Saturday, September 26, 2009

from Carol Brophy

Photos taken while they were studying with Mr. Iyengar in Pune, India.


Distant Images: Chechnya

In 2001 Wende became concerned about the blasé attitude she observed in connection with wars and atrocities that were being reported in the news media. In particular she felt that the desperate situation in Chechnya didn't really register as a real tragedy in a real place with real consequences for real people. Wende did a series of art works in various media intended to focus on this phenomenon. She took images that she found in newspapers and by breaking them up and aestheticizing them investigated the dissociation between image and reality. These are photos from the opening.



 

 

 

 

 

Monday, September 14, 2009

Memorial (1)

Preparations:
 
  
  
Celebration

 
  
  
  
Ending

 
  
  
  
 

from Gail Cryer

Hiking at Lake O'Hara in the Rockies, 1999
Gail, Wende, Geina, Fran, Maureen
 
Clockwise from yellow jacket: Geina, Wende, Maryke, Kim, Judy, Isabelle, Gail, Maureen, Katherine, Gillian, Jude. Photographer: Fran

Thursday, September 10, 2009

more Saturna


More photos of Wende's just completed cabin on Saturna Island.




 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
 

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

from Gigi Jackman

There aren’t words adequate enough to express the impact that Wende has had on my life.  Although I didn’t know Wende as long as most of you, she’s nonetheless affected me in ways that I am still discovering to this day. I’d recently arrived in Canada and had needed a place to rent. Well, I’d needed to have had rented a place prior to my landing in Canada as part of the immigration process. Panicked, (I hadn’t realized that that was the case), I had to find a place pronto and anyone needing to find lodgings in Vancouver in a hurry would know just how difficult that could be, especially since I’d never been here before nor had any friends or relatives that I knew of living in Vancouver.
 I found a posting online that sounded ideal and when I saw the picture of the “red door”, I knew in my heart that I’d found ‘my place’. Through a series of emails and two phone calls, Wende had accepted me as her tenant, sight unseen. Amazing really when you think about it. It was a leap faith/trust on both our parts as we’d only formed a connection with just those few interactions.
I think Wende had an ability to cut through to the core of a situation and perceive truth. Think she had a deep sense of adventure and lived in the moment. Well, that’s how she appeared to me.
How fortunate am I to have known her, brief though it was, as ‘landlord’, teacher, advisor, Go-to-person for all things ‘Arts’ in Vancouver, first friend. She has inspired me to live life in the moment and to not have too many “attachments” to outcomes...to just “let things unfold and see what happens”, as she’d like to tell me. It’s been over a year since our first meeting and I am still reaping the benefits of having known her.
An amazing woman; an amazing gift to us all...

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

From Maureen Malanchuk

Precious knowledge and special gifts

Wende was one of the first people I met when I moved to Vancouver in the mid 90's and was looking for an Iyengar yoga class to join. Over the next 12 years I studied with her for two hours each week, completed the two-year teacher training program under her guidance, and practiced alongside her at dozens of local weekend workshops.

Of course, her beautiful hair and striking eyebrows were the first things I noticed about Wende but what I remember most were her twinkling eyes, her beautiful laugh, her inner peace and her warm personality.

Wende had a unique teaching style that was softer and gentler than many other Iyengar teachers I worked with. However that softness could be deceiving. She would gently but also quite firmly guide us in deepening our practice, taking us past the point we thought we could go. She taught with a firmness that was wrapped in velvet. In her classes there were always moments of clear instruction and moments of quiet reflection woven together with moments of humour and warmth. It was a joy and privilege to be her student.

The lessons she taught went far beyond the mat and yoga poses or pranyama practice; I also learned about the guiding principles of yoga - non-violence, contentment and austerity - not only through study and discussion but, more importantly, through the way she lived her life. Through the yoga she taught, the life she lived and the person she was, Wende showed me how to live in the present, be still, let go. No small lessons.

Wende also had a great talent for connecting with her students on a personal level. When we discovered our mutual love of travel, we would often greet each other with stories of recent adventures or upcoming travel plans.

I am grateful to Wende for sharing her precious knowledge and special gifts with me and I will treasure them always.

I was at a yoga workshop recently where many of us who had known and loved Wende keenly felt her absence. Though she was not physically with us, I was comforted to feel her presence throughout the workshop; her voice softly reminding me to breathe, her gentle laugh chiding me when I fell out of a pose, her memory nestled warmly in my heart.

Namaste, Wende

Maureen Malanchuk
September 2009

two self portraits

Wende's grandmother, Gertrude Keen, was also an artist and Wende felt inspired by her example. Here is a self portrait of/by each of them.

 
 

Monday, September 7, 2009

From Marianne McLauchlin

In their '20s Wende and Marianne hiked over the pass from Skagway to Carcross then on to the White Pass railway:

 
We arrived in Glacier to the smells of fresh baked pies and the cook was more than happy to indulge two young women with massive helpings and tidbits for the "road."

 
Beautiful high pass between Carcross and Scagway. It was a wonderful adventure.
  
Happy hiker with reassuring coffee can/rock bear deterrent - note other state-of-the-art equipment.   Such good fun.
 
Lake Bennett:

 
  
  
And Wende in high school:


From Corrine Cory...

The Wende Davis I Knew

When I moved back to Vancouver at the age of 50, I decided to try a yoga class that happened to be just down the street from where I lived.  From the first class I knew that Wende was to be my yoga guide.  I stayed with her classes for ten years, until I left Vancouver in 2007, but by then we had become close friends.  Although we lived in different cities, we talked on the phone regularly and visited each other often.  I was able to visit Wende in Vancouver three or four times a year, enjoying her garden, being with Karsh, having Wende’s wonderful oatmeal, yogurt and maple syrup breakfast, preparing meals together and occasionally going out for dinner or the infrequent drink to celebrate some event.  Although I only saw Wende’s Saturna place early in its construction, I have a strong image of what it is like now and hope to be able to visit it again. 

Wende and I had some wonderful times traveling together, whether it was a weekend trip to Seattle and Bellingham, or a week’s car journey through California, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, and Washington.  Wende came to California a couple of times while I was there.  The first time was marked by the WARC exhibition and a talk by Lucy Lippard.  How thrilling it was to revisit this amazing period of women’s empowerment as it took place in art; and how amazing to be with someone who was a part of the naissance of that movement.  I was embraced by Wende’s enthusiasm for the events we attended and for the role she had played at Woman House. 

Wende also visited me in my home in Refuge Cove, BC.  One August, at the height of the Perseid meteor shower, true to form, she got us set-up with all the house lights off , laying on blankets out on my dock so we could watch the sky.  We explored the mysteries of the universe that evening.  And then, in the middle of the night, she got me up to row out to an even darker spot and we sat in the row boat watching the stars. 

I will miss Wende desperately each summer as I watch the stars alone.

Corrine Corry
August 2009

 
Wende and Corrine's dog Spencer at the Columbia River

Assorted Photos