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Artscene 15 | Friday, July 25, 2014 | OAKVILLE BEAVER | www.insideHALTON.com "Connected to your Community" Exhibit celebrates Gloria Marshall's life's work by Julia Le Oakville Beaver Staff Joshua Creek Heritage Centre features a retrospective showing of the works of Oakville/Waterdown artist Gloria Marshall, who died earlier this year. The show, entitled Gloria Marshall -- Life Journey, features paintings, sculptures, writing, poetry and weaving. | submitted photo The Oakville Children's Choir earned this gold medal and a silver at the World Choir Games in Riga, Latvia July 9-14. | photo courtesy of the Oakville Children's Choir A retrospective of Gloria Marshall's life as an artist is on display at Joshua Creek Heritage Art Centre. Gloria Marshall -- Life Journey showcases about 50 works by the 81-year-old who died in April of heart failure after a battle with scleroderma, a disease that affects the skin and connective tissues. In clearing Gloria's studio in Waterdown, where she spent the latter part of her years, her daughter Linda Marshall described to the Oakville Beaver how their family discovered a number of her works that they suspect have never been seen before. "She often exhibited Gloria Marshall as part of a group because she was part of the Oakville group and there were eight or 10 of them who would exhibit together, but to show all her work and the range of her work together in one place was something that really hadn't been done before," said Linda, an artist herself, who grew up in Oakville and now lives in San Francisco. She said many people knew her mother in different parts of her life when she was a weaver, a painter and even a sculpture, but she doesn't think many of them have seen the whole breadth of her artistry, which also includes collage work, book art, writing poetry and installations. The exhibit, which runs until July 27, allows them to do just that, she said. Gloria's career was influenced by studies with sculptor Almuth Lutkenhaus and Diana McNish, as well as the Ontario College of Art and the University of Guelph. Her work developed through inspiring friendships and associations with the Oakville Group and Contin- Choir is golden at world games The Oakville Children's Choir (OCC) represented the community proudly on the world stage, bringing home gold and silver medals from the World Choir Games in Riga, Latvia July 9-14. Competing against choirs from nearly 60 countries, the choristers won a gold medal in the Youth Choir of Equal Voices category and a silver medal in the invitation-only Musica Sacra category. "In this, the 20th anniversary season for the Oakville Children's Choir, it has been a great honour and a tremendously exciting opportunity to be invited to participate in the World Choir Games' Champions Competition," said OCC's Artistic Director Sarah Morrison in a press release. "I am so proud of these young people who have been professional, resilient and have been leaders with and for each other. Musically, the choir has raised their performance standards to a new expressive level on this international tour." In addition to performing at the Great Celebration Concert in Riga with more than 1,000 other singers, the choir also gave concert performances and joined in community programmes in Estonia and Finland, including an outreach performance in Tallinn where all proceeds went to the children of the Day Care Centre Käo. "It's been so amazing for us to represent Canada here in Latvia," said Blair Somerville about her experience as head chorister of the OCC's senior group. "Competing and performing at this level and representing Canada is a huge honour. We have also met and sang with so many other young people from around the world ­ that's the best part of the World Choir Games." For more information, visit www.oakvillechildrenschoir.org. Linda Marshall, one of the late artist's daughters, stands in front of one of her mom's acrylic-on-canvas works entitled Birthmarks/Earthmarks at Joshua Creek Heritage Art Centre. She's holding in her hand a fresh cut gardenia flower, one of her mother's favourites, that a friend of her mother picked that morning. | photo by Graham Paine ­ Oakville Beaver (Follow on Twitter @halton_photog or www.facebook.com/ HaltonPhotog) She was a great teacher and she was a mentor to many people. She never really talked about herself and her art as much as she was curious what everyone else was doing, supporting them and mentoring them and making sure they had tools they needed to be creative themselves. Linda Marshall artist uum. The former Oakville resident, who for many years lived down the street from Joshua Creek Heritage Art Centre, was commissioned for both her fine art and design work over the year with pieces on display at public airports and Toronto's Rogers Centre. Linda, 56, said her mother was a wonderful thinker and had a way about her that was truly captivating. ""She's left me with a lot -- a lifetime of inspiration," she said. Linda described how her mother would encourage everyone she met to be curious and creative and "tap into their creative energy." "She was a great teacher and she was a mentor to many people," said Linda, noting that her mother taught at Sheridan College in Oakville, Lakeshore Collegiate in Etobicoke and the Etobicoke School for the Arts. "She never really talked about herself and her art as much as she was curious what everyone else was doing, supporting them and mentoring them and making sure they had tools they needed to be creative themselves." Joshua Creek Heritage Centre is located at 1086 Burnhamthorpe Rd. E. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Sunday, 1-4 p.m.