The Pickering Public Library and Pineridge Arts Council are hosting a Living Library event on October 15, where local artists act as 'living books' that attendees can engage with for 30 minutes. The event showcases a diverse range of artistic talents, from theater and music to pottery and visual arts, promoting community engagement and cultural appreciation. Participants can either browse the artists on-site or reserve a session in advance through the library.

1. Living Library

2. Living Library
“Check Out” Your Favourite Art
Event
For a truly interactive reading experience, borrow a Living book!
The Pickering Public Library and the PineRidge Arts Council have teamed up to
provide a Living Library. Local artists have become “living books” for this special
event. Each artist represents a specific art form or manages a business in the arts
industry. Individuals may “borrow” a “book” from the Living Library and speak with
them for 30 minutes.
At Central Library:
Saturday, October 15, 12:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., Auditorium
Drop in and browse the “books” on October 15th or put a “book” on hold in advance.
To place a hold, please call the Central Library 905-831-6265 Ext. 6257 or 1-888-
831-6266. Send email requests to kathyw@picnet.org to make arrangements.
Visit our website at www.picnet.org to preview and get more details.
Like us on Facebook for updates.

3. Ann Ward
Herongate Theatre
As Artistic Director and owner of Herongate
Barn Dinner Theatre, Ann is proud to take
part in the Living Library Event.
Ann has been directing shows at Herongate
Theatre for over 25 years and when she’s
not busy in the rehearsal room, you’ll find
her in the Herongate kitchen creating
delicious menu items for
happy patrons! An award
winning actress, Ann has a
degree in Dramatic Arts from
San Francisco State University
and a graduate degree from
The American Conservatory
Theatre.
Ann invites you to see
and taste her work at
Herongate this season
as they present delicious
menus along with some
very funny comedy!

4. Brian Rose Brian Rose’s Little Big Band is a popular 11 piece
band which is available for dances, receptions
and concerts. The band’s aim is simply to play
good, danceable music - jazz, swing, jive, pop,
ballroom, Latin, and R&B - in a small ensemble.
In other words, a little big band. The group has
been together eight years, building a repertoire
of more than 400 fresh, contemporary
arrangements of popular tunes, including
favourites from the thirties and forties,
to the hits of today. The emphasis is
on standards - songs that survive the
test of time. Above all, “we take our
music seriously - but not ourselves!
Little Big Band
We always have a good time playing
the music we love, and therefore, so
does our audience. As the song says,
“It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got
that swing!”
The band is comprised of musicians
with extensive experience in jazz,
big bands, concert bands, Dixieland
music, R&B, and even choirs. Their
combined musical influences are
reflected in their performance, and
make it easy for them to satisfy the diverse tastes
of today’s audiences.

5. Cathy and Lou Schnippering Cathy and Lou Schnippering have studied and
been involved in choral and instrumental music all
through their lives. Over the years Lou has played
a number of instruments with the HMCS York Navy
Band, the North York Concert Orchestra, various
small dance bands and most recently with the
Pickering Community Concert Band.
They have both sung with the Etobicoke
Centennial Choir, the Amadeus Choir,
The Joyful Noise, and other small chamber
choirs. They currently sing with the Durham
Philharmonic Choir in Oshawa and the
Dunbarton-Fairport United Church Senior
and Chamber Choirs in Pickering.
Choral Music
For the past 15 years Cathy was also the
Music Director and Producer for the Pickering
Perennials, a 30 voice senior’s chorus and
band where Lou sang, arranged music and
played guitar and clarinet.
In 1994 Cathy and Lou joined the PineRidge
(then Pickering) Arts Council, began
publishing a newsletter, and are now
highly active in the administration of the
Council where Cathy is president. They
also sit as consultants on the board of the
Durham West Art Centre
Foundation.

