Wild Birds - Carvings by Tad Yesaki | Photographs by Roy Hamaguchi - Oct 2 to Dec 24

Nikkei Place, 6688 Southoaks Crescent, Burnaby, BC.

This exhibition celebrates wild birds through the works of two Nikkei artists—photographer Roy Hamaguchi and woodcarver Tad Yesaki. A full-colour book about the artists and their art, written by Donna Yoshitake Wuest, featuring photographs by Hamaguchi and the graphic design by Lotus Miyashita, will accompany the exhibition.

Tad Yesaki began, as a youngster in the mid-1940s, carving decoys for duck hunting in Picture Butte, Alberta, where his family relocated during the internment years. As his appreciation for the beauty of birds emerged, Yesaki’s craft of carving decoys evolved to the art of carving decorative birds. He has exhibited his carvings in shows and competitions throughout BC’s Lower Mainland and across Canada and the United States. He’s won numerous prizes, including two firsts at the Canadian National Wildfowl Carving Championship in Kitchener, Ontario in 2008.

Roy Hamaguchi’s interest in photography also began in the mid-1940s at Minto Mine, near Lillooet, where his family had evacuated to during WWII. His adventures in photography have taken him from the Canadian Arctic to the Serengeti in Africa to Asia, yet some of his favourite locations are right here in beautiful British Columbia. Hamaguchi’s photographs have been featured across Canada, including at the 1986 International Ornithological Conference in Ottawa and in a permanent exhibition of his bald eagle photographs at the Brackendale Art Gallery. His photographs have appeared in publications such as Marsh Notes, Canadian Geographic, Equinox, Nature Canada, Time-Life, and Beautiful British Columbia, and on a Canada Post stamp.

Public Programs

The following programs will be held in conjunction with the exhibition. All programs are open to the public, free of charge.

Reception
Thursday, October 9, 7pm
Please RSVP to museum@nikkeiplace.org or 604.777.7000 ext.109.

Speaker Series
Two Cranes, Two Continents
By Roy Hamaguchi
Thursday, November 6, 7pm
Roy Hamaguchi will give a digital presentation on two species of cranes, the Sandhill Crane of North America and the Red-crowned Crane of Asia. As a species, they are the oldest living birds in the world. Come and witness their intimate behaviors as they struggle to raise a family and glimpse at some of their human-like antics.

Carving demonstration
By Richmond Carvers Society
Saturday, November 22, 2-4pm
Come see members of the Richmond Carvers Society demonstrate carving in a variety of styles. The Richmond Carvers Society is a non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of woodcarving as a hobby and an art form. Starting in 1988, the Society has grown to become one of the largest in the area with a membership of 60 carving enthusiasts.

Speaker Series
From Dumpsite to Dragonflies
By Patricia Banning-Lover and John Lowman
Saturday, November 29, 2pm
An inspiring story of how Wild Bird Trust - a fledgling conservation organization - turned the former degraded industrial area at Maplewood Flats into the North Shore's first wildlife sanctuary.

Patricia M. Banning-Lover co-founded WBT in 1993, was President for eight years and is now the Trust's CEO. In 1997 she was presented with the federal Certificate of Environmental Citizenship by Environment Canada. Patricia has four grandchildren.

John Lowman took up bird photography in 2001 prompted by a series of encounters with spectacular predators like Osprey and Northern Pygmy-Owl in the Conservation Area at Maplewood Flats. Since that time he has worked in conjunction with Wild Bird Trust of British Columbia to document the wildlife residing in and passing through Maplewood, and create photographic art in the process.

Please join us for this Wild Birds exhibition program at the Japanese Canadian National Museum in Burnaby, from October 2 to December 24, 2008.

Supporters:
British Columbia Waterfowl Society
Patricia M. Banning-Lover
CustomColor Professional Imaging Lab
Ducks Unlimited Canada
George Reifel
Richmond Carvers Society
Wild Birds Trust

National Nikkei Museum & Heritage Centre
tel 604.777.7000
6688 Southoaks Crescent, Burnaby,
www.jcnm.ca / www.nikkeiplace.org