Santee Smith

Artist: Santee Smith

About the Artist: Smith shares a story with the audience by taking the audience on a journey with her through her performance. Her performance, dance, vocals, music, and objects come together to communicate a message.

Birth Place: Santee is from the Kahnyen’kehàka (Mohawk) Nation, Turtle Clan from Six Nations of the Grand River, Ontario

Life Dates: 1971- Present

Mediums: Dance, performance, choreographer, actor, singer and designer of Iroquoian pottery.

Smith stresses that her work is multidimensional.

Themes: Her work addresses identity and humanity as it relates to the creative universe

Training:  She has taken movement training at studios, including the Hamilton Ballet School, Debbie Wilson Studios and Equity Showcase Theatre .Smith has six years of training at Canada’s National Ballet School, Physical Education and Psychology degrees from McMaster University and theatre training, In 1996, Smith returned to dance as a choreographer.

Artworks: In NeoIndigenA, a piece Smith is the artistic director and solo performer of, Smith explores the connections of all living things and elements. This piece “encompasses past, present, future in one body and space, awakening ancient ways of knowing and spiritual renewal” (Kaha:wi Dance Theatre) for Smith.

Resources used:

• https://www.kahawidance.org/about-santee-smith/
• https://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/women/030001-1564-e.html

Emily Carr

Artist: Emily Carr

About the Artist: Carr is a Canadian artist who has an expressionist, painterly style who specialized in scenes from the lives and rituals of Native Americans. From a young age, she was inspired by the landscape and First Nations cultures of British Columbia and Alaska. Carr was perhaps the most original Canadian painters of the first half of the twentieth century, and was also one of the only major female artists in either North America or Europe of that period.

Birth Place: Vancouver, BC

Life Dates: 1871 – 1945

Mediums: Watercolour, pencil and ink

Style: Expressionist, painterly style. She was one of the first artists to embrace a modernist and post-impressionist painting style. Carr’s work is inspired by the Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast. Her subject matter made a switch from aboriginal themes to landscapes (forest themes).

Training: Carr began her training as an artist with a period of study at the California School of Design in San Francisco. Little of her work survives from this period, but she seems to have received basic instruction in oil painting and watercolour and was able, upon her return to Victoria in 1893, to make a living as an art teacher. In the late 1890s she traveled to England to receive further training in London at the Westminster School of Art, and later at private schools in Cornwall. In 1906 she moved to Vancouver where she taught art classes and established herself. In 1907 Carr traveled to Alaska with her sister, and this trip, which exposed her to the poles of the northern First Nations, seems to have changed the focus of her art.

Additional Information: Carr is the second youngest of nine children born to English parents. She did not receive widespread recognition for her work until later in life. Has multiple schools named after her: Emily Carr University of Art and Design, Emily Carr Elementary School in Vancouver, British Columbia, Emily Carr Middle School in Ottawa, Ontario and Emily Carr Public School in London, Ontario are also named after her

Artworks:

• https://www.google.ca/search?q=emily+carr&rlz=1C5CHFA_enCA579CA579&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiT28iDtI3aAhUpyoMKHbh6ANcQ_AUICigB&biw=668&bih=592#imgrc=GVTclO7mmOOyxM
• https://www.google.ca/search?q=emily+carr&rlz=1C5CHFA_enCA579CA579&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiT28iDtI3aAhUpyoMKHbh6ANcQ_AUICigB&biw=668&bih=592#imgrc=n-7-4UmTL9MGTM:

Resources Used:

• http://www.arthistoryarchive.com/arthistory/canadian/Emily-Carr.html
• http://www.ecuad.ca/about/at-a-glance/emily-carr-the-artist
• http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/emily-carr/

 

Vanessa Hyggen

Artist: Vanessa Hyggen

About the Artist: Hyggen is a painter and beadwork artist living in Saskatoon, SK whose focus is mainly on painting the boreal forest. She is a Cree and Norwegian female who is passionate about her sense of belonging in the North – these memories serve as a palette for her work. Hyggen loves light and color and hopes to always continue to grow with her artwork and never become stagnant.

Location: Based out of Saskatoon, SK

Mediums: Acrylic, carving, beadwork, and encaustic

Style: Loves to work with light and color, and majority of her paintings are of nature, especially the Boreal forest.

Training: Her love for painting and drawing led her to take classes at the University of Saskatchewan, where she dedicated six years towards an Education degree and Fine Arts degree. She may go back in the future to complete those degrees.

Additional Information: Hyggen is a member of the Lac La Ronge Indian Band. She comes from a mixed background of Cree and Norwegian and has a strong sense of belonging in the North. She was hired at St. Frances School in Saskatton to paint their hallways in the four seasons. Hyggen enjoys spending time in the woods picking medicinal plants, camping, gardening, and soaking up inspiration.

