Following my residency at Banff Centre in September 2019, I was awarded the Individual Artists Grant from the Winnipeg Arts Council for my new project, Host, a series of oil paintings inspired by my interest in the relationship between the grotesque and beautiful qualities of death.
My fascination with disease developed when I was a young child, particularly with my father who was diagnosed with skin cancer. While in remission, my sister and I would routinely search his back for bright red, black, or irregularly shaped moles and report any noticeable changes. His back was covered in moles and searching became a fun, routine game for my sister and I who were oblivious to the fact that the most colourful, interestingly shaped spots were the most dangerous. As a child, I did not fully understand the concept of illness and therefore, I was able to see the spots and scars on my father’s back as colourful, interesting markings and nothing more.
The purpose of this project is to shift the viewer’s perspective of disease by revealing its beautiful, hidden qualities. I have created a series of oil paintings that show abstractions of various forms of disease that exist within the interior and exterior parts of the human body. The works are colourful, pulling from the palette of the human body and various diseases I research. Discolourations, parasites, bruising, moles, lesions, growths, spotting, rashes, bumps, and sores are examples of the markings, patterns, and textures that I work to capture in my paintings.
With this funding, I have developed new methods of paint applications to reference disease and its beautiful qualities. Having the funds to experiment freely allowed me to take risks and discover new techniques to capture the overwhelming, consuming nature of disease while revealing its beautiful characteristics through the use of colour, shapes, patterns, textures, and repetition.
To complete this series about disease during a pandemic was both an unexpected and surreal experience! I am incredibly grateful to the Winnipeg Arts Council’s for their generous support of my project and career as an artist.
