To experience the original craftsmanship of Vincent Massey pay a visit to the grassroots gallery that sits adjacent to his pottery studio and home in Alpine Meadows, then continue further up the slopes of Rainbow Mountain and ride one of Whistler’s original hardcore mountain bike trails, a rocky vein that continues to bear the builder’s nickname of ‘Binty’s.’
Massey is the definitive Whistler Renaissance man: self-sustaining artist, mountain biker, trail architect and snowboarder; equal parts master craftsman and outdoor adventurer – life and work intertwined.
He moved to the area in 1985 with wife Cheryl, part of the lucky set that got into Whistler when a residence was still in reach of an aspiring artist with a family.
Supplementing his income with carpentry in the early stages of his career provided Massey with the necessary skills to construct his home, studio and gallery on the property. Two decades and two kids later, he and Cheryl continue to reside and work there. A steady flow of clay creations keeps Vincent’s two kilns firing, his robust, functional pieces sought by art collectors, hotels and restaurants both locally and internationally.
Following her husband’s lead, Cheryl has also made her name as an artisan weaver with a repertoire of basket items, and accessories made from natural, hand-gathered kelp, bark and tule rush, which she also displays in the Massey gallery.
Two of the latest items to come out of Massey’s kiln represent the intersection of art and mountain biking. The top male and female finishers in this weekend’s 21 st Annual Cheakamus Challenge mountain bike race will take home commemorative rectangular blue-glazed dishes with an extruded rim, handles and feet – an original creation handcrafted by one of the area’s original hardcore trail riders.
A founding member of the Whistler Off Road Cycling Association (WORCA), Massey was there that night in 1989 when a handful of riders got together at the Boot Pub to formulate a plan to fight impending trail closures in Garibaldi Provincial Park. The organization has since grown to a membership of over 1,000, and a significant force regarding the direction and development of mountain biking in the Sea To Sky corridor.
Massey has also continued to grow as an artist, driven to innovate, push the limits of his medium and discover new and exciting glazes, firings and forms from the three-four tonnes of clay that pass through his studio in the course of a year.
A fourth-generation artist, born and raised in Horseshoe Bay, Massey discovered an innate interest in the craft of pottery at age 15. His passion for pottery would later take him across the Atlantic to study at the West Surrey College of Art, where he specialized in traditional English and Japanese methods of stoneware using wood, salt and raku firing techniques, furthering his education through apprenticeships with master craftsmen in England and Canada.
The apprentice has now become the master. Massey has entered a stage in his artistic life where he is now being sought as an instructor and mentoring his own apprentices, one being Brackendale-based Jenny Smack.
Not content to play the same tune for the rest of his artistic life, he says he is "constantly innovating," waxing excitedly about the acquisition of a salt-fired kiln for his studio that has opened up a whole new world of glazing possibilities. Described as a process that is "not for the faint of heart," the 700-year old technique involves firing the clay pieces with large quantities of rock salt, which combines with the glazed clay surface to produce unique, textured finishes – often described as an "orange-peel effect."
It’s not for the "faint of heart" because the process is maddeningly unpredictable, with glazes often colouring differently than the artist might have intended.
But as in mountain biking, Massey isn’t afraid to go where there might be no precedent. A mammoth, ocean-blue, decorative dish currently on display in the gallery was almost too much clay for one kiln to handle. Almost. Massey made it happen, and now the piece is his pride and joy.
"I’m way more happy out of bounds," he says, "I’m always trying to push the boundaries and see what I can get away with."
Of course, when grandeur is on display from one’s living room window, it is bound to come out in the art. Massey’s work has been lauded for its masculinity, its strength and its robust forms. Distinct references to the ocean of his childhood home and the mountains also show up in deliberate glaze patterns, with one particular piece bearing the squiggly lines of fresh tracks in virgin powder.
Aside from keeping him in good enough shape to actually lift the barrels of clay, Massey says his recreational life helps keep him mentally fit. A recent biking trip to Spruce Lake revealed intriguing volcanic pumice formations, whose texture he couldn’t help considering in terms of the salt firing process.
Despite his achievements, Massey says it hasn’t always been easy to purvey life as a ceramic artist in a locale such as Whistler – far removed from pottery hotspots like Britain and the U.S. Eastern Seaboard. But while pastoral England may afford instant artistic credibility, the imposing terrain of the Sea To Sky corridor has been the shaping force for Massey. His life as an artist is intrinsically tied to his life as an outdoor adventurer. Facing the Christmas rush is a lot less formidable with mountain bike trails and snowboard terrain so close at hand.
"Riding purifies my mind," he muses. "When I’m riding I edit out all the garbage that’s in my head."
