Artistic Endeavours

Artists often say art isn’t what they do, it’s who they are. When the Covid-19 pandemic began in March 2020 there were no more gigs for musicians like Paul Gemino. A passion to play began on a rainy front porch one night at 7pm, soon a neighbourhood was coming together through music and the Allan Road Band was born.

The day the music died

The shocking shutdown of life in March 2020 had local musician Paul Gemino lost. 

“Suddenly there was nothing,” he said. “Psychologically it was like there was a black cloud all around me. I couldn’t be all of me. It was like I was lonely or lost.”

The sounds of pots and pans brought Gemino out of his house one night. As a musician and composer with more than 35 years of professional experience – and encouraged by wife Faye Slevage – Gemino thought he could lend his guitar to the ragtag orchestra acknowledging front-line workers and healthcare personnel. 

“I played three songs that first night in the pouring rain on my covered porch,” said Gemino. “One guy came by. The second night there were three. Then a few more and more. But that first night, in the pouring rain, that first guy began [to clap], and it might as well have been a crowd of 10,000.”

Gemino’s thoughts echo countless other live performers who also lost not only their livelihoods but also the outlet for their passions. 

“I have been playing music since forever,” he said. “It’s in my DNA to be a musician.”

After the solo success of the first few nights, Gemino gave a call to a fellow musician and then two. Gaining momentum, another friend joined and another until the six-piece Allan Road Band was formed. 

“Eventually we did 40 days in a row – never repeating a song,” he said. “It was an organic sort of growing. We started to get people noticing, not just here but all over the world. My wife would put her cellphone up on a stand and record it and we would share it. Then I got a message from London, England asking me to play Jimi Hendrix’s Fire at an upcoming show. It’s a bit of a crazy song – but I thought ‘Yes.’ This whole thing has been about saying ‘yes’ to what could be.”

The current Allan Road Band has a lot of others saying yes too. Gemino is joined by Bill Schatz, Brian Carballo, Peter Lepine, Les Toth and Ron Froehlich. His wife Faye Savage picks up the other jobs like sound technician, PR and photographer.

Normalize the neighbourhood

What the Allan Road Band didn’t know was that their passion was also becoming a weekly beacon of light and hope in Lynn Valley. 

“We were living in strange times,” said Colleen Eschner, who lives in Gemino’s neighbourhood. “It was one hour to look forward to each week – and I really looked forward to it. It was a chance to see people you care about, to see neighbours, to experience something as a community and to do something that was safe – and normal.” 

As the weeks went on word of mouth spread and the sounds of music drew people to the unadvertised events. It was a chance for people to be outside and together but also socially distant, said Gemino.

“It was invigorating to see people talking and connecting – checking in, shuffling over to give space,” he said. “I didn’t know we had two paramedics on the street. Here I was thanking essential workers and they were out doing the work.” 

The weekly concerts were time to put aside the challenging time and escape for a little while.

“I had covid – getting quite sick,” said Eschner. “It was almost a shock to sit quietly and listen to the music again. It was hope. It was respite. It was so normal but everything was different. We were looking at the world through a different lens.”

One of Gemino’s joys was getting requests from patients in hospital. 

“I had one rule – no downers. Someone fighting for their health needs to hear energy or happy.”

Come together

As the summer and year went on the audience grew and was always appreciative. 

“I had a family move in next door and two days later I am pulling out gear and the ‘dad’ is dumbfounded. It’s not every day you move next door to a rock band,” laughed Gemino. “The ‘mom’ was about eight months pregnant and they came out with their 18-month-old that day and have been great supporters.”

There were other stand out memories like the connection the band fostered with DNV Firefighters during the Arglye grad parade, the 88-year-old neighbour from down the block who called her kids and grandkids and had a family picnic, and little three-year-old Nora who brings her ukelele and joins the band. That little maestro led to an entire kids concert with more than 15 ukeleles.

