ABOUT

Ocean Art Parade intends to be year-long parade of participation art events reflecting on the ways of water, its landmarks, and  journey toward the ocean that surrounds us here on Vancouver Island, BC, Canada.

Explore single drop of water: As a trickle, a puddle, a stream, a river, a pond, a marsh, a lake, the mist, rain, clouds,  in the veins of all living things—plants, animals, and people.

The same water circulates forever:
saliva – an ice crystal – fracking oil – washing mud – an olive leaf – a raptor’s blood:  shape-shifting earth’s salt oceans and sweet tea.

The artworks we share in making are also like water in their ability to build momentum and shape-shift. We start with painting, one drop at a time, and the work will transform over the following year into: a tapestry, mural, sculpture, installations, banners, flags, carpets to host conferences on ocean learning. Culminating in the 2025 Metchosin Ocean Art Parade.


EVENTS

November 9, 2024  
LET’S GET TOGETHER
Share Skills, Make Things, Flags in Particular 
11:00 AM to 3:00 PM, Metchosin Arts and Culture Center (MACCA), Event Room, Metchosin, Vancouver Island

A Saturday collaboration, where three artist animators will each offer a skill-oriented, speed-learning/making event.

•11:00 AM: Monoprints
•12:00 PM: Multimedia painting
•1:00 PM: AI-generated images
•2:00 PM: Creation and installation of flag bunting in the Point of View Gallery

Apply your new techniques to create ocean art flags for inclusion in seasonal celebrations:

Peace/Joy Squared installation of flags with ArtPod in the POV Gallery from November 10 to December 25.
• Participate in flag waving at the family-friendly Joy Parade throughout MACCA in December, as part of ArtPod’s extended Peace/Joy Squared exhibition and MACCA’s seasonal program.
• Save and reuse your flags in the Ocean Art Parade, from MACCA to the ocean, summer 2025.

All are welcome! Ocean Art Parade of Events for Peace and Joy.


September 8, 2024
Metchosin Day – WHIRLPOOL
At Metchosin Day, community, families and friends contributed by painting continuous long lines of marks, representing water currents, waves, ripples, and whirlpools—efforts to reflect on the circulation of water and the majestic, mysterious ocean that surrounds our island. Among the obstacle course for pet chickens at Metchosin Day—a yearly rural festival here since 1967—and the sheep shearing demonstration, giant zucchini races, dog show, and competitions for the cutest pig, biggest cabbage, strangest carrot, dance, music, and goodwill, we added another 42 feet to our Ocean Art Parade painting at the Artpod station. Overall, the artwork now stretches 132 feet and aims, in the spirit of country flare, to be the longest painting on Vancouver Island.


August 14, 2024
MAKING WAVES
Participation project with Sc’ianew Youth Group, discussion about the circulation of and painting of ocean waves.
Sc’ianew First Nation Lands / Beecher Bay


August 10, 2024
FALLING WATER

Performance: Launching with a “Falling Water” performance, danced as a single drop of water, as rain, as a storm, with “Falling Water” that paints a stream. Participation Art: An open invitation to join in and continue creating a shared project to paint a stream, drop by drop in falling water.
Metchosin Arts and Culture Centre.


August 24, 2024
Tribal Journey’s Sc’ianew Landing  

Ocean Art Painting Project as one of the reception events for the annual Tribal Journey’s Sc’ianew canoes landing. Beecher Bay / Sc’ianew Lands


July 1, 2024
WATER WAYS
Painting event to explore the circulation of water at Festavas, a July 1st community festival at Metchosin Arts and Culture Centre.


April 12, 2024
WONDERS OF WATER
A participatory sculpture of close looking at water, featured in the group exhibition Wonders of Water at Metchosin Artpod, a rural artist-run, community gallery in the village of Metchosin, BC, Canada.


Project by artist Dyan Marie, with participation and or support from Metchosin Arts and Culture Centre, Metchosin ArtPod, Sc’ianew Youth, The CRD, BC Hydro, and arts, culture, ecology, and community members.