Words Jamila Douhaibi
Photo Janis Jean
It can take decades for the perfect piece of sea glass to turn from jagged litter into smooth frosted edges that make it worth picking up.
Sea glass aficionado Geraldine Bruckel has been collecting glass from the beaches of Sidney for as long as she’s lived on the Island. What others walk by or collect for glass jars, Geraldine has turned into beautiful 2D and 3D works of art.
Geraldine’s story is as interesting as her gazebo and studio filled with paintings, drawings and glassworks resembling life. She was born in Indonesia, with mixed Indonesian and Dutch heritage. She says her first few years growing up were devasted by war, being separated from her family, and ultimately ending up on a boat for 28 days to travel to Holland. Reunited with her family before the trip, she says that where they lived in the 50s was “one family in one room.”
She met her husband Willem when she was 15 and he was 18. After he immigrated to Canada, her family was sponsored to move to Michigan. Geraldine and Willem married in Michigan when she was 20 and then moved to Vancouver in 1959 where they settled down and had two daughters. The family fostered children for years and adopted one boy “so he didn’t have to go back to the orphanage.”
For three years the family lived in Malaysia for Willem’s work, where Geraldine did some modelling and went to art school for copper tooling and batik. She never had any formal training in painting or glass work, saying she only had “one real lesson” many years ago. Back in Canada, Geraldine was a nursing assistant for 20 years at the Aberdeen hospital in Victoria. There she “drew pictures on ice cream lids for residents” and enjoyed doing a range of artwork.
In 1992, Geraldine and her husband bought their house in Sidney where she continues to live and create. Her home, studio and gazebo are a testament to her skill and hard work. The gazebo has shelves alive with a brown sea glass horse, clear glass airplane, mermaids and the famous Sidsauris. Made of “white and blue ceramic all glued together” delicately over months, this creature has a story and life of its own.
One day a woman named Laura and her son were visiting the grandmother at her home on Towner Park Road. The son discovered a large seahorse that they thought was dead. To see it better, Laura poured seawater on the little creature. It woke up and swam away, but not before they saw it had a hump and long tail. Laura told her float plane pilot friend about the creature and he shared that one day he “noticed a big snakelike monster swimming next to his float plane at the same speed as the plane.” This story inspired the creation of “Sidsauris the happy Sidney baby sea glass dragon.”
In Geraldine’s studio is two of her other great loves – Elvis and Emily Carr. A life-sized painting of Elvis can be found at the back of the studio with gold embellishments, along with an Elvis-themed guitar Geraldine found on the side of the road and fixed up. She says “I like to do big paintings” and “my favourite is acrylic – palette knife.” The evidence of this are more pieces honouring Elvis, and walls covered in Emily Carr paintings. Some are realistic copies of the latter’s originals, but Geraldine also says “I dream up ideas.”
Her first glass pieces of 2D and 3D eagles can also be found in her studio. She creates small drawings, cards, art and glassworks big and small. Currently working on several pieces, Geraldine also receives custom orders and loves to make other people’s ideas come to life. She has been featured on CTV, won awards and has provided art classes to kids and at the Shoal Centre. Now 85, Geraldine continues to collect glass to preserve these pieces of time by creating works of art that truly embody Sidney and the Saanich Peninsula.
bruckelg@gmail.com
