North by Northwest
with Sheryl MacKay

There's a photographic and video show on right now at the Richmond Art Gallery by the Vancouver based artist Hua Jin.

Hua's show is called My Big Family.  Hua was feeling very isolated when she moved, all by herself, to Canada so decided on a trip home to follow her family with a camera. The work also explores some of the effects of China's one child policy.

Hua Jin is a recent graduate of Emily Carr University.

On June the first the doors will open on a brand new show at the Royal BC Museum featuring dozens of portraits of Queen Elizabeth II taken by the multi-talented Cecil Beaton.  The images in the show range from shots of Princess Elizabeth as a young child and trace her official life (with some surprisingly domestic moments) up to 1968.

Lorne Hammond is curator of history at the RBCM

The NXNW garden guy, Egan Davis showed up to talk about planting. He brought along his favourite gardening tool. Elvis: The King of Spades.

Egan mentioned Korean Lilac, Serviceberry and the Judas Tree this morning on the show.

Pianist Jane Coop is one of Canada's most distinguished musicians. She has recorded and toured extensively throughout North America, Asia and Europe. She has collaborated with the principal Orchestras of Canada. And she has taught at the University of British Columbia's School of Music for more than 3 decades. But now Jane has decided it's time to move on from the university and begin the next chapter in her life with a focus on performing.

She will be playing a farewell concert with friends on Sat May 26 at 4 pm at the Barnett Hall, UBC School of Music.

Armen Martiroysan is an Armenian-Russian composer and songwriter who now lives in B.C. where he is continuing his musical career.
He collaborates with many musicians here and in Europe, including two very talented sisters, Inga and Anush Arshakyans.  They have represented Armenia at the Eurovision Song Contest and have recorded three albums.

They are performing on May 13 at 5 pm at the Gateway Theatre in Richmond. 

If you do a search for them on youtube you'll see many wonderful videos of their songs!  I've loaded a few links on the Facebook site for the show.

I had a chance for a great long chat with Nicola recently, about Shirley, about acting, about  becoming a widow and about seeking new challenges.  I enjoyed our conversation so much!