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Current Exhibit
Slide Show
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Faces
Gallery
-Introduction
-Appreciation
-L. Chrismas
-A. Nishimura
-H. Palmer
-O.
Semchishen
-G.
Webber
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Artist
Statements
Lawrence Chrismas
 Photographs,
stories and songs blow the dust off the image of Canada's coal miners.
Lawrence has put the wraps on a comprehensive photo-documentary
project honouring old-time and modern coal miners from British Columbia
to Cape Breton Island. Lawrence has explored the culture of coal
miners through his environmental portraits and synopsis of the stories
of their lives in coal mining. His recent book, CoalDust Grins~Portraits
of Canadian Coal Miners, is the culmination of this 20 year project.
 In
his travels to document the lives and stories of Canadian coal miners,
Lawrence discovered that many of them had a deep-seated love for
music. In 1995, Calgary singer/songwriter Cathy Miller and Lawrence
began work on a series of songs about Canadian coal miners and their
lives based on his photographs and accompanying biographies. The
idea to produce a musical response to the book was a natural outcome
of the project. Ultimately twenty-five songs were written with 16
songwriters and Lawrence.
This
exhibition features the photographs and song lyrics that were recorded
on the music CD, CoalDust Grins~A Musical Portrait, a companion
to the book CoalDust Grins.
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