As a person from both Anishinaabe and Western cultures, I use art to process what that mixed identity truly means. Growing up, navigating these two differing worlds led to identity issues within myself. Feeling like I had to choose one or the other, I have grown to realize that both can coexist together in this ‘third space’. My work explores themes of identity, culture, nature, and the relationship between them. I draw a significant amount of inspiration from the natural world and the patterns found within it. Botanical motifs are common in my work as I find them calming yet fascinating. The relationship between people and plants is a topic I find myself very interested in, ethnobotany in particular. It is the study of varying perceptions and practices of different cultural groups in relation to plants. With this, I focus on the cultures I am part of and how they compare. In addition to depicting plants, I aim to incorporate more natural and recycled materials. As my concepts revolve around the natural world, I believe the materials should also pertain to that idea. The artwork furthers itself from consumerist and capitalist ideologies by creating my own material or using found material. As these ideologies became rampant in North America after colonization, using natural materials is an act of decolonization. With my art I hope to share my experiences as a person of mixed heritage, a fascination with our world and our sociocultural relationships. 

In addition to drawing inspiration from life experiences, the human body emerges as a recurring motif in my works. I find beauty in its resilience and efficiency, viewing it as a vessel over which we have control; we can sculpt our bodies and present them as we wish. With a deep fascination for the body and anatomy, I persist in replicating its form, anticipating its continued presence in my artistic endeavours. 

As an artist and scientist, I combine my diverse interests in anatomy or science with classic literature or history through a blend of realism, symbolism, and fantasy. I create narrative, surreal artworks that aim to provoke intellectual reflection on our position in society and our evolving knowledge of this world. I have recurring thoughts and questions about the human body and our relation to the cosmos, as a student in health science, aspiring to become a physician. 

My love of microscopic cells to the infinite universe began in childhood. Never losing my dreams of becoming an astronaut or explorer, I was highly formed by fantastical stories and imagined worlds. My grandfather was an artist who profoundly influenced me, through his paintings and mutual love of film and literature. Usually in painting or drawing, I attempt to bridge the worlds of imagination and realism to evoke curiosity in my viewers. I consider my work successful when it brings viewers a sense of nostalgia and questions the stories and knowledge that have shaped society. 

Though still finding my artistic voice, I plan to connect more prominent current political and social topics to my historical and scientific interests. Anchoring my art to the issues that plague my generation will allow my viewers to relate to my work on a more personal level. Currently, I am working towards finding the right balance between realism and illustration that allows me to explore my interests while eliciting emotional responses and interest from viewers in a gallery space. 

As a third-year University student specializing in Studio Art and minoring in Museum and Curatorial Studies, my current practice is rooted in a conscious effort to explore, experiment and play. Throughout my undergraduate studies, I challenged myself to venture beyond traditional understandings of medium, surface, materials and tools. Slowly but surely, I realized that painting and drawing are more than acrylic, charcoal, and graphite on paper and canvas. 

I am deeply committed to delving into surreal, fantastical, and dream-like concepts and realms that reside within my mind through my artistic works. These explorations harmonize with my endeavor to translate personal real-world experiences into artistic forms. My creations serve as immortalized reflections of cherished memories, often portraying life forms and environmental elements. They reflect my belief that there is no beauty in life where the manufactured is all that one can see. Therefore, I strive to depart from the reliance on digital photography to record and fabricate memories. Instead, I seek a more authentic and pure portrayal of emotions through painting and drawing. 

My artistic process involves disrupting and disintegrating figures and forms from life and photography, as they exist differently in the domains of my mind. This approach allows me to explore surrealist themes and craft compositions that resonate with the emotional essence of the memories I seek to depict. While I utilize self-captured reference pictures to aid in artwork creation, my pieces are heavily influenced by the emotions experienced during those moments, which cameras often fail to capture adequately. In my pursuit of creating pieces that depict the recognizable world, I aim to deepen my understanding of reality and its representation on canvas. By studying shadows, light sources, environments, textures, and more, I prepare myself to reveal the untamed worlds within my mind in a believable yet unmistakably surreal manner. 

While my main interests and themes revolve around life experiences, reflection, the human body, and the inclusion of environmental aspects, I occasionally diverge from these subjects to experiment with mediums and abstracted forms. These ventures serve as creative outlets, fulfilling subdued impulses while producing “main” works. They allow me to explore colour and form in ways I usually restrict in my memory-based works. They are also a foundation for constructing and developing my surreal ideas and intentions. 

As an artist, I draw upon art historical paintings and figures to recontextualize and reinterpret them within a contemporary framework. Influenced by the works of artists like Peter Paul Rubens and European fresco paintings, I utilize these representations as a foundation for constructing conceptual narratives that shows themes of identity, culture, memory, and imaginative spaces. My artistic process involves creating a vibrant palette of colours to dissolve the traditional art-historic figures into a psychedelic imagery, creating a visual language that challenges perceptions and invites introspection. The intensity of colour in my work reflects the complexity and depth of the narratives I seek to convey. 

As I continue to develop my visual langue at Western University, I restricted my work with acrylic paint and charcoal. I use acrylics to communicate intensity through vivid colour hues, while charcoal provides a wide range of values to further enhance the depth of my drawing projects. Using acrylic paint helps me create a masterpiece within a short span of time while employing old master processes of painting. Through a collaging technique, I integrate psychedelic patterns organically, allowing them to intersect with figurative forms and objects, blurring the lines between reality and imagination. Working on a large scale allows me the freedom to explore and refine my visual language. Some of my work is based on my memories 

and familiar spaces. I use abstraction to imbue them with a sense of ambiguity which allows the viewer to connect with my art. 

My art channels the intersections of the past and present, inviting viewers to engage with themes of cultural heritage, personal identity, and the transformative expression. Through my vibrant and dynamic compositions, I aim to provoke thought, evoke emotion, and inspire dialogue surrounding the complexities of the human perception. 

With a background in commissions of family and pet portraits, I set goals to capture the subject’s likeness, personality, and emotion. I was striving for work that creates feeling and tells a story, doing more than what a photograph of the same subject matter could have done. Working on these portraits set the foundation for my pieces today. In my work, there has always been a rooted connection to nature. Many of my paintings explore themes of the human connection to the natural world and how images of nature can reflect human feelings and issues. Using colour and form, I strive to capture the viewer’s attention and allow them to emerge in the landscape that my work creates. 

The main mediums I work in are acrylic, watercolour, pencil, and oil pastel. I have always turned to pencil as a medium of choice for my drawings as it allowed me to have the most control, but as I move forward with my practice, I find myself moving away from mediums that make marks as limited as the tip of a pencil. Recently I have enjoyed working in charcoal and oil pastels, excited about how bold and expressive they can be. As for painting, I have grown to love the buildable quality of acrylic paint. The vibrant colours and varying textures that can be created with the medium allow me to create different feelings in each of my paintings. 

Living in a house with five girls, my work often reflects the feminine energy surrounding me. I typically gravitate towards a soft colour pallet of muted blues, greens, and pink, implementing my perspective of the world into my paintings. My approach to each painting usually consists of some preliminary sketches, but as I start a painting, I listen to the medium and see where it takes me. Conceptually, my work focuses on the interconnectedness of the human experience and the environment. Through a feminine lens, I aim to capture the dynamic relationships between people and nature, and with each other. I tend to treat my landscapes as portraits, giving personality to natural elements. As I move ahead in my art practice, I look forward to working larger and looser, creating more immersive environments such as drawing installations and large paintings.