36 —- Artist sels her sig Wednesday, May 7, 1997 — North Shore News NEWS photo Mike Waketieid JOY Zemeil Long’s new exhibition, There are Hydrangeas in My World, opens tonight at the Seymour Art Gallery. SPEED IS KILLING US. Sens Road oP Part of the Provincial Road Safaty Program. Guaranteed Delivery! . The North Shore News is committed to deliver your paper to you by 7pm on Wednesday and Friday and by 11am on Sunday. If your service is less than perfect we warii to hear from you. Barb Emo Distribution Manager 986-1337 \ north shore news G ARTS Deep Cove Gallery show features art Spanning 30 years By Ueana Lancaster Contributing Writer deana@nsnews.com A Japanese wisteria as old as the house itself clambers up the side of the porch, twists and spirals around the railing, and creeps up the slatted canopy outside Joy Zemel Long’s studio. The porch is cluttered: a chair, craft- ed from driftwood; flower pots; drift net floats. Overhead, seagulls reel and cry. Her father, a sign painter, had this house built on the waterfront in West Vancouver in 1929. It’s the only origi- nal house left in the area. With the exception of 15 years, Long has lived here her entire life. Inside, over sherry and Dutch butter cookies, she talks about painting. “Pm a seri painter,” she say’ “With all the different things that h happened in my fife, Pve gone on paint- ing.” Bsince her youth, when she and her father played games with color (“we'd look at something... the color of the sea right now, and he'd say ‘What colors do you mix to make that?’ "), through adulthood plagued by illness, a failed marriage and the death of those close to her, she has continued to focus on painting, to let it shape the person she is. She won't give her age. “TI don’t want to be thought of as an old woman who paints. 1 want some- body to say the paintings are good, but not because they’re done by an old lady.” Tonight she is opening a new show at the Seymour Art Gallery: There are Hydrangeas in my World, which runs to June 1, is an exhibition she dedicates to her friend Douglas, who died wo months ago. She painted ‘Goopfvear Eagie GSC Ultra-High Performance Radial ‘207% Purchase 4 Eagle GSC tires during Fountain Tire’s Performance Tire Event and receive a Goodyear An extra Air Miles | Racing Jacket free! ran . may opply for instollaion of special rims or mags. Miles on Goodyear Tires and Mechanical Services. Ee See refai'r for detoils. Sole prices from May 8-10 1997 only 859-3513 437-4771 941-3156 © 14540 Riverside Road (Abbotsiord) + 5850 Kingsway Avenue (Burnaby) © 2764 Barnet Hwy (Coquitlam) 8209 - 120th St.(Delta) §91-1151 19926 - 96 Ave. (Langley) 882-9272 20610 Lougheed Hwy. (Maple Ridge) 465-1933 FOUNTAIN TIRE VANCOUER © 680 West 15th St.(North Vancenver) 985-9131 » 2051 No. 6 Re. (Richmond) 273-3425 + 7080 No. 3 Rd. (Richmond) 273-3751 * 15392 Fraser Hwy. (Surrey) 483-4948 + 13689 - 104th Ave, (Surrey) 588-3077 his on painting emotions | her first hydrangeas for him ii 1976. Why Hydrangeas? “Because I have a big bush of them at the bottom of my garden,” she laughs. “Because I like the shape of them, the variation in the color, I like things that are the same but change.” Most of the 15 paintings to be in the show are packaged carefully and leaning on the walls of her mother’s drawing room. The colors are soft, reflecting the flowers, but the shapes. are bold — in one, a young girl offers an armful of the blooms; in another, 1 graceful young woman arranges some. The figures are faceless. “T want to paint ¢ emotions and situa- tions, not portraits,” Long says. She is excited about this ‘show, her’: first in a while, of “the best painting I’ve done for 39 years.” And there is bound to be more to | come: : “1 haven't got much time left but 1 have so much to say,” Long says. : “There are hundreds of paintings in my head.” Wingfeot HP All Season Performance Radial | 04 EACH bi P18S/60R14 Eagle GT ll Eagle Performance and style at an 97 price » 1750 Clark Drive (Vancouver) 255-8494 * 2546 King George Hwy. (White Rock) 535-3973