2023, Acrylic on Canvas, 24” x 24”,
2023, Acrylic on Canvas, 24” x 24”,
2023, Acrylic on Canvas, 24” x 24”,
2023, acrylic on canvas, 24” x 24”
In this series, I use bright, bold, colours full of emotion to express my ideas through abstracted animals and landscapes with elements from my Metis heritage. The pieces focus on the ideas of creation and reinvention. Life often falls apart, only to open new doors to new opportunities. Like the Phoenix from the ashes, we fall and rise again. I take influence from myths, legends, and Jules Verne for my colourful abstracts. I draw strength and inspiration from my own battles with ongoing chronic illness, and from others living with chronic illnesses that are invisible to the eye. My pieces carry a spiritual message meant to stimulate the viewer to look into their deeper selves and interpret their own meanings.
Acrylic Paint, Sumi Ink on Canvas, 60”x 48”, 2019
Acrylic on Canvas , 4 feet by 3 feet, 2019
36” by 36 “
Why can’t you just calm down!
Stop churning and scrolling about.
The storms are here to stay,
So always remember you’re in control,
And the ocean can deal with itself.
Mixed media
36 x 48
Fire
I want to be reborn, reborn from the ashes, the ashes that started with the flames my ancestors survived.
I will grow red feathers and phoenix wings and burst from my own heart.
I am the answer, from the ground to the sky, I fly.
Mixed media
48 x 36
Everything is sacred here, including you and I.
Every creature perfect, perfectly designed.
Every moment fleeting, and beautifully intertwined.
Sacred, sacred, sacred, sacred.
Mixed media
48 x 36
Wind, sky, sun, carry my secrets away.
Make the grass sing, make it grow tall,
So that I’ll be as tall one day.
Sky Woman shine down on me.
Take all my fears.
Just you and I know all the ways you take my troubles away.
Mixed media
36 x 48
In The Dark Forest Series the animals depicted are more spiritual than realistic, and show deep parts of the human spirit. In this series, the animals represent hope, determination, and strength in situations of feeling alone and isolated. I allow the images to take form on the page and share their sacred knowledge with the viewer.
Acrylic on Canvas
20” by 20”
20”x16”
2022, Acrylic on Canvas
“Cows run away from the storm while the buffalo charges toward it – and gets through it quicker. Whenever I’m confronted with a tough challenge, I do not prolong the torment, I become the buffalo." - Wilma Mankiller
Acrylic on canvas
24” by 24”
Acrylic, Pastel and Ink on Board, 24” x 24”, 2017
Acrylic, Pastel and Ink on Board, 24” x 24”, 2017
Spirit Birds was a collection I created during college. For me it represented my experiences with reconnecting with the part of my culture that was Indigenous. I enrolled in Indigenous studies courses and learned many traditional ways of knowledge that aligned with the spirituality I already held. The birds in the series really are not birds at all but a representation of spirit. They represent ideas of hope, knowledge, power, beauty and mystery.
Acrylic Paint on Canvas, 2015
Acrylic and Pastel on Canvas, 2016
Acrylic and Pastel on Canvas, 2016
Acrylic Paint, Pastel on Paper, 2015
Acrylic Paint and Pastel on Canvas, 2015
Acrylic and Pastel on Canvas, 2016
Sumi Ink on Paper, 16” x 20”, 2019
Sumi ink on paper, 16” x 20”, 2019
Sumi Ink and India Ink on Archival Paper
11” x 14”
Sumi Ink on Archival Paper
11” x 14”
Sumi Ink on Paper, 16” x 20”, 2015
Sumi Ink on Paper, 16” x 20”, 2019
In this series of work, I wanted to express what it is like to live as a person with an invisible chronic illness. Using bright colours and transparent sharp shapes that seem to be coming from every direction to represent a person that is trapped inside a failing body. Having an illness that no one can see and still having to function in society is a difficult task that takes a lot of strength from within. The shapes and erratic landscapes represent the daily masks one must wear to create a smile while still functioning with pain, insomnia, and a body that is slowly being torn apart and temporarily put back together by drugs and doctors. These pieces reveal one’s mind that is trying to create a sense of harmony between frustration, anxiety, confusion, the constant presence of hope, and an overwhelming feeling of wanting to find peace when living with chronic illness. I also often use Sumi Ink in my work to symbolise a connection with the forces of nature which are beautiful, delicate, and in a constant cycle of destruction and creation.
Acrylic on Canvas
Acrylic Paint on Canvas, 2018
Acrylic Paint, Sumi Ink, on Canvas, 16” x 20”, 2018
Acrylic Paint and Sumi Ink on Canvas, 60”x 48”, 2019
Acrylic Paint and Sumi Ink on Canvas, 2018
Acrylic paint on digital print, 2017
A Collection of my favorite drawings that I have created over the years with various media.
Pastel on Paper, 2017
Sumi Ink and Water Colour on Antique Music Sheets, 17.5” x 11.5”, 2014
This piece was created using antique music sheets I found in the old stovepipe of the woodstove in my family home. The music sheets date from the late 1800s to the 1950s.
Ink on Antique Paper, 2014
Pastel on Paper, 2016
Pastel on Birch Bark, 24”x 24'“, 2017
This piece was done on a 24 x24 piece of Birch bark that I received from a Birch bark canoe artist in Washington State. The bark was removed from the tree in such a way to preserve the life of the tree. I used the rest of the bark to teach my Indigenous studies class in college how to make small Birch bark canoes.
Pastel on Tinted Paper, 2015
Charcoal on Paper, 2015
The following are different dreamscapes and landscapes, some take bases in reality and some are dreamed up locations I created from my imagination. I often create art about places I would love to go and create characters I would love to meet. I also find lot of peace in expressing emotions I felt at times in my life that made a huge impact to me. A lot of the themes I choose have to do with animals, spirituality, family and my obsession with the old world.
Acrylic on Canvas, 24” x 24”, 2019
This landscape was created through the use of abstract lines and sporadic paint drips. In this deconstructed imagery, contrast is created from the stark rigid landscape splitting the tranquility and flow of the water and the sky
Acrylic on Canvas, 24” x 24”, 2019
This abstract landscape was created through the use of lines and sporadic paint drips. The lines represent the destruction of wetlands due to expanding human infrastructure. Contrast is created through the idea of natural versus unnatural, and through the use of bold colours.
Sumi Ink, Paper Collage on Acrylic on Board, 2018
Acrylic on Canvas, 2016
I created this piece after a relative of mine sent me some writings on the history of my family. This one particular story stood out to me about one of my great great grandmother’s sisters. She had just had a baby with a man who was not her husband and a settler of the area along Lake Huron where she lived. When he found out that a man of the cloth was coming to the island to force marriage on any men who had children with Indigenous girls he cast her out into a snow storm in the middle of winter. In an attempt to cross the lake to find somewhere to take her newborn baby girl, she froze to death holding the baby and was found the next day. In the article they only mentioned her last name, not her first name or the name of the baby. I painted this in memory of my ancestor and all the missing and murdered Indigenous girls. I wanted to give her some peace in the knowledge that she is not forgotten.
