From Aug. 6 to 7, the museum will host their ninth annual Copper and Fire Arts Festival.
The festival will begin Saturday night with an evening concert performance by world musician Joseph "Pepe" Danza. Pepe is an award-winning multi-instrumentalist who mixes and mashes local music from multiple countries including Japan, India and Brazil. He will be accompanied by a group of fire dancers.
On Sunday, local artists will showcase their art for the public. North Vancouver's Mark Mentiply, a metal sculptor, will be at the festival and his uniquely sculpted animal forms will be on display.
With polished steel and his blowtorch, Mentiply specializes in creating steel-crafted fish, specifically salmon, but he also creates bears, eagles and a variety of other animals.
"I was a commercial fisherman for five years before I began doing special effects in the film business," he said. "I started welding and fabricating in the film business and then one day I went into the shop and started tooling around making fish."
In no time at all Mentiply began selling his fish in a little restaurant in North Vancouver. Now, 15 years later, Mentiply still works in the film business and spends his free time perfecting his craft.
His sculptures are notable for the way they appear in motion while remaining stationary.
"I use a grinder to scrape the fish so that when you look at it, whether it is in the sunlight or under halogen lights, you can see movements because of the way I polish it," he said. "With the way I polish it you can really pick up little subtleties in the fish that make it seem like it has been swimming in water."
Along with displaying his wares at the Copper and Fire Arts Festival, Mentiply will also be giving a live demonstration. He plans on bringing his blowtorch and creating a salmon from scratch. This will be his third time at the festival and he said that he is excited to be coming back.
"It's a fun event for the family. It's great because my wife and my son will come up and there are a bunch of bands playing," he said. "Hopefully the weather cooperates because it is a really nice day for the family."
Even if the weather doesn't cooperate, Mentiply's torch will do its best to compensate.