“Mabye three could play – and it was noise but it was fun noise,” said Gemino

The passion and joy of the band is palpable on show days, said Eschner. It draws the community out of their homes.

“When you go and sing along for an hour or just sit with a friend, it was so healing,” she said. “It holds on to you and echoes around in your head and body and stays with you.”

The path forward

As the regulations change the band moves forward – not onward. Gemino has been able to return to his other job, a taekwondo instructor but live music gigs are limited and not the same as before with restrictions like no dancing. As rough as that is for the Allan Road Band members’ other musical pursuits, it does mean they will be returning to the driveway as weather allows. 

“There is no question we will keep doing it. It’s all passion – and so much fun,” said Gemino. 

There is little doubt Eschner will be listening. 

“I so look forward to it and I so appreciate the time and effort of the entire band.” 

To learn more about the Allan Road Band check out their Facebook page. They hope to have concert number 75 soon. More on Paul Gemino can be found on Facebook and this page. 

Looking for more?

There’s always something fun and exciting happening in Lynn Valley. Check out our Community Events Calendar or learn more about Local Activities, Mountain Biking or Hiking and Walking Trails.

When he couldn’t quite put his thoughts into words, turning to art helped Bjorn Thor be heard. The Lynn Valley Elementary Grade 7 student is the winner of the Lions Gate Hospital Foundation’s annual greeting card contest.

Colourful creation

A piece from a young local artist is doing double the good on the North Shore. Thor’s piece of original art had a first life as a line drawing design for a colouring contest for Lynn Valley Elementary students. Now, full of colour, the piece is gracing fundraising greeting cards and will soon be on tables and mantels across Canada and beyond. 

“It’s warm, it’s whimsical and it makes you smile,” said Yolanda Brooks, communications manager. “Not only did Bjorn choose bright and bold colours, his illustration is full of small, subtle details that show that he is talented beyond his years. Everybody at the foundation loves the design and we’re sure the community will too.”

“It’s amazing,” said Thor. “Nothing has ever happened to me like this. I am really happy.”

The bold design chosen by the Lions Gate Hospital Foundation features a sunset, snowman and gingerbread house. Those details were noticed by the selection committee at LGHF.

The joyful image was designed to inspire other kids to get creative, said Thor.

“Since it was originally going to be for a colouring contest I wanted it to be really fun and make them want to draw,” he said.

Art as a way of life

Thor says art has been a part of his life since he could hold a pencil.

“I wasn’t very good at saying stuff when I was little, so I would draw it out,” he said. “So basically I have been drawing my whole life.”

Thor’s art opened an important communication avenue that gave him an early voice, said mom Ainsley. 

“He was a bit hard to understand, and I would say ‘Draw it for me.’ and I would get it right away,” she said. “Bjorn could draw better at two than I can at 40-something.”

Today, Thor is falling in the artistic footsteps of his father and grandfather who both attended Emily Carr University of Art and Design. 

“It makes me really happy while I am doing it. It’s something that I can always get better at,” said Thor. “I am not really a sports person, so for me art is the best.”

There are benefits for the family too.

“I don’t have to stand in the rain on Saturday afternoons,” laughed Ainsley. “But I do have to buy some expensive pens – which we are happy to do – and visit some sketchy places to check out the latest graffiti.”

Inspiration IRL and on Instagram

Inspiration from other artists’ social media accounts, like Germany’s Smoe Nova and Toronto’s Uber5000, motivated Thor to practice his skills enough to start his own Instagram. In a push to be like the artists he admired, Thor began to focus on his art improving and evolving his style. On his feed, you can see the transition from an early ink-and-paper style to digital art.

“My goal is to paint large pieces of graffiti on legal walls,” he said. “An Ipad or paper is pretty small. I wish I can do murals someday.”

The family is supportive of Thor’s passion, embarking on local graffiti walks and visiting prominent skateparks and graffiti alleys during a cross-country road trip last summer. A highlight was being able to see some of Uber5000’s work in person.

