Carolyn Arcabascio

Exploring female adolescence in my work goes hand in hand with remembering our relationship to nature. So much of girlhood involves navigating societal conventions and pressures that can leave us feeling alienated from ourselves.

In everyday environments — whether at home, school, or elsewhere — girls must weigh the consequences of authenticity versus conformity. The girls depicted in my work have been called back to nature, which offers a safe space to reflect, be curious, and interact physically with their environment. It’s a return to themselves, a sense of homecoming, in contrast with the displacement they can so often feel in daily spaces.

“Longing”

Heather Shillinglaw

of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Heather Shillinglaw, an Appetogasan-Metis, Nehiyaw-Cree, Dene-Chipewyan Salteaux-Ojibway & Scots/French, looked to her Was Nohkom’s (Grandmothers before) for guidance by contemplating the bush for healing, life and sustainability. 

Using land based philosophies and narration to help students create their masterpiece, her art forms honor the legacy of ᑭᐦᒋ ᐅᑳᐄᐧᒫᐤ kihci-okâwîmâw – Great Mother, Mother Earth, providing sustenance for mind body and spirit inclusive of Family members, knowledge keepers, elders, historians, archivists, and the experience of the sweat lodge. 

Fueled by an ongoing learning journey, she transforms her art using the mediums of sewing, beadwork, painting and installation.

The work ‘Whiskey Scrip’ tells the history and devastation of the Canadian landscape, with Shillinglaw allowing the path of the bison to redefine this land and perception of home. Composed of multiple elements including sculpture, wall hanging and performance, the artwork draws on her grandfather’s telling of the movement of whiskey on the Carlton trail, and her ancestral history involving the making of Canada.

Gravemarkers Bear, Heather Shillinglaw. sewn Bison hides, thread painting, sewn fabrics with couching yarn. photo: Blaine Campbell

Refugiada 1 by Júnia Azevedo, Foto Diogo Calil, 2017.

Refugiada 3 by Júnia Azevedo, Foto Diogo Calil, 2017.

Sue Hayward

of Australia, now living in Berlin, Germany

My inspirational source is found in the never-ending stories of the human condition, and, in particular, the relationship between man and environment.

Growing up in Australia, I developed a special affinity for nature and I often represent imagery of plants, animals and particularly birds in my work, symbolically conveying different aspects of human expression. This lost connection is definitely cause for feelings of being displaced and in my work, I often explore the concept of loss and a desire for unity, particularly within nature.

These works deal with themes of migration in nature and a connection to the land. In ‘Heartland’ these themes are expressed as a yearning for union with the landscape of my childhood, whereas in ‘The Flight of the Curlews’, themes of displacement are portrayed by the incredible journey of eastern curlews, which migrate from Russia to Australia each year but, sadly, are losing their coastal habitats.

The plight of the curlews resonates with the increasing problem of displacement of animals from their natural habits. With ‘Bridging the Gap’, the figure of a woman becomes the bridge between two worlds, overcoming feelings of separation and polarity.

Shivi Sharma

of Delhi, India

My paintings are evolved from a soundless world. Being deaf, the substance of the objects around me are conceived as forms and texture. I blend semi-representative elements and abstract visual patterns in painting,  such  as  architectural  fragments,  indoor and  outdoor dwellings,  nature, wind, water ripples and cloud movements.

In my works, I try to discuss the human existential issues which we face in a city as a modern human being. I often feel that the visual experience of a city dweller is always articulated with geometrical divisions of multiple architectural walls, and human life emerges from the interior and exterior niches of the city. The relationship of forms in my paintings are not at all conceptual, only aesthetically balanced symbols of architecture and nature. My paintings are the simple visual records of my travels in India, with the different geographical and cultural features depicted on my canvases.

The neutral entity of the primary, secondary and other colours in compositions represent my personal feelings about the objects. My memories of different terrains where I have been psychologically attached often come as multicolored disorder dreams and some irrational fantasies on canvases. The moving abstract patterns represent the invisible moving force of urban life where everybody alienates and introspects about what we are.

Interior of Concrete City, Shivi Sharma, acrylic on canvas, 2012.

The Window, Shivi Sharma, acrylic on canvas, 2012.

Sarah Jacquier

of Paris, France

This film explores the fragility of our personal identity. From the moment we are born to the end of our life, the way we look at ourselves is constantly evolving according to the situations in which we are immersed. This visual object is a projection of myself in full transformation.

Since we cannot look at our person as an external object, art becomes a mirror to look at our soul.

Our self, from birth to death, is in a state of flux. It evaporates and gets filled with the rhythm of our lives and we are never exactly the same as the moment before. The person I am has changed so much since I was a young girl.

We are always changing and it is never too late to change. Let’s always remember that we can become the person we really want to be.

“I have searched myself, and all I found was my persona.” by Sarah Jacquier reposted with permission.