From her soon-to-be-published fifth book My Secret Sasquatch (& other possibilities) to her Wild! exhibit of photographs at the Rollin Arts Centre (May 11 to June 9), Jacque-line Windh is an excep-tional woman who lives two passions.
Sciences and arts both fascinated Windh in her childhood. Sciences first won as she received her B.Sc. (Honours) in geology from McGill University in 1987, and her Ph.D. from the University of Western Australia in 1992. For more than a decade, Windh worked as a geological consultant to the mining industry in Canada, Australia, Chile, Argentina and Peru.
But her second passion, latent in her heart, popped out in 2000. She left the mining industry and has dedicated her life to photography and writing. Living in Tofino (she has since moved to Alberni), Windh had inspiring surroundings at the tips of her lens and pen.
In 2004 Windh published her first book, The Wild Edge, filled with breathtaking photos of the West Coast. The Wild Edge soon became a Canadian bestseller.
Since then, she has written or co-written three more books: The Wild Side Guide to Vancouver Island’s Pacific Rim; First Nations of the Pacific Northwest: Change and Tradition and Hai kur mamashu shis (a collection of traditional tales from the Yagan people of Patagonia).
My Secret Sasquatch (& other possibilities), a compilation of stories and essays, will be on the market hopefully in spring 2013.
Besides her books, Windh has been exhibiting her photographic work in galleries and museums from Tofino to Vancouver to Muenster in Germany and her photos appear in magazines and newspapers around the world.
One of her stories, The Night the Floor Jumped, is on the short list for the Vanderbilt-Exile Short Fiction 2012 Competition.
Wild! will be at the Rollin Art Gallery (Argyle Street and Eighth Avenue) until June 9, Tuesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
AMYAH LABRÈCHE
Special to the News