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hello everyone thank you for joining me today my name is sarah huckman and i am the art rental

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and sales associate at the art gallery of alberta we welcome you to our meet the artist series a part of aga live

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here at the gallery we embrace the teachings of patewa a kree phrase meaning welcome there is

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room in our house even the virtual one everyone is welcome i’m delighted to be your host for this

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hour joining me today is artist alexis marie choot before we

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dive into the subject i’d like to highlight that this is an interactive event and we’d like to hear from you you are

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welcome to use the chat window on the side screen to share your comments as we discuss with alexis

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if a question gets unnoticed or unanswered at the time please know that we will review all unanswered questions

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before we wrap up today’s event so alexis marie is an award-winning

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artist photographer filmmaker art curator public speaker and best-selling author

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she has received over 50 noteworthy distinctions for her work over the last 20 years

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she achieved her bachelor of fine arts in art and design from university of alberta and studied

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at media design school in auckland new zealand she graduated valedictorian with her

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master of fine arts in creative writing from leicester university in cambridge alexis murray shoot was the 2012-2013

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artist in residence at harcourt house artist run center where she began her groundbreaking fine

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art photo and documentary series the quiet rebuild featuring volunteers from across north

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america the series has been featured in the bellingham review photo ed magazine exposure photography

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festival and was the winner of the ultimate composition competition at method art gallery

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arizona her visual and literary works on the topic of resiliency

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have been exhibited and published internationally she works in photography paint fiber

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arts video art and mixed media her artwork has been exhibited around the world

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and she has been published in newspapers magazines literary journals and beyond her bright

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bold abstract paintings are represented at the arness gallery at the art gallery

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of alberta please take this time with me to give a warm welcome to our september artist

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alexis marie chute hello thank you so much for having me

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hello so lovely to see you tonight i’m really looking forward to diving into some questions because you

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are a fantastic artist you have so many so many things you do alexis um and we definitely have things

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for you about that oh awesome i’m excited let’s do it cool um so let’s dive into i think one of my

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favorite questions to ask folks is when did you find in your heart that

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you wanted to be an artist well i think that i’ve always been an

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artist even before i knew that being an artist was a thing you could be i

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remember when i was a kid i would i set up an art studio in my parents basement

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got paint on the carpet gave the carpet a haircut trying to avoid getting in trouble

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i just i the second i could get a camera i’ve had a camera in my hands and i literally

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carry a camera with me everywhere i go um i just i think that for me um art is

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a way that i i process the world i experience the world it’s also a way that i share um who i am

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and my perspectives and i can’t imagine doing or being anything

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else so i’m excited that’s so lovely that’s awesome so other than the um

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the paint and the carpet incident how did you begin your artistic practice

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and how has it developed over time yeah so i think that i developed

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just really at a very early age just a passion for exploration so i remember

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oh i remember making artwork out of makeup i remember making art out of dried flowers like

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just anything i could get my hands on um i was exploring and experimenting

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and playing and making a giant mess and that really progressed throughout school

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um i remember when i was uh at the in high school and i took all the art

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classes the photography classes everything i could and i started working as an artist and a photographer right

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out of high school when i was 18. so it’s always been something that is so natural to who i am even

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exhibiting back then i just always loved creating something and and the presentation aspect is is so fun for me

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yeah then i went to the u of a and like i just i think being in a creative community is

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it’s stimulating um i actually one of my favorite parts about um going to the u of a in particular was

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studying art history so i i devoured art history like canadian art history

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the history of photography the history of advertising um those things really just spoke to me

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and and so i think that so much of that experience it deepened my artistic practice

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in terms of like the thoughtfulness that i bring to to my process of making and also to my

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thoughtfulness and how i present my work um and many of those people i connected

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with over the years both in my undergrad and my master’s i’ve stayed in contact with are people

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that uh it constantly inspire me so and i feel like i’ve just never never

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stopped creating it i’m always um i’m never content just just sitting

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by so even during coven i’m just i’m like i’m starting new paintings and drawings and i’m i’m sketching and

