Quest Art's 2020 TD Thor Wealth Management Juried Exhibition: Quest for the Environment

100 word Artist Statement about the work: Most often the work I do is my response to a culture that has used economics as a measure of our wellbeing. While culture is always economically driven, be that in a hunter gatherer mindset where the “economics” is immediately apparent at the end of the day, or in a western culture where my hunting and gathering is seen in my investment portfolio. The works in this show are more focused on the environment and how a corporate mindset of capital gain is always the end game determinant. I am looking and saying, “Look at what my lifestyle has taken from the land.”

Dimensions: 17.7 x 68.5 x 5.8

100 word Artist Statement about the work: Most often the work I do is my response to a culture that has used economics as a measure of our wellbeing. While culture is always economically driven, be that in a hunter gatherer mindset where the “economics” is immediately apparent at the end of the day, or in a western culture where my hunting and gathering is seen in my investment portfolio. The works in this show are more focused on the environment and how a corporate mindset of capital gain is always the end game determinant. I am looking and saying, “Look at what my lifestyle has taken from the land.”

Dimensions: 15 x 66 x 4.45

100 word Artist Statement about the work: Green Riding documents people's relationships with the landscapes of Guelph, Ontario during the governance of the first Green Party MPP in Ontario's history.

Dimensions: 20.32 x 30.48

Dimensions: 25 x 15 x 5

100 word Artist Statement about the work: Mythology and Spirituality are products of the environment we live in. The Environment, therefore, shapes our beliefs. There is a looming sense of environmental doom in much the same way that mythology tells of the end of the world. Is Mother Nature friend or foe? Nurturing protector or scorned-lover plotting revenge? Is the end of the world salvation or destruction? The hidden, unknowable intentions of the natural and the supernatural are what I seek to explore in these paintings.

Dimensions: 12 x 12

Dimensions: 60 x 22 x 22

Dimensions: 48 x 8 x 8

100 word Artist Statement about the work: The source material for "Skinny Dippers" is a still from a drone video of my cottage in Georgian Bay. I changed the image by making it a night scene and not painting their bathing suits. Those changes transform the image from a holiday snapshot to one of mythological resonance. The skinny dippers form an image of humankind at the edge of their world. Before them lie unknowable depths. Will they take the plunge?

Dimensions: 122 x 152 x 3

100 word Artist Statement about the work: Now almost entirely digital, photography still relies upon forestry resources, and a chemical ink reproduction process. My submission Development, is a dual expression of the impacts of both urban sprawl on our environment as well as the history of the harsh chemical photo development process.

Dimensions: 25.4 x 20.32

100 word Artist Statement about the work: As a Collage artist I am interested in the nature of paper and the memories it holds. Paper speaks to the slow world in juxtaposition to our fast electronic world. Sometimes understanding the big picture means spreading it all out on the floor in front of you- crawling over the large paper map, slow nights playing cards around the table, the days of sending greeting cards through the mail or spending Saturday reading the newspaper. My work spreads these memories out in front of you.

Dimensions: 121 x 121 x 4

100 word Artist Statement about the work: Kim has continued to use paint and fibre/textiles in her work. She has been concerned about environmental issues, so to each past studio she continued to carry with her a bucket of paint water. As it happens her present studio has heated floors and evaporation has been expedient. This practice has become a habit along with saving any waste materials to see if it can be used. Her artwork in all areas can be seen as a type of organizing or manipulating of mediums and the same holds true with waste materials, she is re-organizing these waste materials instead of throwing them out.

Dimensions: 24 x 18 x 2

100 word Artist Statement about the work: Kim has continued to use paint and fibre/textiles in her work. She has been concerned about environmental issues, so to each past studio she continued to carry with her a bucket of paint water. As it happens her present studio has heated floors and evaporation has been expedient. This practice has become a habit along with saving any waste materials to see if it can be used. Her artwork in all areas can be seen as a type of organizing or manipulating of mediums and the same holds true with waste materials, she is re-organizing these waste materials instead of throwing them out.

Dimensions: 19 x 20 x 2

100 word Artist Statement about the work: Kim has continued to use paint and fibre/textiles in her work. She has been concerned about environmental issues, so to each past studio she continued to carry with her a bucket of paint water. As it happens her present studio has heated floors and evaporation has been expedient. This practice has become a habit along with saving any waste materials to see if it can be used. Her artwork in all areas can be seen as a type of organizing or manipulating of mediums and the same holds true with waste materials, she is re-organizing these waste materials instead of throwing them out.

Dimensions: 19 x 19 x 10

100 word Artist Statement about the work: Growing up in rural Alberta influenced my latest work with an Earth Art focus. In clearing the land, recently felled trees are piled and burned after being permanently cleared off; here, already dead logs are arranged into perimeter areas where trees can regrow within them, making them “ironic” brush piles. Since many of these projects are trapezoid in shape and made of poplar logs, I’ve dubbed them “poplarzoids”. These works will transform over time, eventually returning to the Earth (like the Second Thermodynamic Law) as it is acted upon by the elements. Chris Deheus November 2020

Dimensions: 110 x 7050 x 120

100 word Artist Statement about the work: Born and raised in Vancouver, BC, I feel the conflict between industry and nature in a specific way. The West Coast has helped shaped who I am a second-generation Canadian informed by different cultural and geographical influences., I feel increasingly aware of my city’s footprint. My alarm over how our material objects and lifestyle impact our environment works into my current artwork. By integrating urban derived imagery into pieces that echo traditional landscape techniques, my paintings point out that beauty is ephemeral, and what we discard never really disappears. My art incorporates multimedia approaches that reflect my philosophical inquiry.

Dimensions: 152 x 121 x 3.8

100 word Artist Statement about the work: Beyond the Blinding Blue is an acrylic on canvas with a willow branch frame. The image depicts a break in the upper levels of our atmosphere that has allowed harmful rays/chemicals to drift downward. Mother Nature lays gasping on the parched earth. The willow frame has bits of leather and dead leaves woven within it. A braid of sweet grass also hangs from the frame to represent the humans who warn us of the consequences of neglecting our planet.

Dimensions: 82 x 45 x 5

Dimensions: 46 x 46

100 word Artist Statement about the work: Efforts to control COVID-19 in 2020 led to a vast increase in the number of people exploring the outdoors. As natural wonders were thrust into the limelight, so was our collective disregard for the importance of preserving the environment. "A Georgian Bay Canscape" was created after images surfaced of an unfathomably large garbage pile left at the portage site of a local lake. Stacks of inflatable rafts, cans, broken coolers, and more, spoke to an issue that extends beyond this small Canadian lake. We have lost out connection to the natural world and we need to find it.

Dimensions: 20 x 24 x 1.5

100 word Artist Statement about the work: I am first and foremost an environmentalist. I drive an electric car and worry about my global footprint. After travelling through the massive mining regions of the Quebec interior, and then touring around the glacial cliffs of Georgian Bay in 2019, I saw the dramatically parallel scale and earth formations between these two regions. The massive earthworks of the mining industry are parallel to the staggered cliffs left behind by various ice ages. My recent work juxtaposes these two landscapes to address this mind boggling scale of human demolition. It struck me that the very act of painting was contributing to materials being mined, and since then I have transitioned to using large scale egg tempera and watercolour paintings, using BEAM* non toxic handmade paints. Can we continue to create art without damaging the planet?

Dimensions: 56 x 244 x 2

Dimensions: 20.32 x 25.4