Photo Gambtolt Cotlection

JOAN Gambioli in her Horseshoe Bay studio circa 1960, beginning to sculpt The
Family tor Carson Graham secondary school.

SCULPTORS Joan Gambioli and
Bill Koochin were both longtime
residents of West Vancowver.

Both artists have received major commis-
sions in the Lower Mainland and their work can
be seen in prominent public sites.

Gambioli was the granddaughter of Henry
Stone, founder of the Vancouver Art Gallery.
She trained at the Vancouver School of Art and
Design and was onc of the first women on the

_ West Coast to specialize in sculpture.

Working, out of 2 studio in Horseshoe Bay,
she sculpted extensively in stone and marble,
but also created pieces in wood and cast
bronze.

In the 1960s Gambioli was commissioned to
produce a piece for Carson Graham secondary
school. According to her children, the resulting
- sculpture was a representation of all the bits and
pieces — the body parts — of her family.

*. Gambioli exhibited extensively throughout
the 60s. In 1974 she was invited as one of 12
participants at the Vancouver International
Stone Sculpture Symposium at VanDusen
Botanical Garden. She continued sculpting until
the late 70s. In 1985, she died suddenly of
leukemia.

Bill Koochin studied at the Vancouver

Schoo! of Art and Design. Coming from a fam-
ily of builders, Koochin says that his early expe-
riences with building materials is what oriented +
him towards sculpture.

At the time the emphasis at the art school
was on painting and there was no real sculpture
program. He trained by working with a com-
mercial sculptor in Toronto and eventually trav-
elled to Paris to complete his studies.

It was in Europe that Bill Koochin decided
to dedicate his life to art. When he tcid people
in Paris that he was studying art, tiey would
take him seriously and reply that they were only
studying chemical engineering at the Sorbonne.

Bill Reid introduced Koochin to West Coast
native carving techniques while he was working
on carvings at UBC. Preferring the flexibility of
traditional West Coast wood carving tools,
Koochin has since worked extensively with
them and on bow! forms.

Koochin’s work is represented in the collee-
tions of the Vancouver Art Gallery and the
Museum of Civilization. His most recently
completed consmission was a sculpture of Rick
Hansen at General Motors Plac

Joan Gambioli and Bill Koo
artists featured in Generations
Art in West Vancouver 1912-1962, an exhibition
presented by the West Vancouver Museum and
Archives at 680 17th St. Call 925-7295 for
more information.

— KL. Tzang, with research
by Ingunn Kemble

Glam photo session for Trudeau _|

From Page 15 . involved.”

person, it just comes through

the King Edward hotel in
Toronto.

“We're both bad Canadian
kids who are very good,” she
mused. “It was a very gener-
ous thing he has done. I
think he’s got a tremendous
amount of satisfaction trom
it, he’s a gifted photographer
it was my pleasure to be

Trudeau, no stranger to ©
the photographer’s lens, com-
pared Adams with New York
fashion photographer Richard
Avedon.

“I got the same feeling
from him, he loves women,
he sees beauty in women
where maybe there isn’t any
to be seen, he finds it and *
looks at it and is such a good

. him. He’s generous and gen-

uine.”

Trudeau said she never
thought twice about jumping
in the tub, even when she was
offered a selection of clothes.

“Water and cleanliness and
purity of woman are vastly
important. It was like a glam
photo for me, like the old
movie stars.”