Thankfully, Jada McKenzie-Moore is homeschooled. Otherwise, the 12-year-old Aldergrove girl would be hard pressed to find the time necessary to also juggle her quest for stardom.

The flexible schedule has allowed Jada to pursue her passion for the arts, as a singer, actor, and dancer.

After making it to the top six in the BC Junior Talent Show, top three in the International Village children's talent competition, top 10 in the PNE Star Showdown, and most recently in the top six of the YTV's Virtual Next Star, Jada's made the shortlist in another talent contest happening in Richmond at 8 p.m. on Friday night.

She's a top 13 finalist in the inaugural Summer Night Market Idol contest on Friday, Sept. 14. The top six will be picked, and Jada is hoping to make the cut.

Jada first stepped into the entertainment world in 2010, when she took her first lead role in the musical Pandora's Box, and since then has been in Beauty and the Beast, A Christmas Carol, Hello Dolly, and joins the cast of the Arts Club's production of White Christmas this fall.

In addition, Jada has acted in 11 short films, done voice-over for a cartoon, and most recently a soundtrack for a movie. She's acted in commercials, been in two music videos, and even dabbled in some modelling.

Artist goes big

Fort Langley Artists Group closed out its season and subsequently closed the doors of the FLAGstop Gallery this month with their traditional "paint in" at the heritage society's CN train station on Sept. 3.

Of the dozen or so different artist in attendance, local painter Judy Vanderveen was among them.

She set up six huge panels, a farm mural that drew the attention of many in the Fort Langley village that day. It's an ongoing project, she said, that could take months to finish.

The paint depicts a scene from the Douglas Lake Ranch in Merritt during the fall.

As fellow artist Robin Bandenieks suggested, Vanderveen's painting would make a great backdrop to the life-sized Horsin' Around Langley fibreglass horses that are being painted and placed around the community through a Langley Arts Council initiative.

The paint will be exhibited and worked on during the upcoming Langley Artist Studio Tour happening Sept. 22 and 23, and 29 and 30, at Bandenieks' Aldergrove studio.

In the meantime, the FLAGstop Gallery will reopen in May 2013.

Orchestra on stage

There are a few different events night in Langley that revolve around music in the coming days.

For instance, the Kiev Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, under the direction of Dr. Wes Janzen, will be presenting a concert of sacred music and stories of God's grace at the Christian Life Assembly Church on Saturday, Sept. 15, starting at 7 p.m.

Janzen, who is on leave from Langley's Trinity Western University, has been director of choral activities at TWU since 1981. He is directing this orchestra presentation, which will feature 90 artists - 45 instrumentalists and 45 singers from Kiev.

The Langley show is one of 11 slated to occur between Sept. 12 and 20 between the Lower Mainland and Alberta. There was also a show scheduled at TWU today (Thursday) at 11 a.m.

In addition to the Kiev concert, the SOS Children's Village of B.C. is hosting a new Signature Social in Langley that features the talents of the Bruce James Orchestra.

This event is being held tonight (Thursday, Sept. 13) at the Canadian Museum of Flight hangar at the Langley Airport, 5333 216th St. beginning at 6 p.m. Replacing the organization's former wine and cheese festival, this event will still feature wine and beer tasting, as well as more. Tickets are $75 each from www.sosbc.org or by calling 604-574-2964.

Exhibit opens

Fort Gallery unveiled its newest exhibition Wednesday.

The show, called Points of View, displays the works of gallery members Judy Jones and Dorthe Eisenhardt.

The artists will be on hand for the opening reception Friday, Sept. 14, 7 to 9 p.m. The show remains open Wednesday to Sundays (noon to 5 p.m.) through Sept. 30 at 9048 Glover Rd. in Fort Langley. Info. www.fortgallery.ca.

Why do artists create?

Why do they spend untold hours, days and often weeks or more working on an original and unique piece of art - usually with little or no reward, financial or otherwise?

Maybe the answer is, that this is the only way in which they can give voice to their emotional response to the environment and share with others how it looks to them - from their point of view?

The two artists, Jones and Eisenhardt, both long-time members of the artists' collective, are again collaborating on a show of all new work filled with light and colour.

The show is testimony to their individual way of responding to the environment as seen from each individual viewpoint, as well as expressing their delight in nature's restorative powers.

Eisenhardt is an experienced and intuitive abstract painter with a strong affinity for our natural surroundings.

Although her initial inspiration is based in nature, she is mainly concerned with the interaction of colour, light, and space during the painting process and in this way she translates her impressions into an abstract landscape with colours, textures and shapes.

It then becomes a visual manifestation of a vivid experience.

"I look at each painting as a symphony of colours", Eisenhardt said. "And as a celebration of the natural world around me. The paintings are a tribute to a world that we are very much a part of."

Jones has worked with fused glass for many years and her vibrant work bears witness to her vivid imagination and her ability to find new and unique ways of experimenting with the fluidity and vibrancy of glass.

She is always exploring the way it takes on a life of its own with colours, textures, and translucent areas often appearing in unexpected ways and thereby giving ideas to the final purpose of the piece: either functional or decorative.

"It is always a surprise to open the kiln and see how the colours of the spectrum have played with each other," she said.