Gwen Dirks's eyes well up with tears when she starts to talk about sobriety's impact on her creativity.

Seated in West Vancouver's Ferry Building Gallery Tuesday, she takes a moment. Soft words of encouragement from the three other women gathered, her sisters in recovery and in art, give her the courage to continue.

While Dirks has always had an artistic eye, able to design imaginative chalkboards at the restaurants she and her husband owned, or paint large-scale backdrops for productions at her church, she would only ever produce work at the request of others. That is, until a year and a half ago when she finally picked up a paintbrush of her own volition.

"I never felt that I had something to say, to put down in my own painting," she says. "So basically what sobriety has given me is this gift of getting to know myself sufficiently, to say 'I have something to say' and . . . that what I have to say is valuable and something that I can show other people."

Seven years into her recovery from alcohol addiction, Dirks is continuing to heal and find her voice, both in life and in her paintings.

In celebration of recovery journeys like hers, the Ferry Building Gallery, in partnership with the non-profit Avalon Recovery Society, is presenting Artists of Avalon: Women in Recovery from Addiction Discover Their Creativity. The mixed media show, featuring the works of 17 artists who attend the society's West Vancouver and Vancouver women's centres, opens Tuesday, with a reception from 6 to 8 p.m., and runs until May 2.

In addition to showcasing participants' talents, Artists of Avalon is intended to show an alternative face of addiction, one that's widespread in families and social networks, though not always discernible. It's also intended to highlight the process of recovery and the joy it can bring to those both directly and indirectly affected by dependency issues.

It was a Monday morning when Dirks, a 48-year-old Vancouver resident, walked through the Avalon Women's Centre doors.

"I was ready to quit. I basically said: 'Help me,'" she recalls, and to her amazement, the women there did.

The first Avalon Women's Centre was opened in Vancouver in 1990 by two women in recovery from alcoholism -- Helen Burnham and Virginia Giles. They opened the West Vancouver centre at 657 Marine Dr. in 1997.

"We're a drop-in centre for women in recovery from addictions," says Monica Glass, co-ordinator of the North Shore location.

The privately funded and volunteer-run centres offer a variety of recovery programs and services, including 12-step peer support meetings for women dealing with alcohol and drug addiction, eating disorders, relationship issues and abuse. They also operate a library, clothing exchange and kitchen and provide educational workshops, resource information and childminding services.

"One of the best things about us is that our services are available immediately and without charge to any woman who wants to use them," says Glass.

The primary focus of Avalon is peer support and the creation of an atmosphere where women can forge connections with one another. Staff liaise with community health agencies and doctors and attract women from all walks of life, either through referrals from the health community or by word of mouth. The Avalon Women's Centre of West Vancouver records between 700 and 800 visits per month.

CREDIT: NEWS photo Kevin Hill

North Vancouver resident Jennie Marsh works in her North Vancouver studio. Marsh is one of 17 artists featured in Artists of Avalon, a mixed-media show by women in recovery from addictions, opening Tuesday at West Vancouver's Ferry Building Gallery.

North Vancouver resident Jennie Marsh, 60, and a current Avalon board member, was six months into her recovery from alcohol addiction when she heard that the centre had opened its doors on the North Shore.

"I fell in love with it," she says. "There were some women there who were older women, most of them had good sobriety and they encouraged and enveloped me. From then on, I just continued to go there as often as I could."

"It is by the grace of God and by Avalon and this program that I'm sober," she adds.

Artists of Avalon is the society's first show. Glass, 12 years into her recovery from alcohol addiction, as well as one of the artists featured in the exhibition, came up with the idea.

"Generally, you think of addiction and artists and you think of these sort of tortured, broken works that are big and black and red," she says. "I wanted to show the opposite of that, which is the work that these women are doing. If that black and red stuff is about active addiction, then this is about the beauty and joy of recovery."

Glass approached Ruth Payne, the Ferry Building Gallery's visual arts co-ordinator, who immediately jumped on board with the idea.

"I have a particular passion for this type of exhibition that really makes a difference in the community. It's important to community building, self-esteem building," says Payne. "And I think that is one of the main things that art does for people."

The bravery of the women in baring their souls through their works is inspiring, she says. "I find it really exciting that these women, once they've given up on the particular addiction and connected with themselves in that place of source, find their creativity and that that then becomes the vehicle for bringing themselves out into the world in a healed way," says Payne.

