For decades, long-time Sunshine Coast resident Kerri Luciani has been following her passion to create. Her practice has included jewellery, beads, painting, quilting, and metalwork. This journey has led her on a wonderfully meandering path, following beauty and inspiration. When it came to choosing a place to live, however, the Sunshine Coast called to her very directly.
“I moved from Calgary in 1989 to Vancouver. I did not know about the Sunshine Coast. The first time I heard the name, I said to my boyfriend at the time, “I think that sounds like home.” I had a very strong feeling about it. We came over here for our honeymoon in ’92 and moved here a year later.”
Luciani’s artistic focus on beads and one-of-a-kind jewellery lasted thirty years and gave her ample time to share her craft, teaching workshops for adults and doing kids’ parties.
Fascinated by the longevity and versatility of metal, she jumped at the chance to learn to shape, stain, and texturize recycled steel. The results were gratifying. Working with an array of forms ranging from abstract shapes to lifelike figures, experimenting with unusual hues, and incorporating other found and recycled materials gave Luciani the ability to model some of the beauty she saw in her everyday life.
“I am loving the new recycled metal that I can paint on. I am so inspired by the creatures in the Nicholas Sontag Marine Education centre in the Gibsons Public Market where I work part time. My phone is full of videos and photos after every shift. I love to create themed wind chimes and also mounting many of the pieces onto my collection of driftwood.”
For the metalwork, Luciani collaborates with friend Roz Stanton, from whom she purchases the raw shapes that she will bend, colour-texturize, and incorporate with other materials. Creative types can find the possibilities overwhelming sometimes. Limiting materials to what can be found, repurposed, and recycled, can, in its way, be freeing.
“I love that it’s recycled steel. Each piece turns out different and unique because of the makeup of all the variants in the steel. These pieces will be around for years and changing with the elements, weathering over time.”
Luciani’s work can be found up and down the lower Coast at Mosaic Emporium (Davis Bay), Coastal Art Gallery (Sechelt), One Flower One Leaf (Gibsons), and Ground Waves (Pender Harbour).