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taking notes about ideas i have and story ideas i think i’m like a compulsive creator

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and and that really brings me joy and so i try to um convey that through my work as well

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yeah that’s amazing that’s so i love the fact that um when you went to school it was like

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that validation of like yes being an artist is legitimate

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and and making those really cool connections and taking those courses that really feed that love that you have for

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art and i totally agree once you get into that world it’s like oh my gosh there’s so much here for me

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totally and at the same time i did find that it was amazing being with those people

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but once you leave school you have to fight for it you have to fight for what you believe in you have

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to fight for making a career in the arts because it doesn’t come easy

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you know some careers you’ll go and you study dentistry and you leave school and you become a

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dentist like it’s kind of like a clear path and i definitely feel like art um

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almost like abstract art it’s open to interpretation you don’t know how um this lifestyle is going to come

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together and i would definitely look at where i’m at today and i i would honestly say that i i don’t

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necessarily think i could have anticipated um five ten years ago where i’m at today

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but i am thankful for my journey the ups and the downs yeah absolutely well because once you start

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on like a series of artwork you know you kind of have an outline of where you’re

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going but at the same time if you started a different theories prior to that or if you decided to do a

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different project that just takes you on so many different ways and i think that’s what you’re what you’re talking about

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alexis of like you may have gone a different route in your career you might not have gone

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to university or you might not have you know done a whole bunch of other of your accolades if you started with a

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different project first or yeah you’re right and even like life circumstances come up

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and i feel like as an artist your your personal life is intermingled with

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your artwork it’s inescapable um so the things that have surprised me

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in life have also surprised my artwork with new um iterations over the years

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yeah really great point um next question for you when you were in school

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what were some important lessons that you learned about your artistic practice yeah so i

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i really learned during school that i need to be my own advocate and that was a hard

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lesson to learn and i think that for me i’ve always pushed the boundaries of like what is art and i remember

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i had some really conservative painting instructors one in particular and during that

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stage i was um creating conceptual clothing out of strange materials i made a dress

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out of confetti i made a dress out of rice bags um i made a dress out of

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shower curtains i made a dress out of paper um different things like that and then i photographed people in the dresses

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and then i would print those and then i would paint and um collage mixed media on top of those oh

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wow at the time though like i got a lot of backlash from one professor

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in particular and i remember like because i was i was in the creative

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process it wasn’t like i had a piece i was i was experimenting and playing and so

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i really had to learn during that experience that i need to follow my creative instincts

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i need to believe in what i’m doing and other people might not understand it and that’s okay um

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it’s hard when you’re getting graded in school yeah exactly i really learned to

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through that experience to be strong and i remember being told that why are you

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doing this photography is not art and those words have never left me

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because i i feel like i’ve had to to grapple with that in my own way and figure out like what is what is

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art to me and how do i translate that and so really like at the heart of everything i

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do i see myself as an artist and so that might take different forms of expression

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but it doesn’t necessarily matter the medium half the time it is the

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message and the artistry that goes into it so i really learned about being my own advocate and that and that goes to so

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many different um areas of life i also learned through school what um how

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we have to define what success is for us so what might be a successful career to

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some people that might not be what i want my life to look like so i really um figured out that like for me

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while i would love to paint till four in the morning success looks to me the integration of

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of my family and my career and so i’m the kind of artist that i bring my

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kids to so many uh of my art gallery openings to my phone screenings they don’t know how lucky they are as

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little kids to be able to see and experience these things but that’s what i had to define i learned that i had to define what

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success was for me um many of my peers in art school they had a different

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uh trajectory and while i love and support them i had to really figure out like what

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what do i want this life to look like for myself and i have to say that i didn’t i don’t know if art school really prepared me

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for the business side of like making a career in the arts i’m really fortunate to have

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parents um and my parents are divorced so i have more than two parents i have a plethora

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of parents who have demonstrated to me entrepreneurship

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and business savvy that i feel that um has really helped me so that i can do

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my artwork full time and i am really thankful to be able to do that because i i can’t imagine dividing um my heart and

