INSIDE DOUGLAS COLLEGE / SEPTEMBER 4, 1990

Half-Century of local artist’s work at College exhibition

er paintings are astonishing. They make you want to touch them,

to possess whatever person or thing she has captured on canvas.

But you’ve probably never seen a painting by Alyce Stephen- son. You’ve probably never heard of her, and she seems to like it that way. When asked to explain what moves her to produce such art, she has no profound, esoteric answer.

“I just fiddle around with it,” Stephenson shrugs, uncomfortab- ly. The Port Coquitlam artist can daub paint onto canvas to reveal the soul of an old prospector’s cabin, but she can’t conceive that anyone would want to know how she does it. “If you want to do it, you can,” she says.

Stephenson has been painting for fifty years. In fact, an exhibi- tion of her works called Fifty Years

In Retrospect goes on display at Douglas College in New Westminster later this month. Caroline Sadler of the Douglas College Arts Advisory Committee, which is sponsoring the exhibi- tion, says there were many paint- ings to choose from. “There is such

a variety in her work. We thought it would be good to look at the scope of an artist’s life, somebody who has been so creative and prolific.”

Words like ‘creative’ and ‘prolific’ apply to Stephenson, but they are not words she would use to describe herself. It is not that she is quiet; far from it. She has lots to say about government, education, and the environment, and she is especially passionate about a little town called Quesnel Forks in the Cariboo region of British Columbia.

It is a place that boomed during the 1860’s gold rush, but it’s a ghost town now, and Stephenson travels there often to work, finding inspiration in the crumbling, empty buildings and the sense of history. “It’s a lovely place,” she says. “I find lots of things to paint there. These places have many tales to tell.”

She would like to see it preserved, and for years she’s lob- bied the provincial government to save the areas as parks, but there has been opposition from the local folk who are more interested in economic development than preservation. “I must be the most unpopular person in the area,” says Stephenson.

Capturing the lonely beauty of these areas in her art is an attempt to alert people to what she feels is the loss of a national treasure.

Stephenson has done a lot of different things in her life, but she’s vague about dates and details. She went to UBC, she taught, she worked as a graphic artist and as a nurse, she raised a family, but art has been a constant pursuit that began when she was a little girl.

“1 would sit on my grand-

father’s knee and draw cartoons. When I went to school I was the only person who could draw,” she says. “I didn’t decide to go into it. I just always did it.”

i R runs from Thursday, September 13 to Friday, October 26 in the Douglas College Gallery in the Theatre Foyer. It is free and open to the public. m

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