Excerpted from CCARE Newsletter, June 2019

Ralph Stanbridge: An Artful Life

In April 1977, my wife Gerda and I packed up our
Volkswagen van with our daughters, Kristen 3½
years old, and Nicole, a baby of 5 months with
chicken pox, and headed back west after four
exciting years in Montreal. I had just completed my
MFA and three and a half years teaching as a
sessional at Concordia University. Looking back, I
realize it drew on a kind of faith that one has in
greater amounts in their youth to head out across
Canada with a young family and no job.

After arriving in Vancouver, I spotted an ad in the

newspaper for a Visual Arts teaching position at
Camosun College so we headed to Victoria to
deliver my application (the deadline was the
following day). I wrote my resume on my lap in the Ralph
front seat of our van (imagine that being acceptable
now!). I got my application in under the deadline and
was called a day later for an interview. At that time, the Visual Arts department
was one large room in the basement of a postal station on Shelbourne Street. I
was interviewed by Martin Somers and Ian Thomas, who later became my
mentors. Martin and Ian, along with the Tech, Michael Yerkovich, (who became a
pillar of support with his technical wizardry) constituted the whole faculty. The
interview was so comfortable that when they referred to the successful candidate
as ‘X’, and noted it on a piece of paper, I leaned over and drew a beard on the X.
I was informed later that the inclusion of slides of my student’s work in Montreal,
along with my own, was a determining factor in my hiring.

After that it was off to see Pat Floyd, who was Director
of Liberal and Applied Arts at that time, to get a
contract. I learned later that it was Pat’s leadership
and vision that got the Visual Arts program off the
ground. His continued support throughout his tenure
in that position was a major factor in the successful
development of the program.

In September,1977, I started teaching in the program

Sample of Ralph’s work - Art
History Photo Montage,
Collection of Vancouver Art
Gallery
and was pleasantly surprised to find that I had landed
in the right place – the program conceived by Martin
and Ian was philosophically in step with the
approaches I took in my own practice. The program
had moved to the Lansdowne Campus and my first few
days on the job were involved with ripping out the floors
of the two smaller rooms on the Young building ground
floor to make a bigger studio space. Rather than just
 Excerpted from CCARE Newsletter, June 2019

making it a demolition project, we turned the whole space into a performative

event – recreating an Inner Harbour environment with students taking on the roles
of welders, fisherman, soup kitchen operators etc. It told me that the parameters I
would have for teaching would be wide. We built our studios and furnished them
by commandeering any table, desk or chair that was left in the hallways longer
than a few hours. Michael and I almost broke our backs hauling old Chemistry Lab
tables up the hill.

The program’s structure took a generalists approach, emphasizing “structured

experimentation”. Quite an oxymoronic term, but it really did work. Unlike the
totally free and open pedagogy of the 60’s Art School, it was a very demanding
curriculum. Students were given complex visual and context/content problems to
solve that had a wide range of solutions possible. This approach reflected the
pluralistic nature of the Art world at that time. During my time in the program, I
taught Modern Art History, Contemporary Art Theory, Drawing, Painting, Sculpture,
Animation, Film and, in my first year, Special Care Aide art courses and classes
for the Early Childhood
Education program.

Teaching these varied

disciplines also
informed my own art
practice. I produced a
body of work that
included mixing
images from Art
History with
contemporary
structures and
environments. This
work culminated in
large installation works
that were exhibited at
the Art Gallery of
Victoria in 1984. and
the Charles H. Scott
Ralph’s sculptural installation at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria,
“Carriage: after Daumier” with Gerda, 1984 Gallery at Emily Carr
College of Art in 1986.

In 1988 I became the Chair of the Visual Arts Department, a role I filled for a total
of nine years, off and on, after that. That position, too, provided many unique
learning opportunities. It demanded that I be a constant advocate for the
program. As well, the Chair’s position offered a rich opportunity for learning and
observing of social interactions, including student issues of which there were
many, such as the student who decided her multi-media costume would be no
clothes at all then paraded down the hall of the Young building. I was able to
witness the role of power in Chairs meetings and other administrative events
 Excerpted from CCARE Newsletter, June 2019

Some of Ralph’s illustrations for author Laura Trunkey’s

website

such as attending art policy meetings at City Hall.

These experiences provided a rich source of content
for my own art practice.

In 2003 the first of the “phased retirement”

opportunities was offered by the college and I jumped
at it. I taught 50% for the last 10 years until retirement
in 2013. I worried about retirement approaching and
wondered how the separation would feel because I was so invested in the program.
As it turned out, a couple of years before retirement, it became clear that I was
finished with this phase of my life. I could see that it was time to make way for the
term contract people that had been teaching part-time for six to eight years. I
thoroughly enjoyed those last few years and felt ready and content with my decision
to fully retire. I am particularly proud of the two legacies I played a major role in – the

Ralph (far left) at his last graduation of Visual Arts Students

with Judie Price Michael Yerkovich, Joseph Hoh
 Excerpted from CCARE Newsletter, June 2019

Visiting Artist Lecture Series (thanks to Barb Latham and John Meagher) and the
College Art Collection (thanks to the college members who sat on the selection
committee).

After being stuck in a great job for thirty-six years, retirement has turned out to be
wonderful. I can be in my studio more, but life often gets in the way. My studio goals
are to replace large sculptural installations with drawing and animated projects which
can be made large scale through projection. Gerda and I spend a lot of time helping
with after-school care for our grandchild, Roshi, which we enjoy immensely. It’s a great
time of life - I highly recommend it!

Roshi and Ralph

Ralph and Gerda with grandson, Roshi

Ralph’s
drawings
for a
possible
animation
project,
2019