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my passions yeah so there’s just like less life lessons that came out of school or came as a result

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of the school realizing i needed yeah you learn you learn different things from

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different people and school can teach you one group of skills but um

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family and then also living it is just an amazing additional education totally

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yeah and that that element of entrepreneurship is so important in this in this day and

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with social media and with you know doing live events like this it’s very important to be engaged with

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that kind of content and one of my favorite things about uh your artistry um

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is your website is very crisp and it’s very clear and you know i can look on your website

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know exactly what you’re working on what you have worked on um and i get to know you a little bit

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more and that’s really really cool uh to see that

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i was just contemplating today i’m like should i update my website should i change my website but i guess it’s good

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so let’s go don’t worry that’s awesome um i want to dive into

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our little presentation that we have so that our viewers can see some of the artwork that you’ve created um so this piece

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here i didn’t even recognize that this was your works i’ve never seen this type of work of yours before can

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you tell me a little bit about um when this was when this was made

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yeah so i i am terrible at dates so this will be like circa

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2016 ish i’m gonna say um and yeah like i just i love exploring

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and experimenting and so for me um nature is definitely one of those places where i get inspired and i

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connect with spirituality and and i just love spending time with

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friends and family so for me being out in nature with people i love is such an inspiration so i did this

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little series of landscape paintings so it’s hard to tell with this image because they’re all right

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i just want three so i just thought i would pop over to all three these paintings i um did them on raw

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canvas so really like the canvas just soaks up the paint in such a beautiful way

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um and then there’s also different kinds of paper that are collaged onto

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um the mountain to create like the different layers and uh

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the different stratas of mountainscape and then like letting the the the paint

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just drip down on the raw canvas um i just wanted something natural and flowing and

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earthy so that’s really where this series um came about and the first one uh in this series the

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largest one my my daughter is like you were not allowed to sell this like it comes just before

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um it is oh i think it’s like

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six or seven feet wide by four four or five feet tall so it’s

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giant and she’s like no you can’t sell it my daughter is like she has very specific pieces of my work that

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she’s like no not for sale nope so um yeah i would love to do more in this

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series yeah it’s just a matter of time i have so many projects

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this is your gentle reminder to to do this series yeah there we go i’m taking a mental

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note i really enjoy these ones because i can really feel that life that it has

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um and yet with the dripping it almost feels like it’s fading away um it’s yeah it’s

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really cool there’s really cool juxtaposition in all three of these and the colors that you chose are very bright and bold and they’re

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very beautiful thank you do you know what i should say i exhibited these like many times over the

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years but some people look at them and instead of seeing a mountain like looking up in a mountain

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i’ve had some feedback at the last show that i had that people were like oh i feel like i’m looking down over a cliff at the ocean

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whoa so then i was like okay i can kind of see that too

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so that’s wonderful well yeah and that’s that’s so nice

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about um meeting an artist and having those conversations when you’re at an exhibit

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or like even through an event like this where you can actually get their the artist’s thoughts behind

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it and then you can you know reflect and say is that what it truly means to me or you know how did i interpret that how

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did it make me feel and that’s just what we love about art isn’t it

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oh totally well that’s the beautiful thing we as creators put our our hearts and souls into what

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we make and then we we let it like kid we let it out into the world and

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um and and people can love and appreciate or or hate it and that’s okay whatever

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perspective they have i just love creating uh like a response in people that’s

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if my art is like just easily passed over then i’m kind of like oh i haven’t done my job i want people to stop and pause yeah

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that’s awesome and when you create a piece um

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do you have a specific outcome that you want to create or does it kind of you know come to life

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as you’re working on it so this is where i think that i really

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start with a like almost like a meditative

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headspace um i think about i dream about i daydream about my work

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before i even start making it and sort of my creative process that works well for me is i’ll kind of

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like make a loose plan in my head of what i want to accomplish loosely and then i’ll collect almost

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like a bird is collecting different things for their nest i kind of collect everything that i could

