Though the business is long gone, the Oak Bay Theatre sign remains an icon for the community. Now it highlights Oak Bay in the Capital Regional District board room, courtesy former resident Linda Carswell-Bland.
Now living in Saanich, the artist volunteered to represent Oak Bay in a quilt project commissioned by the CRD to mark its 50th anniversary last year.
“I had to think about it because it was a four-month commitment,” Carswell-Bland said. “When I take a project on I like to do it well or there’s no point.”
She became among 30 quilters to collaborate on the artwork, now hanging in the CRD office, that represents each of the 13 municipalities and three electoral areas of the CRD.
Carswell-Bland started in fine arts in university but transferred to general arts and eventually teaching. Throughout a full teaching career, she maintained some form of artwork that started in childhood, playing with grandmother’s buttons and scraps.
“I find that fibre provides me the genre to work with texture, colour and symmetry to design a piece of work that is both satisfying and pleasing to the eye,” said Carswell-Bland.
Sewing is a lifelong hobby, quilting came after her 2003 retirement from teaching.
“I love junior high but sewing was my therapy,” she said with a laugh.
A Victoria Quilters Guild member, she’s tackled that particular art form for abut two decades. Last year her piece Rhythm of the Moons earned the juror choice award, elected by Anne Hudec, in the Sidney Fine Arts Show. The 2016 juried show featured 412 selected works that earned 14 awards.
“That was wonderful. The trouble is I’m not sure I can reach that point again,” she said with a laugh.
Still serving as past-president of the local lawn bowling club, and an Oak Bay resident for 25 years, Carswell-Bland knew options were plentiful when designing a square for Oak Bay.
She considered Trial Island Lighthouse, the marina and areas of Oak Bay Avenue, settling on the sign, tree and tudor-style building.
“To me it is the Avenue. To me, that is Oak Bay.”
The quilt features 28 squares crafted by 33 artists including First Nation representation. Some squares were crafted by multiple quilters, while she opted to go it alone.
“I met a nice group of ladies throughout the southern Island here. We met monthly,” Carswell-Bland said.
Each finished square is 28 by 18 inches and crafted twice – once to be incorporated into the fabric art hanging at the CRD, and a second to grace the walls of the municipality it represents. Oak Bay expects to receive their square this week.
“It’s an amazing piece of art. It really shows how unique and diverse our communities are,” said Mayor Nils Jensen of the quilt. “I was pleased the iconic Oak Bay sign was chosen to represent Oak Bay. It is a reminder of each of our unique communities in the CRD. it’s a wonderful way to celebrate the 50th anniversary.”
Did you know?
• To create a sense of connection between each block, quilters were given the same 10 fabrics as a base and instructed to use those fabrics for 70 per cent of the block. Quilters then chose other fabrics to make up the rest of the block. Some of the groups reached out to their local First Nations communities to collaborate and seek permission to include local symbolism and design.