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I am a Whitehorse-based painter and sculptor. My practice is focused on exploring identity and the human experience. The body is the inspiration for and recurring motif in my paintings and sculptures, and the theme of memory underpins the work. My investigation takes place through the lens of my gender, informed by my roles as daughter, mother, sister, spouse and now grandmother. My life and work have been shaped by an enduring curiosity. Originally from northern Ontario, I have moved more than twenty times, including to rural Egypt, Cairo and Zimbabwe, before settling in the Yukon in 2010. A perpetual people-watcher, these experiences have given me an appreciation for the multiple and fluid ways of being in the world. I have an undergrad in cultural studies and philosophy and in 2021, I completed an MFA from Emily Carr University of Art and Design.
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artist's statement
The concerns that drive my art practice are not separate from the issues or questions that I give thought to every day. These are concerns of family and identity, of what it means to be human, to live as embodied beings, to live with an awareness of our own fallibility and impermanence. Memory underpins all of these issues for it is through memories—our own and those shared or passed on—that we construct a personal narrative. This is especially true in the context of the family since it is here that our earliest and often most lasting conception of self is formed. In recent years, as I have watched my elderly parents struggle with dementia and have witnessed the breaking apart of that story, I have been haunted by the question ‘who are we, if we cannot remember our own story?’ I understand my art practice as a query, as a posing of questions. More recently it has occurred to me that my work, perhaps, is also a form of bearing witness.
The concerns that drive my art practice are not separate from the issues or questions that I give thought to every day. These are concerns of family and identity, of what it means to be human, to live as embodied beings, to live with an awareness of our own fallibility and impermanence. Memory underpins all of these issues for it is through memories—our own and those shared or passed on—that we construct a personal narrative. This is especially true in the context of the family since it is here that our earliest and often most lasting conception of self is formed. In recent years, as I have watched my elderly parents struggle with dementia and have witnessed the breaking apart of that story, I have been haunted by the question ‘who are we, if we cannot remember our own story?’ I understand my art practice as a query, as a posing of questions. More recently it has occurred to me that my work, perhaps, is also a form of bearing witness.
Here's my cv for those seeking a little more information.
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news
Yukon Arts Centre | News: Forgetting and remembering |Amy Kenny, July 27, 2023
An artist’s guide to falling in love with Whitehorse: A creative hub where art is everywhere | Joseph Tisiga, CBC Arts, August 07, 2018
An Artist’s Profile: Suzanne Paleczny | Chloe Dragon Smith, March 8, 2018
Year in review: The Globe’s Arts team reflects on their favourite moments of 2017 | Marsha Lederman, Globe and Mail, December 15, 2017
CBC Radio Airplay | Tara McCarthy, November 10, 2017
Culturally Rewarding Experiences, Yukon| Renée LaVerné and Lawrie Crawford, ACS Magazine--Nov/Dec 2017
Blurring the Lines Between Human and Nature |Lawrie Crawford, Yukon North of Ordinary, Fall 2017
Larger than Life | Nicole Bauberger, What's Up Yukon, June 20, 2013
New Show of Portraits Mixes Softness of Beauty with Edge of Reality | Tamara Neely, What's Up Yukon, December 13, 2012
Yukon Arts Centre | News: Forgetting and remembering |Amy Kenny, July 27, 2023
An artist’s guide to falling in love with Whitehorse: A creative hub where art is everywhere | Joseph Tisiga, CBC Arts, August 07, 2018
An Artist’s Profile: Suzanne Paleczny | Chloe Dragon Smith, March 8, 2018
Year in review: The Globe’s Arts team reflects on their favourite moments of 2017 | Marsha Lederman, Globe and Mail, December 15, 2017
CBC Radio Airplay | Tara McCarthy, November 10, 2017
Culturally Rewarding Experiences, Yukon| Renée LaVerné and Lawrie Crawford, ACS Magazine--Nov/Dec 2017
Blurring the Lines Between Human and Nature |Lawrie Crawford, Yukon North of Ordinary, Fall 2017
Larger than Life | Nicole Bauberger, What's Up Yukon, June 20, 2013
New Show of Portraits Mixes Softness of Beauty with Edge of Reality | Tamara Neely, What's Up Yukon, December 13, 2012