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imagine using in that project or series or painting and then i really just like let myself

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get into the headspace of creating and what that looks like for me ideally

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is like maybe five to ten hours where i’m just working and i don’t have too many interruptions

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this is unique now because i do have a lot of kids so to find that like truly uninterrupted

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time at least that long no time um it’s more rare but i

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collect everything and then i just get lost in the process so i don’t usually work on perhaps like

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just one painting at a time like one to one to one i might start like 10 paintings at once

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and go back and forth and and just figure out okay very much i’m responsive to the

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creative process as i’m making and then i’ll stand back and look at the work and i’m like

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okay do i need more this is a lesson um because i’ve over

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painted i pushed it too far many times in my past and i’m like no i must learn restraint um yeah some

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later paintings i know you’re gonna show um are have like much less like brush stroke

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and they’re they’re sort of pared down and that also reflected um

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the state of when i was creating it how i was feeling where i was at in my life so yeah so

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that’s kind of my process i very much like i’m always thinking and reacting uh in

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the creative process um opening the door for happy accidents for sponsoring um for for the mistakes

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to grow into something and yeah so i’m not too like restrictive as i’m creating

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that’s awesome and then now we’re going to jump into the um oh sorry this series actually

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um and these ones i i have a little zoom in so that folks can see the detail

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um can you tell us a little bit about these pieces yeah so this is a series i call joy plus passion two

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so i did a series i feel like all of my work is an evolution so it’s almost like

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a timeline of my life um so these are some of my newest paintings um where there’s really bright colors

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they reflect um the experience of like where i find

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myself now i’ve been through some some challenging experiences in my life

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the biggest most noteworthy one was my son zachary passing away

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which would have been um like this he’ll be he would have been 10 this october so

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it has been a decade where my art after losing him was um

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any more dark i did black and white portraiture of other people who are going through loss and

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struggles and really like over time the work has become more bright more

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more joyful as i’ve rediscovered who i am as a mother as a woman as an artist after

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that loss and so these are definitely uh some of the light bright uh airy paintings that just

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encapsulate where i’m at now at this joyful place yeah wonderful

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yeah i love the the details on this

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thank you and so these are

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like the black and white the more uh conceptual photography that i was taking of other people so i i really felt like

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i wanted to not just tell my story but also help other people share their story of

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rebuilding after hardship and so i call this series the quiet rebuild portraits

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i also have the quiet rebuild sculptures which are wood um wood-based but with these portraits

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i put a call out for people on social media saying have you been through something in your

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life that you’re now rebuilding from and so i photographed people who um had

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also lost someone they loved or had they have battled through addiction or health challenges

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um just really inspiring stories of of resiliency in the face of the

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unpredictability of life we can’t control everything and so i can i

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collaborated with these people in creating something that was a meaningful portrait to capture

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conceptually what they’ve been through and where they’re hoping to go in their life and

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these have been exhibited and published all over and i’m really um i’m really thrilled to be a part of

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uh these people’s stories and help encourage others because definitely when these are on exhibits

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people are encouraged to like come up close and learn the stories behind these people

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and so many viewers can relate and and are encouraged by the hope

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um and the strength that these people exhibit yeah absolutely here’s another look at uh

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this exhibit uh what what uh gallery was this in this is at the renaissance the

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renaissance gallery at the edmonton airport yeah

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so this was actually during covid so but the people who are still passing through the

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airport and like it’s it’s a really cool space there’s always pilots and flight attendants there’s

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people with their suitcases walking by it’s it’s an amazing bright beautiful gallery space and

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yeah i’m always very thankful to have the opportunity to share my work in a space like that where there’s um lots of passers-by yeah absolutely

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it’s not really a conventional spot where people are expecting i’m going to a gallery today

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yeah they’re very it’s a great place it’s a great place for like for art ambushes you know people are

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just passing by and then they’re like whoa there’s art here right and so kind of like it takes people off

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off guard but um yeah it’s just it’s a cool art ambush i want to like i don’t like that phrase hashtag

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[Laughter] yeah awesome and they’re very like

