Inheritance

Currently exhibiting: April - June 2024 for ‘Ground Rules Group Exhibition: What the Spruce tree saw but didn’t say’ at Cape Breton Centre for Craft and Design, Sydney, CA
Link to Opening & Curatorial Talk here

Artist Statement for this work:
My work is often inspired by the relationships between our natural world, the human condition and the communities we share. The work combines structural systems found in nature with abstract expressions of how we interact with these environments. Art-making is a therapeutic process for me to explore themes of connection, well-being, memory, ancestry, and the metaphysical. I create to allow space for my own internal contemplations and to provide a moment of stillness for others.

The word Inheritance typically implies material goods or land passed on, but in this case, I was feeling into what I’ve inherited as part of my lived experiences; stories, mannerisms, and bodily features from my family who lived in the Margaree and Cheticamp areas. This work is intended to feel alive. It shows a bird's eye view of the elevation and waterways of the Margaree from river to ocean. The exact elevation surrounding the Margaree area was translated with my gestural marks to embody my experience of this place, with assistance from a cartographer to obtain variations of maps of the area. The featured areas are where I am aware my ancestors spent much of their lives and were sustained by the land and water. The abstraction in these areas are replications of handprints taken from family members and represent the unknown, or missing parts from stories passed down. This is an abstraction of the truth of their experiences from someone fortunate to experience the same places.

I’m passionate about creating artwork that reminds us of our inherent belonging, that we are more alike than we are different and experiencing art; though a solitary experience, it is a method which connects us to our inner worlds and the spaces we inhabit.

Pastel, watercolour paint, ink, graphite on canvas
Framed with matte black wood