“If a kid loved science, the family would visit science centres,” said Ainsley. “For him, it’s graffiti. We are so proud and I love that he is doing what he loves.”

The LGHF greeting cards (12 for $15) are available at their foundation’s office, 231 East 15th Street, and will soon be on the shelves of local Save-On-Foods. One hundred percent of the proceeds will go towards the purchase of a second MRI machine at LGH. To check out Bjorn Thor’s art follow him on Instagram or check out his website. 

Looking for more?

There’s always something fun and exciting happening in Lynn Valley. Check out our Community Events Calendar or learn more about Local Activities, Mountain Biking or Hiking and Walking Trails.

It took three years and countless hours to go from clicking an intriguing YouTube link to becoming a master bladesmith in his own right. Lynn Valley Forge’s Casey Vilensky now ships his creatively crafted knives all over the world. 

Forging patience

With a background as a luxury car mechanic and proficient woodworker, Vilensky pairs his metal and wood experience beautifully, making the blades, handles, and wooden sheaths of his knives. Three years in from his first attempt, his knives are unquestionably art. Vilensky’s Instagram account chronicles the progression from one art to another. 

“It’s a different thing, most people get into something like woodworking,” he said. “I kind of will metal into what I want it to do.”

A fateful day of woodworking research led Vilensky across some bladesmith videos. 

“YouTube is great for makers who share their craft,” he said “I was randomly watching videos and these Damascus knives came up and I was interested.”

Functional art

Using an existing space – not huge – about the size of a garage, Vilensky began to adapt his woodworking shop into Lynn Valley Forge.  

“I added tools as I could afford to buy them,” he said. “Definitely having a mechanical background gave me experience with the process and my skills for woodworking gave me the confidence to create. I knew absolutely nobody, no other blacksmith in the Lower Mainland. The learning curve was very high at first. Knifemaking isn’t just about making something beautiful it is also about making it functional. Nobody asked me to buy a knife for the first year.” 

His progress required patience and a lot of practice. 

“The shop gets hot, it’s noisy, you get covered in grinding dust and wood dust. It’s not glamorous but it produces results that are quite beautiful.”

His passion and pursuit of quality supplies and tools have also led him far from his previous career to fully embracing blacksmithing, not only as a creator but also as an importer. Vilensky now distributes trade tools to the growing blacksmithing community in Vancouver and Canada. 

As an artist, he specializes in intricate mosaic Damascus steel. He is strongly influenced by the history and traditions of Japanese knife making. 

“The mosaic means you are working with a repeatable pattern,” he explained. “They look like flowers or explosions or a river running down. You are basically trying to paint a picture with steel.” 

It’s a good time to be creating such labour-intensive pieces of art as more people are recognizing the time and effort it takes to make one knife, said Vilensky. 

“There was a huge failure rate as I was learning. I have a bucket of knives that didn’t work out,” he said. “It’s really frustrating – some patterns take two weeks, working the steel two hours a day, every day. You can only do one operation in one day, and prepare for the next. It can take two weeks and on the last operation it fails, overheats or cracks and you just . . . start over. Luckily that doesn’t happen too much anymore.”

Sharing the trade

With future goals to continue to improve his skills, Vilensky’s priority is to maintain the artistry, and despite the lucrative opportunity of high-end knives, not fall into the trap of overproduction. 

“I don’t want to fall out of love with this. I have no desire to make reproductions, every piece is unique and that is the way it is supposed to be,” he said. “It’s a fun hobby that I sell a few knives to pay for but I want to keep it a hobby I love and not turn it into a job.”

Instead, he is sharing his love. The next project on the horizon is joining the team at Fraser River Forge to teach classes on bladesmithing. 

“I know how hard it was for me to get into, it was just watching videos and not having any personal instruction.”

