Tonight the Diane Farris Gallery is launching a new solo exhibit featuring a series of hand built ceramic sculptures by famed potter Laura Wee Lay Laq.

Wee Lay Laq has enjoyed a fabulously prolific career. Her work is represented in major museums across Canada, as well as the collections of: The Seattle Art Museum, The National Museum of Wales, The Arts Council of Northern Ireland, The Tate Gallery in London, The Museum of Bisignano in Italy and the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts in Honolulu. And this is just the tip of her iceberg.

Earlier this year, Wee Lay Laq was honoured as a recipient of the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design's 75th Anniversary "Emily" Award. As well, the artist was one of just twenty ceramists chosen to represent Canada in the World Ceramics Exposition 2000 in Hannover Germany.

Now west coast culture lovers will have the chance to see Wee Lay Laq's latest work at the Farris entitled Water, Wind, Air and Earth. The artist is thrilled about the new show, insisting that it's her most innovative to date. Here's how Diane Farris and her gallery folk describe the artist's ceramic process:

"Incorporating techniques she has learned from indigenous potters around the world, Wee Láy Láq's ceramic sculptures are created by hand. Each piece is constructed using methods of pinching, coiling and paddling. A potter's wheel is never used. The smooth finish of her sculptures is achieved through a burnishing process, where a smooth stone is rubbed on the surface of the sculpture.

After completing a first firing, the pieces are sealed in an outdoor kiln surrounded by a mixture of hard and softwood sawdust where they smoulder for long periods of time. The unique markings and oily luster are an intriguing result of this process."

Sounds intriguing to us. Are you familiar with the ceramics of Laura Wee Lay Laq? Are there any other Canadian ceramists whose work you particularly admire? Tell us about it.

New Theatre: A joyous yawp has been heard echoing across Victoria College at the University of Toronto. Finally, after over a hundred years of searching for funding, Vic has a theatre to call its own. Academic philanthropy fairies Isabel and Alfred Bader clicked their magic heels together and in March 2000 the new theatre will open its doors.

This is something I know about, for I've been asked to help create the opening show. It's loosely entitled "The Chemistry of Love." Alfred Bader was a chemist and he and Isabel's courtship contained all the elements of high romance. Suffice it to say, I've heard rumours of a chance shipboard meeting, followed years later by a deep and abiding romance.

The show will involve alumnus (some famous, such as Norman Jewison and we're hoping for Donald Sutherland) as well as the high spirited, student body. There will be plenty of song. Lots of dance. And naturally some Gilbert and Sullivan to provide laughs and even more romance.

I'll keep you posted as more materials come down the creative pike. I can't wait to get inside the new theatre, designed by renowned architect Peter Smith.

Fine Tuning: Join Ziggy for Book TV and an intimated chat with John Ed Bradley about his new novel My Juliet. Also, a look at the largest book market in the world, The Frankfurt Book Fair, "where authors are sold to the world." 8 p.m. ET on Bravo TV.