Margot Page

Artwork by Margot Page, member of Imagine That!

Margot Page has been a member for 15 great years of the illustrious cooperative Imagine that! Artisans' Designs on Craig Street in City Square.

Serving seven years as the co-op's President, she is now one of five artists who keep the organization humming along, and one of 90 artists on the store's roster. Margot's medium is enamels. Margot was working as a Fashion Illustrator in Montreal when the Sheridan College School of Fine Arts hired her to teach drawing to Fashion Design students. Sheridan College was an innovative place; an open-concept arts school and an ideal place for Margot to be teaching - and learning. One of her fellow instructors was an enamelist. She spent her spare time in his Metal studio, learning the craft of enameling alongside her own students.

Using colour glazes on copper and steel was a major change from the black and white drawings required for newspaper reproduction of her fashion illustrations. Firing her designs onto metal in a high-temperature kiln was more permanent than her fashion drawings, which, when published in the newspaper, were then relegated to the trash. The call of adventure took Margot offshore in 1982, when she and her partner left Lake Ontario and sailed into Maple Bay four years later. Her crated kiln arrived soon after and she set up her studio, inspired by new wildlife subjects to illustrate and new customers.

Margot joined Imagine that! Artisans' Designs in 1996. "Duncan has a huge potential, due to the number of quality artists living in the region", she says. She believes that an art gallery showcasing the work of local artists could one day become be a reality in the Cowichan Valley.