12 — Wednesday, July 31, 1996 — North Shore News

Pe as: & “

Out of this wor'

Hot Kisses
the latest
work by
Peter Kiss

BY LAYNE CHRISTENSEN
Community Reporter

VISITORS to the Ferry
Building Gallery should
be prepared for an other-
worldly experience.

The West Vancouver
galfery’s current exhibition
is innocuous enough. Called
“Hot Kisses,” it showcases
recent works by West Van
artist Peter Kiss. It's the
artist's statement posted to
the wall-that-may sound a
few alarms.

Kiss claims to have been
abducted by aliens — four-
foot-high aliens with furry
hides and large front teeth
like a beaver’s.

“The. need to express
myself in wood is not, as many people
believe, a part of my self-help therapy
program,” he writes, “but rather the
result ofa single incident which
occurred on Dec. 8, 1989..."

Kiss contends that he was shovel-
ling snow on his driveway when the
abduction occurred.

“Upov my return,” he continues, “a
single od¢:compulsion did develop. it
was the. need to take chunks of wood
and chisel away at them.”

Ruth Payne, exhibition: coordinator
for the Ferry Building Gallery, say:
ihat followers of Peter Kiss’ work have
come ta,expect such wackisess | from
the artist.

“Peter has ‘a unique sense of humor
and a light-hearted approach to fife,”

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arts WNENKOTY,

“SPIRITUAL, mythical, mystical and silghtly odd” Is how Peter
painted wooden sculptures. “i'm enjoying life and { don’t want people to take {ife too

seriously.”

says Payne. “And people Jove that
because it opens the door so they can
relate to his work.”

His approach may be off-beat, but
the artist remains serious about his art,
she adds, And in control of his senses.

“I consider myself very stable,” said
Kiss when contacted at the gallery on
Monday,

To back up his assertion, the 41-
year-old cites degrees in architecture
and marine biology. (His life as an
artist did in fact begin on Dec. 8. 1989,
the date he quit his career as an archi-
tect.)

“Gary Larson meets wood" is how
he describes: his hand-carved sculp-
tures that appear half-animal, half-

- human.

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id art

Kiss describes his

The artist is also the creative mind
behind the ArtBeat pictogram puzzle,
which will be unveiled during the
Harmony Arts Festival, Aug. 9-18 in
West Vancouver.

A series of pictorial clues displayed
in store windows along Marine Drive,
from Dundarave to Ambleside, provide
the answers to the puzzle and the
chance to win an original painting by
Carole Arnston.

Kiss’ exhibition runs to Aug. 11.
Gallery-goers ar¢ forewarned that
sightings of the gregarious artist are
inevitable,

Payne says there is nothing to fear:
“He's very friendly and very funny ...
and he doesn't have giant teeth grow-
ing out of his face like a beaver.”

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Kidsummer at]
NV museum

CHILDREN'S entertainer Fred Fox of the group g
Birds of a Feather and storyteller Ginger Mullen will §
lead an afternoon of song, dance and tall tales at §
North Vancouver Museum Sunday, Aug. [1.

The occasion is the museum's annual Kidsummer family
open house. From noon to 4 p.tu., Fox will encourage all to J
clap to the beat and Jend a voice to his home-style show.

The afternoon will ulso include a variety of activities such J
as hand-logging, building toy boats and leaming about the
good ald days. _

Children can climd aboard a heritage fire track and create
old-fashioned toys. The museum's new displays of turn-of-the -
century tools and tugboats will also be open. ,

Admission is free to this annual event, which takes place; f
at the museum, in Presentation House at the corner .of
Chesterfield and West 4th Street, North Vancouver. For more
information, call 987-5618. eh

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