6. Deanna Jones Deanna, a potter for longer than 35 years, now
concentrates her pottery creativity in her studio
workshop in Greenwood, Ontario. Passing on to
others what she has learned over the years, she
also teaches pottery at the DWAC Potters Studion
in the Pickering Recreation Centre.
In the past, Deanna has participated in such
shows as the One of a Kind, the Toronto Outdoor
Arts Exhibition, the Unionville Festival, the Markham
The Potter’s Shed
Festival, the Elmira Maple Syrup Festival and a
variety of other local festivals.
Deanna’s work can be found in
private collections across Canada,
as well as in the United States,
Europe and Australia.
She is especially proud that one
of her pieces was chosen for
presentation to then-Lieutenant
Governor Lincoln Alexander at the
opening ceremonies for the new
Pickering Civic Complex.
Deanna’s work is available at her
studio workshop and at the twice-
annual shows put on by the
Durham Potters’ Guild.

7. Kijimba and Wood Sculpture
Dorsey James, now Canadian, was born and
Dorsey James raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. After four
years as a jet aircraft mechanic in the US Air
Force, he immigrated to Toronto and eventually
studied Visual Arts and Education at York University.
His sculptures have been exhibited across Canada
as well as in the United States and Germany.
He lives with his family in Pickering, Ontario. He
is retired from teaching Fine Arts at Markham
District High School. Dorsey was awarded a
commission by the Ontario Trillium Foundation
and the City of Pickering for his waterfront
sculpture installation entitled “Home Place”.
He was also awarded The Outstanding
Service Award for 2003 by The York Region
District School Board. Dorsey is currently
commissioned by the City of Pickering to
refurbish the Home Place sculpture which he
installed in Pickering’s Alex Robertson Park
as a year 2000 millennium project.
Dorsey is currently working with Visual Arts
Ontario in Durham Region as well as with
the Durham Region District School Board to
teach at risk youth how to power carve. The
finished product may reflect memories and/
or significant aspects of their past, present or future.
Is their own story, told by their hand via
personal symbolism carved into wood.

8. Esther Ford
Cultural Expressions
Esther Forde is owner and curator of Cultural
Expressions Art Gallery, located in historic Pickering
Village, Ajax, Ontario. As a strong patron of the
arts, Esther is proud to promote new Canadian
artists, photographic art, unique ethnic carvings,
sculptures, and jewelry from a variety of countries
and regions.
Born in Jamaica, Esther saw the lack of ethnic and
cultural art in her community at home in Canada
and identified the potential of opening a gallery.
Opened in 2007, the Gallery gives artists
of diverse backgrounds a local place
to display their art. The Gallery highlights
and promotes established and upcoming
artists from Canada and abroad, as well
as artwork from Africa, the Caribbean
and other countries.
The Gallery has been highlighting a
diversity of local artists through special
presentations. It contributes to making
arts and culture accessible to Durham
Region through on-site exhibits, and in
such public spaces as libraries, municipal
offices and schools.
Esther’s goal is to make a difference
in the community by providing art that
showcases our diverse communities of
Canada.

9. Gary is a long-term resident of Ajax, a member
of PRAC, Station Gallery and Society of
Gary Faulkner Canadian Artists. As director of SilverStone
Gallery in Pickering, Gary is proud of the
numerous talented artists in Durham and is
happy to display the twenty-five artists who
showcase their works in the Gallery.
SilverStone Gallery
Gary is also a board member of Durham West
Arts Centre Foundation working to fulfill the
Foundation’s main goal of building a
performing and visual arts centre in
Pickering. The centre will be a wonderful
source of pride to the Durham area and
benefit the area economically.
Gary has also been classically trained
in voice in Toronto and has been
performing for years at a variety of
venues and events including Roy
Thomson Hall, churches, variety shows,
senior residences, private parties and
fundraisers throughout the GTA. “The
type of music that interests me is music
that touches the heart and emotions in people”
he says. A few years ago he produced a CD
with total proceeds of over $10,000
going towards a Evangel Hall, a
shelter for the homeless in Toronto.

10. As an award winning artist for many years,
Gwen Williams Gwen’s work hangs in private and corporate
collections in North America and abroad.
Represented by several galleries in both
Canada and New York State, her portrait
commissions include animals as well as people.
Winning Portraiture
While her love of portraiture is undiminished
since retiring, she has rediscovered landscape
painting and utilizes photography from her
travels for inspiration. Gwen has expanded her
choice of media to include watercolour, oils
and acrylics as a complement to
her first love, pastels.
Gwen is involved in many aspects
of the art scene. She is a member
of Ajax Creative Arts and Durham
West Arts Centre. She is also an
Honourary Member of the Pin-
eRidge Arts Council and holds
the positions on their executive
of Visual Arts Director and Vice
President.

