Visual Arts

Just steps away from Jeannette Sirois' house on Salt Spring Island is her art studio—her home away, but not too far from home. Art is always on my mind; I can't go a day without making art of some kind, says Jeannette, an art instructor with Continuing Studies at UVic.

"Imagine saying to a Holocaust survivor: 'We'd like to do a comic about your life," chuckles Charlotte Schallié, professor of Germanic Studies and chair of UVic's Department of Germanic and Slavic Studies. It seems, at the surface, like an absurd request.

There are several well-known health benefits to engaging in creative endeavors, but sometimes actually getting into a right headspace is easier said than done. So what are some things you can do to get those creative juices flowing?

From the earliest markings upon cave walls, to the rhythmic beating of drums, cultural dance or even the creation of written language, people have been driven to express themselves through art since the earliest days of our species.

When you love what you’re doing, balancing a career, family and school is easy. At least according to Kristin Wiens, who started her first class with Continuing Studies as a single mother of two pursuing a Diploma in Intercultural Education, while concurrently completing a degree in Cultural Anthropology and Linguistics at UVic.

John Lucas describes himself as “an actor who happens to sing and dance.” Having had one foot in theatre and the other in academia all his life has made him feel like “the illegitimate offspring of Northrop Frye and Daffy Duck,”