Artworks:

I Woke Up Like This

Vanessa Hyggen’s Artworks

Resources used:

• http://www.vanessahyggen.com/

 

Jane A. Evans

Artist: Jane A. Evans

About the Artist: Evans is a landscape artist living in Grandora, SK who works with textiles and acrylic paint to create calm, inviting, and natural places.

Birth Place: Saint Paul, Minnesota and now lives in Grandora, SK.

Life Dates: 1946 – Present

Mediums: Acrylic and textiles

Style: Evan’s explores the serenity of natural. Enveloping places and her works are calm. Evocative, and inviting – somewhere a person could sit and think.

Training:

2016 – studied painting with Albert Handell, Sedona, AZ
2014, 2013 – studied acrylic painting with Bonnie Cutts, Minneapolis, MN
2012 – studied acrylic painting with Cathy Carey, Escondido, CA
1972- ’73, 85-’88 – B.F.A. classes, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon
1985 – Master Weaver Certification, Guild of Canadian Weavers
1969 – B.Ed., University of Minnesota, Minneapolis
1968 – B.A., English Literature, University of Wisconsin, Madison

Additional Information: In 1993, began making a fiber art landscape series called “Places of Peace” which combined painting, weaving, and embroidery, and in 2012 she transitioned to working in acrylic paints. Evans would be a great artist to use for grades 1-4 with their focus being patterns, community, environment, and Saskatchewan voices.

Artworks:

Birch Cove
24″ x 14″

Blue Poplars
12″ x 9″ (30.5cm x 23cm); Acrylic plein air;

Resources used:

• http://janeevans.ca/
• http://www.sknac.ca/index.php?page=ArtistDetail&id=498#2

 

Short PowerPoint: Jane A. Evans PowerPoint

Alicia Keys

Artist: Alicia Keys

About the Artist: Keys is a female singer, songwriter, pianist, producer, and actress born in New York City who celebrates individuality, and is an advocate for issues of gender, race, and social equality.

Birth Place: Manhattan, New York

Life Dates: 1981 – Present

Genre: R&B, soul, jazz, and hip hop

Training: Keys had a deep love for music since the age of four and music came before everything. Her mother encouraged her to play piano where she first learned to play classical music. She composed her first piece at eleven years old.

Additional Information: A desire to convey the natural beauty in all women. She celebrates individuality and is an advocate for issues of gender, race, and social equality. “Everyone deserves to have the right to do what everybody else does and to have the same opportunities to get where everyone else is going.” Keys is the co founder for charity Keep A Child Alive. She has traveled to countries such as Uganda, Kenya, and South Africa to speak to teens and young adults who have lost their parents to AIDS. She is a spokesperson for Frum Tha Ground Up, which is a charity dedicated to inspiring American youth to achieve success. She also supports 31 other charities and foundations.

Songs:

Holy War- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zed17O3vNgIgs:

Resources used:

• https://vmagazine.com/article/v104-alicia-keys-interview/
• http://www.notablebiographies.com/newsmakers2/2006-Ei-La/Keys-Alicia.html

 

 

 

Alphabet Rockers

Artist: Alphabet Rockers

About the Artists: McGaw, Shepherd, and the team of professionals who are apart of the Alphabet Rockers are passionate about using music to help parents and educators engage in difficult topics, such as social change, racial justice and equality. They believe that kids are where we need to start and that music has the ability to empower children to move forward with the desire for change, peace, acceptance, and a more inclusive world.

Birth Place: Kaitlin McGaw is the founder and artistic director, and Tommy Sheperd is the music director of the Alphabet Rockers, and the group is based in Oakland, CA. The duo is from different worlds by place/gender/race but had the same purpose when it comes to music.

Genre: Hip hop

Training: There is various training involved because there are multiple artists that make up The Alphabet Rockers, such as performers, two DJ’s, music producer, choreographers, photographer, videographer, visual artist, and a booking manager.

Songs:

• https://alphabetrockers.bandcamp.com/album/rise-shine-woke
• https://alphabetrockers.bandcamp.com/track/yummy-yummy-fresh
• https://alphabetrockers.bandcamp.com/track/my-holiday
• https://alphabetrockers.bandcamp.com/album/the-playground-zone-ep
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7_lJyvfPuE

Resources used:

• https://kidscangroove.com/tag/songs-about-equality/
• http://alphabetrockers.com/wpcontent/uploads/2017/10/AlphabetRockersBio2017.pdf

Cindy Sherman

Artist: Cindy Sherman

About the Artist: Sherman has been her own model for over thirty years. She has photographed herself in many different personas. In order to create her photographs she is takes on the role of the photographer, model, makeup artist, hairdresser, and stylist.

