Joyce’s work examines connection to place/north and the natural world. Past careers as a biologist and wilderness adventure guide in the Yukon Territory, Canada have augmented and contributed to her artistic practice and taken her to remote wild spaces in the north and elsewhere. She is a keen observer and collector of objects, fascinated by the complex intricacy and interdependence between ecosystems and all living beings.
François Michaud combines sculpture, painting and installation to create artworks that focus on environmental issus arising from man’s interaction with nature. In his works, the animal is a caricature of our emotions, aspirations and ambitions, he becomes an iconic and anthropomorphic allegory of who we are, and the manufactured objects (chair, boat, etc) symbolically represent man’s presence. His pictorial and sculptural approaches have evolved with his environmental concerns related to climate change. His narrative representations raise questions with a poetic and tragic touch of derision and delusion. Michaud often paints animals in a red boat, symbolizing climate refugees, nomads in search of new territories or transporting their habitat to a better world; the red boat sailing in troubled water on rising seas.
Yo is an installation artist, community arts facilitator, and art director out of Montréal/Tiohtià:ke. Rooted in land and fiber arts, she forages, sources and needle felts natural materials into large scale creations. Yo’s Nomadic Nest installation and performance series contemplates constructs and concepts of home, territory, security, migration, and movement. The act of cocooning herself and others in these giant nest-like ephemeral creations aims to comfort, confront and ultimately connect its inhabitants to a deeper sense of belonging (to the land, to themselves, to the world outside the warmth of these deciduous homes). These unique pieces and immersive experiences serve as a reminder to her and others to tread lightly on the land.
Kelly Andres is a research based artist of settler origin. She has produced installations, performances and sensorial experiences that blend cosmologies and ecologies. Andres recently completed a practice based Ph.D in Fine Arts at Concordia University, Montréal, titled Radicle Assemblages (2020). Her current research intertwines ecological art practices, plant studies, performative placemaking, co-creative community/urban planning, and experiential approaches for multi-species interactions. Recent exhibitions include Particle + Wave, Calgary, Les yeux dans l’eau, Foreman Art Gallery of Bishop University in Sherbrooke, Sandstone City, The Lougheed House, Calgary, The Garden of Speculations, articule, Montréal, le Centre des arts actuels Skol, Montréal, La Maison des arts de Laval, Laval. Andres’s past work has been generously supported by the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, the Alberta Foundation for the Arts and the Canada Council for the Arts.
The Jasper Community Habitat for the Arts opened its doors on July 1st 2016.
This is Jaspers’ first dedicated community space for exploring the arts, any of its disciplines, and for all ages. A place to share expertise, experience something new or be entertained.
The space was designed, from its inception, to be one that could accommodate the arts and artists who would be using the spaces. When we were invited to sit with the architects in 2011 we had no real idea of the light, the wood, the concrete, and how they would work together in making something so truly unique.
I am a biologist turned artist with a life-long interest in climate change and environmental issues.
My current body of work, Dissonance, uses paper sculpture and large-scale panels in acrylic ink to explore different aspects of the climate and biodiversity crises.
As originally conceived, “Dissonance” refers to translation gaps: disconnects between intent and outcome in the human endeavour of environmental governance. As the work progressed, it also became a way for me to examine my own cognitive dissonance and try to process decades of contradictions – lived and observed – when it comes to the environment.
Marie LeBlanc is a self-taught multidisciplinary artist. Originally from Northern Manitoba, she lived in Winnipeg before recently relocating to Alberta. Living with Environmental Illness means that for LeBlanc, the toxicities of indoor housing have become intolerable due to Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS), Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity and Toxic Mold Exposure. To ease her symptoms, she travels to the U.S. desert in the winter months in a cargo van adapted for safe housing. LeBlanc has taken on a seasonally nomadic lifestyle, following the warm weather patterns that enable her to be outdoors.
Artist and Author Mark Heine has come to realize he’s a story teller. Writing has long been a key component in his creative process. A written narrative accompanies each of his paintings, and several of his articles on painting have been published. The symbiotic relationship of these two distinct disciplines has led to a unique approach to both. His paintings, all captured moments in a larger story. Bringing one of those stories to life – to larger than life – marrying fiction to painting, is the focus of his most recent works … the Sirens series. His Sirens book is a work of fiction in the genre of magical realism and intended for young adults. The story examines humankind’s ambiguous and often destructive relationship with the natural world. Heine hopes the underlying message of his writing will promote sustainable thinking and environmental stewardship in young people. Each of his Sirens paintings is the visualization of a key moment in his manuscript.
Autumn Whiteway (Night Singing Woman) is a Saulteaux/Métis visual artist, traditional craftworker, curator and archaeologist based in Calgary, Alberta. She explores Indigenous themes from a contemporary perspective through painting, digital art, and photography. Her painting and digital art is primarily focused on the heavily symbolic Woodland Style of Indigenous art, while her photographic practice is used as a form of activism to highlight Indigenous issues. Additionally, she makes traditional crafts such as fish scale artwork, spirit dolls, dreamcatchers and medicine bags. Her work has been exhibited at locations such as Arts Commons, cSpace King Edward, ATB Branch for Arts and Culture, and Calgary Public Library. Her curatorial work focuses on elevating the voices of Indigenous creatives through a series of Indigenous focused exhibitions. She holds an M.A. in Anthropology from the University of Manitoba (2017), a B.Sc. in Archaeology, and a B.A. in Greek and Roman Studies.
Bell Island artist, Brian Burke is a man who believes that necessity really is the mother of invention. When he needed a carving done and couldn’t afford to pay to get it done, he tried his hand at carving, and he was hooked. He has always seen waste and pollution as a condition of a spoiled society and would like to do all that he can to fix that. In the process he hopes to educate people on what they can do better. Through his artistic endeavours, Burke is taking post-consumer waste products like plastic, wood, cardboard, glass, and steel and turning them all into beautiful artworks. In his depiction of two drillers working in the former iron ore mines of his home of Bell Island, NL, Brian took over 1000 old plastic shopping bags, some pieces of 100 year old mine timber and created something wonderful with 40 kids from the Wabana Boys & Girls Club. He had the kids help him cut the bags and position the appropriate pieces in the appropriate positions and ended up with a fantastic mural that they gave away to the Newfoundland Club in Cambridge, Ontario in appreciation for helping numerous Bell Island groups since the mines closed in 1966.
The Climate Art Web (CAW-WAC) is a grassroots network that brings together climate artists living in northern Turtle Island (Canada).