11. Janice McHaffie Although Janice started in sculpture over 30
years ago and that was her love for years, she
usually only paints now. However she has not
left the texture of sculpting behind, as acrylics
Meditation Painting are now her favourite medium.
Janice likes to use colour to affect the
subconscious mind, to enhance work or rest.
She also teaches meditation painting as a
healing art and loves working with children.
Janice would like to see a large arts
centre added to the community to
hang work created locally and to
create a place to paint with other
artists any day of the week. Painting
with other artists stimulates different
creative thoughts as opposed to
painting by yourself. What she enjoys
most about being a member of
PineRidge Arts Council is that they
are very community oriented – they
allow us to live our art.

12. Goring The tag, Christian graffiti artist might seem a little
counter-intuitive or contradictory but that is
precisely what life-long Pickering resident Jeff
Goring calls himself.
Goring took art at Pine Ridge Secondary
School, but it was a hook up with a musician
with several CDs to his credit -- who
encouraged his graffiti doodling -- that got
him seriously started in the genre. He also
began breakdancing and became so good
that he was engaged by the East Shore
Community Centre to give lessons to local
youth. He was eventually hired by the City
as youth coordinator, in charge of putting
together programs of activities for kids and
teens. His wife, Charity, runs a dance group
and he often accompanies her on junkets to
international events in which she is a participant.
JeffArt
His own dancing and art has taken him to gigs
in England, Sweden, Norway and widely across
North America -- often to meet-ups with other
Graffiti
graffiti artists with whom he co-creates murals
on collaborative themes.
Exerpt Courtesy of Pickering News Advertiser/Allan O’Marra

13. Kirsty Naray Kirsty Naray’s work with glass began in 1979 when
she attended a stained glass course at George
Brown College in Toronto. She began her career
making small objects and panels. Before long, as
her skills improved, she made larger windows for
residences.
Later, Kirsty developed a fascination for
kaleidoscopes and added these to her
repertoire. In an effort to make unusual
inclusions for the object containers of
her kaleidoscopes, she experimented
with bending glass in a flame and so
began her favourite-to-date phase of
glass working - making glass beads.
Angels, fairies, mermaids, perfume
vessels, aquarium beads and a
variety of floral beads are the
Bejeweled
current focus of her beadwork. She
styles her beads into unique pieces of
jewellery using sterling silver and gold-
filled wire and beads to accent her work.
Kirsty has been included in such publications
as Victoria magazine, The Wire Artist Jeweller
magazine (twice) and Wire in Design - Modern
Wire Art & Mixed Media, by Barbara A McGuire as
well as numerous glass publications.

14. Laura Warburton Laura is a Pickering based abstract artist with an
academic background in psychology. Believing that
artistic expression cannot be static, held or boxed,
her entire body of work to date is nearly impossible
to categorize under one simple title or style.
Whether the painting is a delicate, flowing and
well blended piece or a strong, bold linear piece,
the use of textures and mediums provides
a raw organic like feel. Brushed, sprayed,
carved, splattered, scraped or poured, the
large scale, (<4 ft) paintings are what has
become termed as Loft ArtWork.
Her paintings have exhibited in Canada/
the USA and can be found in corporate /
medical offices, private collections in
Canada, United Kingdom, Germany,
Abstraction
continental USA and Hawaii.
Loft Artwork paintings have been debuted
on HBO set designs, featured in staging
for real estate showings/magazines and
are exhibited at the Distillery Districts’
RedEye Studio Gallery in Toronto.
As a self taught and self represented artist, Laura
has found a wonderfully creative, original spot
within the art world all while creating in
her home studio in Pickering, Ontario.

