Art at Council

As part of celebrating Pride Month in Port Moody, we are delighted to welcome Aaron Hunter a poet, performer and visual artist based in Port Moody. Aaron is an indigenous, transgender man, who explores his identity through art. Having grown up in the Tri-Cities, his work is deeply inspired by the natural world, his community, and the threads of connection that bind us all.

In May 2024, Aaron founded Tri Cities Poetry, an arts organization dedicated to fostering inclusive and welcoming spaces for artists of all backgrounds. Tri Cities Poetry was created with the goal of bringing together diverse voices and creating community through art. Through Tri Cities Poetry, Aaron has published 2 books, organized over 40 events and most importantly, created a safe and supportive space for artists.

Aaron organizes Brave Voices, a poetry open mic held every Tuesday at Brave Brewing in Port Moody. This platform allows poets of all experience levels the opportunity to share their work in 5-minute time slots.

Aaron also collaborated closely with the Port Moody Art Shuffle, organizing a special open mic and the return of Stanzas in the Streets, a project that brought poetry into public spaces during the Shuffle. Mark your calendars for June 28th, when Aaron will host an all-ages poetry slam at Bevees in Port Coquitlam. 

The Council video archive can be viewed here. Art at Council begins at the 3 minute 42 second mark.

We are delighted to have Corey Smith and the Port Moody Secondary School Blue Thunder Indoor Marching Drumline here tonight and we especially enjoyed their live performance in front of City Hall.  

Founded in 2022, the Port Moody Blue Thunder Drumline is a small group of students from Port Moody Secondary School who are dedicated to exploring the marching arts and supporting the school and community through drumline.

The Blue Thunder Drumline participates in a wide variety of events and competitions such as: supporting Centennial Secondary Football Team, playing at school and music program fundraising events around town, competing at regional and provincial level competitions, and performing for Community Events such as the Port Moody Shuffle and Canada Day Celebrations.

This drumline is one of only 3 drumlines in the province capable of competing at the Premier Class level in Canadian Drumline Association competitions making it one of the top groups in the province. Each year, the ensemble creates an original show that they compete with in the spring.

This year, the show is titled "Witches and Wizards and Drums, OH MY!" and is a journey through the magical worlds of Harry Potter, the Sorcerers Apprentice, and, of course, the Wizard of Oz and Wicked.

The Council video archive can be viewed here. Art at Council begins at the 2 minute 20 second mark.

We are pleased to share an oil painting from the City’s private art collection. The City’s collection consists of 98 artworks that have been purchased by or donated to the city. Every year since 1986, a different city department has purchased an artwork from the Port Moody Art Association’s Annual Art Show and Sale, supporting local artists and promoting artistic expression. In 2010, Brunette River at Hume Park by Pierre Gélineau was purchased by the engineering department.

Pierre was born and raised in Quebec, and moved to Coquitlam in the late nineties. He was a self-taught artist and began painting in the mid 1960’s. In 2000, he became a member of the Port Moody Art Association and participated in numerous exhibitions with the Association as well as at the Lone Cypress Gallery a former commercial gallery that was located on Clarke street. Pierre also participated in the City’s first “Artists in the Park” program in 2000 and continued to participate with the program for six additional years.

Pierre’s primary interest is painting landscapes, seascapes and city scenes. Brunette River at Hume Park provides the viewer with a sparkling view of the Brunette River on a slightly hazy morning as the fog slowly burns away. 

The Council video archive can be viewed here. Art at Council begins at the 4 minute 20 second mark.

Pam Zenkawich is a Port Moody based artist with a focus on oil painting and original monotype printing. Pam attended the Alberta College of Art and Design, graduating with a Visual Communications Degree in 1994. She has since studied abroad at Falmouth School of Art & Design (England), Kent State University, and the Emily Carr Institute of Art & Design.

Pam’s primary interest is botanicals and landscapes and building her imagery through layers of paint and textures. She begins many of her oil paintings from images that she has taken on walks. She continually sees paintings all around her and has a desire to record these glimpses of fleeting beauty. Once her paintings are underway, her intuition takes over. Through her creative process, the painting begins to inform her of what is needed and how her subject matter will take shape, resulting in an evolving transformation that evokes emotion and contemplation.

Tonight, we are delighted to share an acrylic painting titled, Peony In Love, inspired by one of Pam’s favourite flowers. She especially adores when peonies are still tight buds and rich in colour. She is constantly fascinated with the different stages of growth and how each stage represents a moment in time.

You will be able to see more of Pam’s artwork, at Grit Studio, during The Art Shuffle on June 20, 2025.

The Council video archive can be viewed here. Art at Council begins at the 3 minute 33 second mark.

