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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 concerns of family and identity, of what it means to live as embodied beings in a fragile world, to live with an awareness of our own fallibility and impermanence. Drawing on Ernst Cassirer’s concept of humans as the animal symbolicum (the symbol-making animal), I interrogate the notion of (modern) myth-making. What are the stories we tell ourselves to make sense of the world and our place in it? I am particularly (though not exclusively) interested in family myths for it is within the context of the family that we form our earliest—and often most lasting— conception of self. Memory is a central theme throughout my work. With collective or shared memories (real and imagined), we create worlds. On an individual level we use our own memories, together with those shared or passed on to us, to construct a personal narrative. In recent years, as I have watched my elderly parents struggle with dementia and memory loss and have witnessed the breaking apart of that narrative, I have been haunted by the question ‘who are we, if we cannot remember our own story?’ In light of this, while I have always understood my art practice as a method of knowledge gathering and discovery, more recently, I have also come to see it as a way of bearing witness.
My media choices are generally low tech: paint and canvas for two dimensional works; and driftwood, willow, wire, paper, textiles, and ceramics for 3D works. These are all materials that can be worked by hand, and reflect my commitment to seek out the knowledge and insights that can be gained through the manipulation of materials. The models/people who populate my paintings are family, friends and neighbours.
The concerns that drive my art practice are concerns of family and identity, of what it means to live as embodied beings in a fragile world, to live with an awareness of our own fallibility and impermanence. Drawing on Ernst Cassirer’s concept of humans as the animal symbolicum (the symbol-making animal), I interrogate the notion of (modern) myth-making. What are the stories we tell ourselves to make sense of the world and our place in it? I am particularly (though not exclusively) interested in family myths for it is within the context of the family that we form our earliest—and often most lasting— conception of self. Memory is a central theme throughout my work. With collective or shared memories (real and imagined), we create worlds. On an individual level we use our own memories, together with those shared or passed on to us, to construct a personal narrative. In recent years, as I have watched my elderly parents struggle with dementia and memory loss and have witnessed the breaking apart of that narrative, I have been haunted by the question ‘who are we, if we cannot remember our own story?’ In light of this, while I have always understood my art practice as a method of knowledge gathering and discovery, more recently, I have also come to see it as a way of bearing witness.
My media choices are generally low tech: paint and canvas for two dimensional works; and driftwood, willow, wire, paper, textiles, and ceramics for 3D works. These are all materials that can be worked by hand, and reflect my commitment to seek out the knowledge and insights that can be gained through the manipulation of materials. The models/people who populate my paintings are family, friends and neighbours.
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