery is operated by my friend (and Helen McIntyre's friend) Catherine O'Brien, and holds frequent exhibitions.

My Photos On Exhibition.

WIG - Women's International Group is an organisation here in Vientiane is a group that supports people to meet, learn about Laos and raises funds for community projects.  One of their major fundraising events is the WIG Calendar.

I supported them through entering two photos into the calendar competition and on Friday night they were exhibited along with about 60 other photos at iCat Gallery.

One photo of blue monk bags in a window at a monastery was purchased by a Korean family from school - they were very excited - and their daughter Jae Rin (aka Diana), in my advisory, won a prize for the best junior entry.

My other photo of colored silk drying was purchased too.  However neither made it into the calendar. 

There were some amazing photos, capturing the richness and diversity of life in Laos. The winning photo was titled Serenity and is shown below.

Photographers in Laos

iCat gallery presents exhibitions from local artists.  At the moment she has mounted  Kin Khao, a collaborative photography exhibition featuring two Vientiane based photographers.  The images are thematically arranged and capture life within and beyond the landscape and the interactions of people with the landscape in Laos. The photos also capture and convey the challenges currently facing the country. 

There were some wonderful market images by Mick Shippen.   (I love taking market photos -so they were very inspirational)

Tessa Bunney, an English photographer currently based in Laos, worked closely with ethnic communities to present some fascinating images.

Catherine O'Brien (in the photo) curates and organises the exhibitions in a lovely open gallery  space below her apartment.  Catherine teaches art at VIS and is from Australian, and of course because it is a small world is a good friend of the McIntyres from Stanley.

Visit their websites for further inspiration
www.tessabunney.co.uk
www.mickshippen.com.
https://www.facebook.com/icatgallery/