"It's hard to answer the question: Does your creativity fuel your recovery or does your recovery fuel your creativity? To me, I see it as a sort of a spiral," says Artists of Avalon contributor Vicki Canada, a 68-year-old West Vancouver resident, who has also joined the Tuesday gathering at the Ferry Building.

When one is battling addiction, the spiral starts going in the wrong direction, resulting in creative impulses being put on hold, says Canada. Moving through recovery allows the spiral to move in the proper direction. In her case, that's the impetus for creativity.

"I would say that women can use their recovery to nurture a greater expression and a greater psyche and a greater trust in drawing out all those dormant and reticent impulses. They learn to express something in a very creative way," she says. "(They learn) that it can become a metaphor for every other realm of our lives -- that recovery and creativity become metaphors for one another."

Canada gave up alcohol 31 years ago in an effort to break the cycle of alcoholism in her family. "I've given my four children a chance to make their own choices," she says.

Canada has a background in art, having studied it in college and having taught it in high school, but her pursuit was put on hold for 20 years while she worked in the hotel conference sales business to support her family. During those years, alcoholism became an issue. It was when Canada retired 15 years ago that she was able to return to her painting.

"At that point, it was obvious that a lot of the lessons that I was learning in recovery were duplicating themselves in my approach to learning new techniques in art," she says. For example, facing fear in anything new, either in life or on the canvas.

"When it feels as though it's like jumping off a cliff, one realm lends confidence to approach the other," she says.

The recovery process and the creation of art both involve spontaneity, humour, style and voice, says Canada. "Just like we have found a voice in our recovery, we have also been led to discover a style that we each uniquely have," she says.

Canada's experiences with alcoholism and recovery most definitely creep into her work. For example, balance continues to be a theme she addresses.

"As I strive to find balance in my life in general, I keep waiting for that same balance to show up on canvas," she says, adding her favourite dictum for recovery is "'balance isn't necessarily not falling over.'"

Canada has two watercolour paintings in the Ferry Building show. One, titled Freedom, shows three seagulls in flight. It was inspired by women she has sponsored. "I wanted to do something to commemorate the freedom that recovery gives us," she says.

Canada is grateful for the opportunity to be part of the show and the Avalon community. "Avalon is a safe harbour for women . . . .," she says. "At Avalon, we really do come to look upon each other as sisters in recovery."

The Avalon Centre's Glass hopes Artists of Avalon serves a number of purposes. First, she hopes it will raise awareness of the existence of the centres in West Vancouver and Vancouver and the positive impact they're making in women's lives. Second, she hopes the show helps educate the public about what addiction really looks like.

"Only a very small portion of people who are alcoholics and drug addicts live in the Downtown Eastside," says Glass. "The rest of those people are semi-functioning in their lives in their houses."

It's also important for community members to realize that there's much more to individuals labelled alcoholics and addicts than many often realize, says Glass. Dirks's featured painting, And They Call Me The Flower Girl, addresses this idea. "Once people get a name like that . . . we are limiting the fact that they are so much more," she says.

Apart from educating the public, organizers hope Artists of Avalon will reach out to individuals struggling with addiction, link them with Avalon and instill a sense of hope.

"The stories that we can write with our life are just better than what we often think they are," says Dirks.

Finally, the exhibition is intended to empower the artists featured, recognize their unique talents and help propel them further in their recovery journeys.

"I think each of us has been created to be creative," says Dirks, smiling. "I believe that with all my heart. To have (my) life come to this abrupt halt and then to start walking in a different direction, it was a massive gift for me. It's a gift (to be) able to explore my creativity."

Other events related to Artists of Avalon, sponsored by the West Vancouver Community Foundation, include: an addiction awareness evening Tuesday, April 27, 7-8:30 p.m. featuring Glass, Marsh, Avalon co-founder Helen Burnham and Dr. Ray Baker; an artist's talk Saturday, May 1, 2-3:30 p.m. featuring Dirks, Marsh and Canada; and featured artists will also be in attendance Saturday, April 17 from 2 to 3 p.m.

Artists of Avalon: Women in Recovery from Addiction Discover Their Creativity, runs April 13-May 2 at the Ferry Building Gallery. Opening reception: Tuesday, April 13, 6-8 p.m. www.ferrybuildinggallery.com.

For more information on the Avalon Women's Centre of West Vancouver and Vancouver, visit www.avaloncentres.org.

emcphee@nsnews.com