Category: Pacific Maritime

Anya Mielniczek combines traditional fine art training with street dirt mediums in both private and public spheres working as a mixed-media artist. Inspired by humanity, our consumption and the natural world she explores castaway materials, experimentation and emotionally responding to the time and environment she’s creating in while playing between a real and abstracted aesthetic. Her approach in using upcycled waste, waste paint, plastic bags or litter bits is to both re-energize and reorganize these unwanted materials in a way that can momentarily trick the eye, infusing these elements with beauty and intrigue. Ultimately Anya’s commitment to her practice is to paint with purpose by giving nature and social issues a voice while defining a conversation with the viewer that may inspire and bring awareness for sustainable change.

David Ellingsen is a Canadian photographer creating images that speak to the relationship between humans and the natural world. He works predominantly in long-term projects with a focus on climate, biodiversity and the forest.

Recent exhibitions include China’s Lishui Museum of Art, the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, Lithuania’s Kaunas Photo Festival and Canada’s Campbell River Museum. Ellingsen’s photographs are part of the permanent collections of South Korea’s Datz Museum of Art, China’s Photography Museum of Lishui, and Canada’s Beaty Biodiversity Museum and Royal British Columbia Museum.

My work investigates shifts in landscapes that are impacted by climate change. My driving questions are “What is an environment’s adaptive capacity for survival?”, “At what point will environments fall apart?” and “How will these spaces be rebuilt?”. I am drawn to the way that living beings navigate and adapt to climate-vulnerable landscapes; specifically how resilience manifests in response to degrading habitats. My work is a resting point for these narratives; both for the present reality and the imagined future.

Arabella Young is an emerging Canadian painter who looks for the essence and atmosphere of the natural West Coast. Arabella’s contemplative landscapes evoke wonder and curiosity. Through expressive colour and elusive shapes, Arabella depicts the mystery within a forest and the curious space where sea meets land. Low lying fog between thick emerald greenery, light and dark that dance in water reflections, elements of Arabella’s paintings come together to capture the West Coast ethos.

Liquid Land (2021) is a 15:03 minutes video of a brick sculpture made from a mix of unceded territory —land from outside the school— and First Nations Land —collected with Splash.