Discover the Artists of Salt Spring Island: A Journey Into Light, Land, Texture & Story

 

As part of our Featured Region Program (FRP), the Craft Council of British Columbia (CCBC) is proud to feature the work of artists from Salt Spring Island, BC — a region renowned for its vibrant craft community, deep connection to land and materials, and long-standing culture of artistic innovation. CCBC is shining a spotlight on the unique craft traditions and creative voices from across Canada.

This initiative highlights the richness of Canadian craft while creating meaningful opportunities for exposure, sales, and community engagement. All work represented by CCBC is made in Canada by Canadian residents or citizens living abroad, and through the FRP we continue to build lasting connections between artists and audiences.

The featured region, Salt Spring Island, nestled in the Salish Sea, has long been a sanctuary for artists — a place where forest, shoreline, and community shape creative expression. We are honored to showcase a collective of artists whose practices illuminate the spirit of this extraordinary region. Whether you join us at the CCBC Shop & Gallery on 1386 Cartwright Street, Granville Island, or explore the collection online, we invite you to step into a world shaped by light, geometry, land, ancestry, fire, texture, and story.

This collection will be on display until December 31, 2025.

 

ARI LAZER : Geometry, Light, and the Dance of Form

Interdisciplinary artist Ari Lazer creates work that exists at the intersection of mathematics, nature, and perceptual experience. Rooted in the classical Quadrivium — geometry, harmony, number, and cosmology — his illuminated sculptures, polyhedral lanterns, kinetic installations, and intricate geometric landscapes ask viewers to participate rather than simply observe.

Working in wood, metal, and mixed media, Ari blends computational design with hand-drawn geometries to shape objects that feel both ancient and futuristic. His lanterns and sculptural forms channel the elegance of natural patterns and the unseen language of harmonic structure.

His work is a meditation on light itself — how it shapes us, orients us, regulates us, and offers a way to visually experience mathematical beauty.
Come explore Ari’s work and see how geometry becomes a living presence in the room.

 

PATRICIA ROSE WILLIAMS : Art as Ancestry, Healing and Sacred Connection 

For nehiyaw-Métis artist Patricia Rose Williams, art-making is a sacred act — a bridge between ancestry, land, personal healing, and the deep interconnectedness of all beings. Working in fused glass, textiles, botanical printing, photography, and blended media, Patricia creates layered, symbolic works that honour Wahkohtowin, the Cree and Métis worldview of relationality.
Born on Treaty Six territory and raised in the foothills of Alberta, Patricia now lives among the cedars and sea of Salt Spring Island. Her work emerges from the spaces where worlds meet: land and water, sky and shore, the microscopic and the infinite. Her circles, patterns, and organic forms echo the fractal intelligence of nature — and the ancestral teachings carried in her bloodline.
A registered art therapist, Patricia describes art as “the holy work… the work that makes us whole.” Her practice integrates beauty, healing, cultural identity, and reverence for the Earth.
Explore Patricia’s works to feel the pulse of land, lineage, and spirit.

 

MARGO ZAK : Porcelain as Skin, Vessel, and Inner Landscape

Ceramic artist Margo Zak has been in a lifelong love affair with clay since her first ceramics class in 1975. For her, hand-building is not simply a technique: it is equilibrium, presence, and home.
Margo’s sculptural porcelain pieces are guided by the idea of vessel as both body and space — forms that hold breath, quiet, shadow, and possibility. Through delicate edges, flowing curves, and the soft interplay of light on porcelain, her work radiates calm, refinement, and organic movement.
Influenced by the natural forms of her West Coast home, Margo shapes porcelain into objects that feel both intimate and architectural. Her award-winning work has been widely exhibited, and she continues to share her craft through Artcraft, Sooke Fine Arts, and her home studio on Salt Spring Island.
Visit her collection to witness the poetry of clay, shaped with devotion and decades of mastery.