Sharing his work on the other hand is more complicated. He walks a fine line of producing enough to fund future pieces while maintaining his quality and passion for the work. Vilensky makes a few pieces available through specialty shops but most stay in the hands of friends. The knives have made their way into the hands of chefs and collectors – even to Japan, often seen as the world leader in artisan knives. 

“It was humbling to have a few requests from Japan and having some good reviews from Japanese bladesmiths makes it feel like I have achieved something.”

Images courtesy of Casey Vilensky.

Looking for more?

There’s always something fun and exciting happening in Lynn Valley. Check out our Community Events Calendar or learn more about Local Activities, Mountain Biking or Hiking and Walking Trails.

The winter is the perfect tie to curl up with a good book. Whether you are seeking refuge from the unrelenting rain or your family has the tradition to exchange books during the holidays, we want to send some local love to Lynn Valley’s resident authors. We did some digging and think all these authors live in the area – we may be off but they all have ties to the North Shore. Special thanks to the North Vancouver District Public Library staff who helped with this post.

Local literary picks

Garet Anderson

Set on the west coast Killer Gold tells the story of Bedard, who is hired by Queen Victoria to track down and deal with criminals preying on those working in the Lower Fraser River gold rush on Canada’s west coast in 1858. At the library here.

 Jenn Ashton

Check out her latest book People Like Frank – And Other Stories from the Edge of Normal. Inside you will find a young woman in a group home investigating a mysterious piece of knitting.  An obsessed bag boy does grim battle with a squirrel. A woman, an asparagus bag and a garbageman have a tumultuous short-term relationship. Otherwise unremarkable achievements become epic on the edge of normal. Ashton also has two children’s books.

Evelyn Cohoon Dreiling 

Dreiling has penned three books featuring the fictitious Tracey family and their journey from Scotland to a newly colonized Canada. The novels span multiple generations from Scotland to Montreal to Saskatchewan. Check them out.  

Megan Clendenan

Clendenan has written both fiction and non-fiction. She debuted her young adult fiction book Offbeat last year and is looking forward to her forthcoming non-fiction book. Design Like Nature: Biomimicry for a Healthy Planet will help kids answer their questions about the 

Michele Fogal

Fogal has always felt a sense of kinship with quirky and diverse people. As a bisexual author, writing love stories that explore the rainbow of human experience is both a pleasure and a calling. Her work celebrates the divine nature of diversity and the sacred, messy work of intimacy. She has two books, King of Snowflakes and King of Rain, available at the NVDPL.  

Daniel Francis

Francis is the author of 30 books, principally about Canadian, BC, and local history. Where Mountains Meet the Sea describes how the community of North Vancouver originated as the sawmill town of Moodyville, then evolved into a residential suburb of Vancouver until following World War Two it emerged as a bustling urban centre in its own right. The book documents the district’s major industries — shipbuilding, forestry and deep water shipping — as well as the rich legacy of outdoor recreation for which it is still known.

Eve Lazarus

Passionate about history and writing, Lazarus has published numerous books chronicling Vancouver’s past. More than a writer she also has podcasts on her website. The library has an excellent selection of her books.  

Fernando Lessa 

As a professional nature photographer, Lessa travelled all over the world. He didn’t have to look far for his 2019 book Urban Salmon: A Photographic Journey into the Metro Vancouver Watershed. The project chronicles two years in the Vancouver area. 

Steve Galliford

Based on his adventures and bedtime stories for his children, Galliford released his first book a few years ago. The House at the Edge of Space, a children’s novel follows a boy as he discovers incredibly weird secrets near an abandoned house on the outskirts of town.

Vihba Sisodraker

For those wanting to take their book to the kitchen check out this new cookbook from a local family. Perfect for cool nights: The Flavourful Indian – Recipes from My Kitchen.

Looking for more?

There’s always something fun and exciting happening in Lynn Valley. Check out our Community Events Calendar or learn more about Local Activities, Mountain Biking or Hiking and Walking Trails.