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um what is the word i’m looking for they’re very striking images like it’s not like a simple landscape

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where you’re you know walking by and it’s like oh that’s nice it’s it’s gonna grab their attention for

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sure exactly well making people uncomfortable is cool sometimes making them think

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right i think you know we have so much content fed to us and that’s one amazing thing about art is it does

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invite people to slow down and take a breath and have a longer moment of contemplation

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and definitely these photographs are because they are um outside the box that’s for sure

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especially the subject matter and the conceptual uh nature that they’re created in

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absolutely and do you have any uh more projects that you’re working on currently that are similar to this one

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yeah so actually this series of artwork um i’m just in the beginning of the year

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turning uh mental planning stage of revisiting every

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person that um i have a portrait of in the quiet rebuild because it’s been for some of these

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people uh five to two almost ten years later

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and yeah and so revisiting them and seeing where they’re at now and creating a new portrait

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i’m thinking this might be something that i continue with these people over the years and then they’ll be like like a series

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of development and yeah i think that’s going to be really special so that’s one thing that i’m

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i’m in the process of planning i’m also

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sorry what was that he said that is so cool i’m excited like i i really love like

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the like photo series for example where it’s like husband and wife are taking a picture of themselves every year for

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50 or 60 years and so you really see them grow as a couple like their age and their

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love so i really can imagine like these people i know that so many of them have gone on

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to do amazing things because of of their loss like there was another mother who lost a child

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and she is she’s in toronto and she organizes um like fundraising balls uh for little

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girls and to help fundraise for the hospital there so there’s just like there’s so many beautiful things one of

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them’s a writer and so she has created uh poetry books that like expand on her

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loss and her life and anyway so there’s just there is inspiring people so i’m excited to see

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the trajectory of these people um and their stories over the years yeah absolutely

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another really neat project i have a lot of i have a lot of things

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that i’m sort of on the cusp of working on so i just finished releasing my fantasy uh the eighth island trilogy

28:38

series which is yeah the young adult fantasy adventure a book that follows um three unlikely

28:45

heroes there’s grandpa archie uh his mother-in-law tessa and his fourteen-year-old granddaughter ella

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so they’re like a motley crew of uh world hoppers that ultimately

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save everyone in every world um but i’m actually thinking about and planning and starting to work on a

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graphic novel prequel to their story yeah where i illustrate

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um and if you’ve seen um the handmade tale graphic novel i was really

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inspired by that yeah it’s gorgeous it’s gorgeous and so

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i you know like i read a lot of graphic novels and comics and like you know dogman and stuff to my

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kids but i can really see that this is gonna be more of like an art

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uh exploration or an art book that is also like a fantasy kind of story prequel

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it’s going to be cool i’m not explaining it well but something really beautiful um an artsy fartsy once it’s created but

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i think that that’s i think it’s inspiring like younger kids need some uh like beautiful inspiration like we

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create like coffee table books and beautiful things for adults but i think young readers they need like

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super artistic um thought-provoking books and artwork

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and mashups of those as well so that’s what i’m excited to create um i’m gonna start working on like the

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first draft of that during nanowrimo which is national novel writing month

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every november so i’ve got about a month before i actually start like really diving into this um

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writing process and yeah i’ve been working on the illustrations and things so lots of little projects i always have

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lots of little projects on the go yeah absolutely and now

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here’s uh joy and passion yes this came after um

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the previous slide it’s actually this came before the um

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the abstract paintings that are like with yellows and blues yeah so this is like joy plus passion

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one and then those other ones were like joy plus passion two um so yeah so this series like i really

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had incorporated uh black white gold silver um copper

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and and i was really going from a different like just really changing gears and trying to be

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like how can i minimally like slow down and just create really strong powerful lines and

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and be really meditative and mindful in the process simplistic um almost like a breath of

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fresh air and then the color is really where like that passion and the joy comes through um but it’s definitely like it

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represents for me a stage where um

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in my artistic life i’m really trying to be thoughtful about every mark that i make