 

JOHN RAE REID : Whimsy, Found Objects, and the Story Hidden in the Material

After a 40-year career in graphic design and advertising, John Rae Reid's guiding question echoes Marshall McLuhan: “the medium is the message.” But on Salt Spring, that medium becomes driftwood, old hinges, repurposed chandeliers, miniature erector sets, clay, and anything else that sparks narrative magic.
John’s sculptural works are playful, surprising, and often laugh-out-loud clever. By juxtaposing unrelated items, he creates stories that unfold with every angle — raising the eternal question: Did the story inspire the material, or did the material reveal the story?
Working primarily with paper clay allows John to push boundaries, experiment rapidly, and embrace the unpredictable. His studio lights burn late into the night as he continues to explore, assemble, and invent.
Discover John's pieces that don’t just invite interpretation but invite delight.

 

FRANCINE HAMPSON-REID : Salt/Soda Firing and the Legacy of Flame

For more than 20 years, Francine Hampson-Reid has dedicated her practice to the demanding, historic craft of salt and soda firing — a firing method born in 17th-century Germany and now practiced by only a small number of ceramic artists.
Salt/soda firing is a dance with the elements: weather, wind, flame, humidity, intuition, and time. Each firing is unpredictable, producing surfaces and colours that cannot be replicated. Francine embraces this uncertainty with devotion, describing her work as “a reflection of my state of mind… an expression of this moment.”
As fuel costs rise, salt/soda firing becomes increasingly rare — making Francine’s work a living link to a fading tradition. Through Mudpuppy Studios and the Salt Spring Studio Tour, she continues to teach, host kiln openings, and share her passion for this alchemical art form.
Explore Francine’s work and witness the beauty of fire’s final fingerprints.

 

BOB LEATHERBARROW : The Science and Poetry of Kilnformed Glass

For 35 years, Bob Leatherbarrow has pushed kilnformed glass into new territory, developing signature powder techniques that are recognized internationally. A former exploration geologist, Bob brings the mind of a scientist and the eye of an artist to every vessel he creates.
His organic textures echo geological processes — erosion, stratification, sediment, and slow transformations of pressure and time. Through meticulous layering, blending, and multiple firings, Bob creates bowls and sculptural forms that feel both delicate and elemental.
Bob is also a master educator, writing e-books, teaching global masterclasses, and supporting the glass community through articles and videos. His dedication to “what if?” experimentation continues to shape his evolving artistic language.
Discover Bob’s work to see glass as landscape, memory, and scientific wonder.

 

KAREN SELK : Silk, Botanical Impressions, and the Poetry of Process

Textile artist Karen Selk works in a medium of her own making: Silk Fusion — a luminous, papyrus-like sheet formed from unspun silk fibres, water, and textile medium. Onto this hand-crafted substrate, she prints photographs, applies botanical impressions, layers dyed silk, and stitches delicate textures.
Her work is a deep conversation with the natural world. Plants, dyes, photography, and silk all become collaborators in pieces that feel organic, tactile, and full of quiet intelligence.
With decades of experience studying wild silk traditions in India, Karen brings global knowledge into her Salt Spring studio, where she continues to explore materiality, land-based practice, and the meditative qualities of making.
Experience Karen’s work to witness how silk and nature become one luminous story. 

The artists of Salt Spring Island embody the diversity, depth, and imaginative brilliance found in this island’s creative community. Their practices weave together ancestry, geometry, geology, ecology, whimsy, and devotion, revealing the many ways craft can express our relationship to the world.

Visit us in person at the CCBC Shop & Gallery, 1386 Cartwright Street, Granville Island
  Explore online to browse works, learn more about the artists, and shop the collection
  Connect with the Salt Spring community through their stories, materials, and shared artistry.

Whether you’re across the Salish Sea or across the globe, we invite you to experience the art, craft, and spirit of Salt Spring Island — where every material holds a story, and every artist helps tell the story of this extraordinary island.