Ms. Mannion: Finding the Storm Within the Sunny Day

17 January 2012Annie B

A gale of sea spray, white water washing violently over the deck of a ship, a mast lashing about in the brutal wind – all spoken eloquently in the language of paint. The artist, bright and calm as a sunny day on the water, stands in front of our class and explains, with enthusiasm, our next project. At first, it is difficult to find the gritty artist capable of a maelstrom within our cheerful new art teacher, Ms Soleil Mannion, but with a closer look, the artist as well as the teacher is revealed.

An avid ballroom dancer when she was younger, Ms Mannion left her old passion behind to study drama in Europe once she had graduated from her high school in British Columbia. After a stint as a full-time actor, she found herself teaching drama at a college in the UK. In a pendulum effect, she was soon back on the shores of BC, and back at school, this time with the intent to study psychology and speech pathology; art snuck in, in the form of elective classes on the side. In the fashion of stories that never finish the way they begin, Ms. Mannion graduated from UBC with a major in fine arts and a minor in her initial interest. From the ballroom floor to the darkened theater, from the university classroom to the studio, the turbid and powerful paintings that she creates have had an interesting, intricate incubation.

Her back-gate entrance into the art world described, how did Ms. Mannion find her way through the front gates of Brentwood?

Part of the Cowichan Valley community for nine years, Ms Mannion was offered an interview for a teaching post four days before the beginning of the school year – half a month before she was planning to complete another swing in the cycle between British Columbia and Europe that has defined so much of her life. Instead of moving back to the UK, Ms. Mannion found herself with a job that allowed her to interact artistically with students and fellow teachers – an immense change from the year she spent solely focused on painting, an endeavor that, in her own words “can drive you a little nuts”. In the months spent working at Brentwood, she has struck a balance between life in and out of the studio; with mornings and half of the week free from work, she has ample time in front of the canvas to explore and express herself.

Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays absent of art are a reminder that there is more to Ms Mannion than the teacher we have come to know during the first half of the school year. An energetic and enthusiastic presence in class, she is always willing and able to provide help and suggest alternate ideas. Ms Mannion the teacher and Soleil the artist, though the same person, are both worth getting to know. Soleil the artist resides in the mornings, on days off, and in brief and brilliant flashes in the classroom.

To create the stormy ocean seascapes and warm vineyards of her paintings, Ms Mannion first begins with colour: swaths and slashes of it, without definite shape or form. The half-painted canvasses then sit on windowsills, lean against walls, take up space in hallways, and begin to inhabit her house. When they almost become living, breathing tenants, it is then that the subject of the painting becomes apparent, like discovering a personality, and the ship caught in the foamy sea or the olive trees set in unending rows, emerge.

Much like her method of painting, under the direction of Ms Mannion, our art room also becomes a place of exploration. As we delve deeper into the world of art and discover new themes, techniques and mediums, we also discover the multiple sides of those around us, and uncover how fortunate we are to have a teacher and an artist like Ms Mannion to guide us.

Annie B

Where Students Choose To Be