Nina Koba, originally from Ukraine, has lived in Mexico and currently calls Port Moody home. Nina has exhibited in Canada, Mexico and the United States.

Tonight, we are thrilled to share an oil painting titled, The Watchers, that is a reflection on presence, memory, and quiet resilience. Nina painted the tree as if it was a living figure—shaped by time, weather, and the human hand. Its bare branches stretch upward like nerves or ancient writings, each line carrying a story. The Watchers reveals the artist’s attempt to preserve a moment, to translate feeling into form, and to invite the viewer into a world where time slows down and evokes an emotional response that words can barely express.

Nina’s paintings express the dialogue between nature, emotion, and the passage of time. For her, painting is both an act of introspection and an offering to the viewer. She depicts the raw energy of storms, the fleeting beauty of flowers, mysterious trees, and the quiet stories hidden in landscapes. Inspired by the ever-changing sky and the delicate balance of light and shadow, her work explores themes of impermanence, resilience, and memory.

To see more of Nina’s alluring paintings, you can visit PoMoArts and view the current exhibition, Art 4 Life, which continues until May 4, 2025.

The council video archive can be viewed here. Art at Council begins at the 4 minute 4 second mark.

Tonight’s Art at Council is a celebration of the Artist design banner which is part of our StreetArts Banner Program. This year’s design theme was the same as our Community Banner’s theme Planting our Garden.  Both sets of banners are currently being installed in our city streets this week.

Every two years, an artist is commissioned to design a printed street banner through an open artist call. This year’s successful artist is Jordanna George, an artist of mixed T’Sou-ke and Ukrainian ancestry. Originally from Sooke, BC, they now live in Coquitlam, BC. They received a BFA from the University of Victoria in 2019, and have since been making comics and illustrations, exploring themes of identity, belonging, and hope, and pulling influence from Indigeneity, queerness, and science fiction, with a graphic novel coming from Conundrum Press in 2026.

We are pleased to reveal Seasons of Growth, a diptych representing several plants and animals that are native to Coast Salish lands, depicting both sunny and rainy weather which are important to our biome. The sunny half, George describes as their personal “Western” style and the rainy half combines traditional Coast Salish shape language, representing both parts of their ancestry. Seasons of Growth also acknowledges the diversity of culture in Port Moody and the continued presence of Coast Salish peoples on this land.

Welcome Jordana, we look forward to hearing more about your artistic practice as an illustrator.

The council video archive can be viewed here. Art at Council begins at the 2 minute 56 second mark 

Kathryn Gibson is a Port Moody Artist who graduated with a BFA from Emily Carr University of Art and Design in 2011. She has had numerous exhibitions throughout British Columbia and the United States. In 2003, Kathryn was awarded a BC Arts Grant for Education and Travel which enabled her to travel to Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand. This opportunity arose shortly after her work was featured on the cover of the international magazine, Australian Arts and Perception.

Kathryn’s artwork explores the ideas of place or objects. She describes herself as a maker of marks, inspired by the challenge to create alternative ways to speak with others. Each painting is created with an intent to evoke an emotion in the viewer, through a skilled use of light, atmosphere, colour and form.

The light in her work may remind you of a time spent lying on a forest floor watching daylight filtering through autumn leaves. It may be the recognition of harmony in a painting that can exist between people within their natural and cultural surroundings.

We are delighted that Kathryn is joining us tonight, to present In the Garden, a watercolour that received an honourable mention at recent exhibition with the Federation of Canadian Artists.

The Council video archive can be viewed here. Art at Council begins at the 7 minute 4 second mark.

Parvaneh Roudgar, is an internationally recognized sculptor with over 38 years of experience creating impactful and thought-provoking public artworks. Her sculptures have been exhibited across North America, Asia, Europe, and Australia, exploring themes of movement, identity, nature, and human connection.

Parvaneh began her artistic journey in 1986 in Florence, Italy, where she developed a strong foundation in sculptural techniques. Now based in Port Moody, where she has lived and worked for the past 26 years, Parvaneh seamlessly integrates her Persian heritage and multicultural influences of her Canadian surroundings with traditional Italian sculptural techniques.

If you have taken the SkyTrain at Inlet Skytrain Station, you will have inevitably encountered Parvaneh’s sculpture, Mother and Child on Bicycle, a sculpture that celebrates the bond between family while embracing sustainable transportation.

We are delighted that Parvaneh is joining us tonight, to talk about her most recent sculpture titled Dreams of Starlight, a sculpture that evokes a sense of wonder and contemplation.

The Council video archive can be viewed here. Art at Council begins at the 5 minute 45 second mark.

