The Yvonne Rust Gallery at the Quarry Arts Centre is hosting a must-see show this month.
The artist is Shona Firman. The show: a retrospective spanning 21 years. The work: translucent glass forms that include mixed media, very much located in our Pacific region.
But it is the person behind the work who creates interest, too.
In viewing the work, also consider the drive and passion of the artist who makes these forms. The brief bio on the wall only touches on this.
Firman represents the success that dedication to your craft can bring. As is often the benchmark in our society, that is not always financial.
Economic restraints can curtail creative endeavours while artists find sales opportunities fewer.
Not in Shona's case. She adapts and creates work that is obtainable for all budgets, while still producing high-end, significant works.
There are examples in this show of the quirky and humorous. Her larger works will be in private and public collections all over the world. Her work also reflects that she appears to enjoy her craft.
The art of glass is not one that is taken on lightly. It involves a lot of commitment to equipment and resources that are not easy to set up and maintain.
We have a good track record of glass artists working here, though somewhat under the radar. But we have let chances to be recognised as a centre for glass pass. With the loss of education programmes in the craft, skilled people have moved away and other centres capitalised on the activity.
Firman is an artist who has fallen in love with her material of choice, and made tough choices at times in her life when many people are considering winding down.
And all in her home town.
Apart from a stint at the famous Philchuck glass studio in the US, she has managed to continue her work in Whangarei.
Shona went back to school to study glass.
That was at a time when the "craft" courses were in strength just as Northland Community College became Northland Polytechnic. It was a time when education arguably had more freedom to focus on skill and the making of objects rather than making students "employment ready" as has been the later focus.
Firman used that chance to focus very quickly on her material of choice and take advantage of new interest opening up in glass casting. Pottery and jewellery were in decline from imports and other forces.
Before she turned to glassshe was well known for her creative businesses in town making toys. Doug Chowns alluded to that at the opening of her current exhibition when he eloquently spoke about her pathway from that time, noting the quality was always apparent even in the work she was doing back then.
Firman has been and is still very industrious. She is known to be constantly creating things and she has a generosity of spirit that is unrivalled.
The show is testament to the value of the creative spirit for both the maker and the viewer.
Artists like Firman are role models for our creative people to follow, and who prove they can live and work locally.
Her unfailing commitment demonstrates that with the will there is a way.
Let's hope this exhibition inspires others to follow in her footsteps.