Birth Place: Glen Ridge, New Jersey, America

Life Dates: January 19, 1954- Present

Mediums: Photography

Themes:

• artifice and fiction
• cinema and performance
• horror and the grotesque
• myth, carnival, and fairy tale
• and gender and class identity

Training:

Sherman studied in Buffalo from 1972-1976. Started as a painter but became frustrated with the limitations of the medium. She originally failed a course she needed in photography but later repeated the course. This reunited her passion for photography.  While she was studying, Sherman was exposed to Conceptual art and other progressive art movements and media.

Artworks:

‘

Untitled #466. 2008.

Untitled Film Still #21, 1978

Resources used:

• https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/1154
• https://www.moma.org/artists/5392?=undefined&page=1&direction=
• http://www.theartstory.org/artist-sherman-cindy.htm#biography_header

 

Daphne Odjig

Artist: Daphne Odjig

About the Artist: Lots of her work has a beautiful rhythm to it and the lines flow in a way that makes the artwork come alive. Each series the artist had created has a different inspiration behind it and shows her versatility but the theme of defiance stood out to me throughout her speaking about her work. Other inspirations were the land of the forest in British Columbia, environmental concerns (the destruction of Mother Earth), family, and Daphne’s life.

Birth Place: Wikwemikong Unceded Indian Reserve, Manitoulin Island, ON; died in Kelowna, BC

Life Dates: September 11, 1919-October 1, 2016

Mediums: pen and ink drawings, oil paintings

Style: Odjig’s styles and media varied widely with her subject matter. She created narrative paintings, expressive explorations of her history, and colour studies of the British Columbia. As she advanced throughout her career her paintings became more graphic by incorporating the calligraphic lines her stone carver grandfather taught her.

Training: At age thirteen, Odjig was forced to withdraw from school after contracting rheumatic fever. Her education was taken over by her grandfather who instructed her in drawing, carving and the oral traditions of her family. She spent her weekends teaching herself to paint by studying the masters at the Royal Ontario Museum and (now the Art Gallery of Ontario.

Artworks:

Nanabush Giving the Racoon its Colours, 1969. Acrylic and graphite on ivory wove paper, 61.4 x 76.4 cm. Collection National Gallery of Canada

Genocide No. 1, 1971. Acrylic on board, 61 x 76 cm. Collection National Gallery of Canada.

Resources used:

• http://odjig.com/profile.html
• http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/daphne-odjig/

 

Daphne Odjig PowerPoint

Christi Belcourt

Artist: Christi Belcourt

About the Artist: Belcourt is a Michif (Métis) visual artist who has a deep respect for Mother Earth.

Birth Place: Belcourt’s ancestry originates from the Metis historic community of Manitou Sakhigan (Lac Ste. Anne) Alberta, Canada and she was raised in Ontario, Canada.

Life Dates: September 24, 1966- Present

Mediums: Visual artist and author

Artworks: Walking With Our Sisters, was created to honour the lives of the missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada and “to acknowledge the grief and torment families of these women continue to suffer; and to raise awareness of this issue and create opportunity for broad community-based dialogue on the issue” (The Project). The instillation is a collaborative project with over a thirteen thousand artists contributing to the piece. The conceptually rich exhibition has multiple portions including the beaded vamps, an audio portion which consists of sixty traditional songs, cloth, sage or cedar, and traditional protocols and ceremonies.

Dolly Assinewe

Andrea Aiabens

Link: http://walkingwithoursisters.ca/artwork/moccasin-vamps/

Artist Statement: “I have nothing to say about my art. I will leave that to others. Everything that drives me, and drives my art and the mishmash of everything I do in my life is my love for the earth and my awe of it all. How is it possible we are even alive? The great power and mystery surrounds us every minute of every day” (Belcourt, Artist Statement)

Resources used:

• walkingwithoursisters.ca/about/the-project/.
• http://christibelcourt.com/bio/

 

Christi Belcourt Powerpoint

Judy Chicago

Artist: Judy Chicago

About the Artist: Judy Chicago is an influential feminist artist, author, and educator. She pioneered Feminist Art and art education through a program at California State University. She was inspired by the women’s movement and she rebelled against the male-dominated art scene from the 1960s. She creates works which celebrate the achievements of female historical figures.

Birth Place: Chicago, Illinois, United States of America

Life Dates: July 20, 1939- Present

Mediums: multimedia, instillation, drawings, paintings, weavings, cast paper, and bronze reliefs

Training: She started drawing at the age of three. Throughout her teens Chicago was in art classes at the Art Institute of Chicago and went onto train at the UCLA where she received her M.F.A..

Artworks: The Dinner Party, Judy Chicago (1974-79)- The Dinner Party was a reaction the exclusion of women in history. The piece represents 1038 women and contains 999 names written on tile in gold-lustre. It is an regarded as one of the iconic art pieced of twentieth-century.

  The Dinner Party, Judy Chicago- Artwork Images 

Resources used:

• http://www.judychicago.com/
• http://www.theartstory.org/artist-chicago-judy.htm#biography_header