Godfrey Stephens’ spot at Saturday’s TD Art Gallery Paint-In will have one less piece than planned after a sculpture disappeared from his backyard studio.
The eclectic artist — whose work includes the towering carvings in the foyer of the Times Colonist building and Weeping Cedar Woman, created to protest logging in Clayoquot Sound — discovered the loss from his Wollaston Street backyard in Esquimalt a few days ago.
The 74-year-old Stephens said he is not sure when the alder creation, about one metre high and 15 kilograms, went missing, but he would love to get it back.
“It’s a violation,” he said of the loss and the intrusion on his property.
Stephens said he reported the missing statue to police, and said other people in the area have also recently lost items from their yards.
The missing piece features a copper base, and Stephens has been working on it for six or seven years.
“Nothing I make is completed,” said Stephens, who is also an accomplished painter. “I could go back in my friends’ houses and see an old piece of work and say, ‘God, I’d sure like to touch that up.’ ”
The stolen sculpture is multi-coloured and depicts a woman’s body.
Stephens said its value is “undetermined.”
Giving a value to art isn’t an easy task, he said.
He described the artistic process as a mix of love and hard labour. “You’re trying to make something out of nothing.”
The Duncan-born Stephens made a connection to First Nations art as a young teenager, when he became acquainted with renowned carvers Mungo Martin and Tony Hunt.
Stephens’ work has been compiled in a book, Wood Storms, Wild Canvas: The Art of Godfrey Stephens, through the efforts of his niece, Gurdeep Stephens.