We are pleased to have Alexander Lecce with us this evening for Art at Council. Alex is a self-taught artist who currently lives in Port Coquitlam but grew up in Port Moody with his family. Alex has exhibited his artwork in the annual Inclusion Art Show at the Roundhouse, Project EveryBODY in Vancouver, as well as locally in Grit Café, PoMoArts, and the Port Moody Art Shuffle.

Alex has a studio in his home where he sketches, draws, sculpts figurines using modelling clay and crafts boats, trains and steam trucks out of wood. Alex says he feels happy when he makes art and wants to be a famous artist.

Tonight, we are viewing Port Moody, Inlet Centre Fire Hall, an acrylic painting on canvas. Port Moody Fire Chief Darcy O’Riordon commissioned Alex to create a painting of the fire hall. Alex was able to tour the fire hall and took many pictures for inspiration. Port Moody, Inlet Centre Fire Hall now has a prominent spot in the communal kitchen and can be seen by all the Firefighters and administration staff everyday.

The Council video archive can be viewed here. Art at Council begins at the 5 minute 44 second mark.

Amy Wiebe Lau has been a resident of Port Moody for the last 12 years. She is an abstract expressionist artist who captures the vibrant and fluid nature of the cosmos using layers of resin, acrylic and alcohol inks. Currently, Amy is a doctoral candidate in Arts Education and her research interests lie at the intersection of art and social justice, with a focus on the role of contemporary art in decolonization and reconciliation.

Tonight, we are delighted to share Magellanic Pink one of her mixed media paintings which beautifully captures the vibrant fluidity of the tumultuous cosmos, inviting viewers to immerse themselves in the mesmerizing dance of colours, layers and textures. Magellanic Pink is the heartbeat of a universe in bloom, where the celestial and the cellular intertwine. Ethereal swirls of rose and gold unfold like the first breath of a newborn star or perhaps the final exhale of a dying sun dissolving into the void.

The pigments stretch and coil, whispering secrets of stellar nurseries and the quiet poetry of nebulae, where light and dust conspire to create something greater than themselves. There is a tender urgency in the way in which the hues collide, a reminder that existence is not static—it is an ever-changing tide, an ebb and flow of energy, love, and transformation.

Amy’s captivating paintings are part of PoMoArts’ current exhibition, Interwoven Realms, which continues until March 2, 2025.

The Council video archive can be viewed here. Art at Council begins at the 6 minute 45 second mark.

Tonight’s Art at Council is a celebration of our StreetArts Banner Program. Thirty community banners were painted two weekends ago and are currently on display in the Galleria until tomorrow, Wednesday, January 29.

This year’s design theme is Planting our Garden. Gardens are a wonderful metaphor for growing a community and we care for gardens in much the same way that we care for each other. We plant seeds, tend to young shoots, feed them, nurture them while enjoying their flourishing blossoms.

This year we are showcasing two banners created by Port Moody residents. The first one is by Yasuo Araki, who will be turning 86 in April. Yasuo has had a long career supporting the arts and artists as he owned the Araki Gallery International at the Pan Pacific Hotel for over 30 years.

The second design is by Marin Charlton who is nine years old. She has waited patiently for the banner program to come back and was excited that she is old enough to paint a banner by herself. Her inspiration was the visiting hummingbirds in her garden that love the planted honeysuckle.

In addition to the thirty banners, fourteen duplicate short banners were painted by community volunteers and this past fall sixty banners were painted by Port Moody Secondary and Heritage Woods students. We look forward to seeing the banners adorning Port Moody streets in April. 

The Council video archive can be viewed here. Art at Council begins at the 17 minute 50 second mark.

We are pleased to have Valerie Pugh with us this evening for Art at Council. Valerie, an artist and arts educator, resides in the Tri-Cities. She has exhibited her artwork in group and solo exhibitions at The Vancouver Art Gallery, Surrey Art Gallery, The Art Gallery of Greater Victoria and POMO Arts Centre.

Valerie explores relationships between memory, reflection, and imagination through painting, collage, and sculpture. She recently opened The Architecture of Memory, a solo exhibition at The Act Arts Centre in Maple Ridge. Tonight, we are highlighting one of the works in her exhibition titled House Red Line, an acrylic painting on paper.

The artwork in her exhibition explores themes of memory, home, imagination and dreams. Inspired by Gaston Bachelard’s book, The Poetics of Space, Valerie negotiates the distortion and formation of memory and explores how a lived experience is pieced back through the imagination. Memories, which are often abstract in form, are represented as gestural swaths of vivid colour and generous layers of mark making. These abstractions are then constructed into recognizable architectural forms.

The Council video archive can be viewed here. Art at Council begins at the 4 minute 25 second mark.