15. Mala Mahabir Mala Mahabir’s work revolves highly around
Animal Alphabet Adventure
children and their literacy skills as she believes
reading is an essential asset for success. She has
been a creative writer from a young age, and
thrives on inspiring others to do their best, be their
best and give their best!
Through her volunteer work with the Pickering
Reading Program and Frontier College Literacy
Workshops, she observed many children
having difficulty with basic letter and sound
recognition. She took on the challenge to
create a way for children to become
engaged and have fun while learning to
read. Out of this challenge came Animal
Alphabet Adventure which concentrates on
the vernacular of sound via story telling and
alphabet letter recognition. The alphabet
stories on each page are accompanied
with artwork created by Tasha Maraj, which
makes each letter come to life for the reader.
Her life’s travels have taken her on many
personal and professional ventures. She
always knew she wanted to bring about
positive change to the lives of others and
give something back. When she made the
decision to write Animal Alphabet Adventure
she knew in an instant this was the type of
work she wanted to share with children.

16. Mark Fordam
Mark Fordam studied Fine Art at York University and the
Ontario College of Art in the early ‘70s before moving
on to study dissections and advanced anatomy at
the U of T. His first exhibition was at Canada’s oldest
established gallery, The Roberts Gallery. He has also
shown at the Drabinsky Gallery, the David Mitchell
Gallery and the Illuminary Gallery.
Mark emerged in the New York scene exhibiting at the
Gerold Wunderlich Gallery. As a figure in the Canadian
realist movement, Mark played a pivotal role in
creating a strong interest amongst the New
York dealers, which enabled many Canadian
Invisible Painting
realists to have their first opportunity to show
their work outside of Canada.
His immersion into the world of Visual Effects
was inevitable, crediting the likes of Ray
Harryhausen and Albert Whitlock for his
interest. After teaching several courses at the
Ontario College of Art and world-renowned
Sheridan College, Mark began instructing
artists in drawing, sculpture and realistic
creature design at Calibre Digital Pictures.
Mark has been accredited with several
prestigious awards including an Emmy
nomination for the WWII event mini-series Haven (d.
John Gray), a Gemini award for the war-torn Germany
recreation in Nuremberg (d, Yves Simoneau) and an
impressive nomination from the Visual Effects Society for
Best Matte Painting in The Man Who Saved
Christmas (d. Sturla Gunnarson).

17. Martha Brown Martha Brown is internationally recognized for
her award-winning art quilts, signified by
dramatic imagery and an eye for colour.
Martha’s work has been in over 50 shows and
Blue Moon Fabric Arts exhibitions, won over 20 awards and has been
purchased by over 200 collectors, in Canada,
the US, Switzerland, Japan and Germany.
Her work has also been featured
in gallery Solo Exhibitions, and for
several years at the One of a Kind
Christmas Show in Toronto. Her
degree in Art focused on figure
drawing and painting.
In recent years, her focus has
turned to three dimensional figura-
tive sculptures in the form of original
art dolls.
Born in Rochester, NY, she has
lived in several areas of the United
States. In 1999 she married a
Canadian, and now lives in
Pickering, Ontario.
She will have several of her dolls on
display for the day and will be happy
to answer any of your questions.

18. The Professional Photographer
Mary Cook
Mary Cook was a professional photographer
in Pickering from the late 70s until recently.
The majority of her work was with film but she
enjoys the freedom digital now provides.
Over the years she has
photographed sports and
school groups, family portraits
and weddings. Some of her
commercial clients included
City of Pickering, OPG, Mazda
and Subaru. She now is most
often seen pointing her camera
at her three grandchildren,
PineRidge Arts Council
members and the SilverStone
Gallery.
In her spare time she works
with Angie Littlefield on the
provincial project Reading
and Remembrance.

19. Robert Hinves
Robert has always had an interest in art from an
early age. He pursued his interest by attending a
4 year Art Course at Danforth Technical School in
Toronto and one year at the Ontario College of Art
& Design.
His passion has been Ontario Landscapes. He
started off painting in oils, but later turned his efforts
to pen, ink and watercolour. It’s not
unusual to find him trudging through
a field with camera in hand. Once
a scene or subject appeals to him,
Ontario Landscapes
he then recreates it paying close
attention to composition.
As an alternative to the rigid
disciplines of his realistic work, Robert
takes a break and loosens up with a
series of textured abstracts in acrylic
on masonite.
Robert is currently on the Board of
the PineRidge Arts Council. He also is a member
of the Oshawa Art Association and the Art Guild of
Scarborough.
Robert has been involved in many different Art
Festivals throughout Ontario. His work can be
found in many private collections throughout
Ontario, United States and England.

20. Living Library