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so that’s really like this um series where that came from yeah

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wonderful

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i love how there’s so much movement it’s very freeing and i can definitely

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feel that that joyfulness that it brings yeah

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well thank you yeah absolutely yes i’m like oh maybe i should add these

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together do not sell this but no i really love when like sharing my work

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and selling my work to me i could drown in all the paintings

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and things but um this is definitely like a series that i have so close to my heart i love it and it’s it feels so

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um just like like a fresh slate for me which is awesome yeah absolutely there

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are really perfect pieces for like that really modern home like i can really see that with

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like a very you know angular couch and like really funky coffee wall and and that kind of stuff um but

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they’re also just so um so easy and so simple on the eye that you can really play with a lot of

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the colors that they have and the shapes totally oh you’re like designing a house

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in your head you’re like that’s fun to do yeah so so yeah this is

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a like work in progress um photograph yeah so you can see i’m not fancy when

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i’m painting and yeah this is my home studio so i have a collection of desks and i’ve

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uh have them covered with what actually is like boat seating pat like that’s kind of

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fabric um like it’s there’s no way that any water or anything would get

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through it’s spill proof um and yeah and what’s cool is like my kids also create

33:57

in this space they don’t always clean up which drives me insane but but it’s really nice that like

34:05

they’re all right down there with me um while i’m making and even my one kid who’s not artistically

34:11

inclined sort of to the left side of me in this photograph we have a space where he can play hockey

34:18

so i’m painting he’ll play hockey um my daughter will be creating and she’ll be filming a youtube video of

34:25

her art project so it’s i just i love being all together as i’m working awesome um it’s awesome like

34:33

place to be yeah to just play and and creative

34:39

yeah and i’ll ask my kids i’m like oh how does this look and and my daughter will be like sorry

34:44

mom i actually don’t like it and then i’ll be like maybe i need to like work on this door or something but yeah i just will get

34:51

like the honest feedback yeah that’s the finished um painting that’s hanging there the one i was just working on

34:57

that’s awesome oh sorry go ahead okay i was just gonna

35:02

say like this has um acrylic paint uh oil pastels um

35:10

so many like graphic things just all layered together so yeah it’s pretty cool cool i was going

35:17

to ask uh how long does a piece usually take you

35:23

that’s a good question and i would say that there is not a standard answer like some paintings

35:30

probably like some things in life some things come quickly and easily and i’m in the flow and it’s just like

35:36

oh it appears whereas some like this painting actually like i thought it was done like five times

35:43

and then i’m like oh and this was pre covered and so i had a girlfriend over and she was like oh

35:49

and she gave me some you know feedback and i just came back to it and now i’m at a place

35:55

where i’m like okay it’s done but so yeah it could be anywhere from a day to

36:00

um i just had a painting uh on a sculpture that i just finished and i was working

36:06

on it for a few years so yeah you never know you never know

36:11

how long it’ll take absolutely my current studio space is at my mom and dad’s house and i’ll like

36:19

be working on something and then i’ll come back to my house and i’ll go back and my mom will have it hanging up and i’m

36:25

like no it’s not what’s done to me so

36:31

yeah so cute obviously a fan of yours yeah challenge because you

36:38

go back to look at it and you can probably tweak something here and there and you can probably add a little bit

36:45

more color or there’s something that you feel needs to happen so i really like

36:50

that um you mentioned earlier that you’re slowing down that process and you’re just letting it be because

36:57

that’s definitely a hard place to get to as an artist especially if you have that kind of competitive drive or

37:04

you know comes with age like i’m like oh i can’t care less about

37:09

what everyone thinks now in my mid-30s um but i definitely like more like oh

37:15

i’m gonna slow down and not be quite so my mom used to call me used to call me a microwave girl

37:22

like i want everything now that was her perspective i don’t i’m not saying that that was the truth

37:27

um definitely like as i’ve gotten older and and it’s probably necessity too being

37:34

a busy person working on less different things yeah giving myself that extra moment to slow

37:40

down and to sleep on it before i yeah keep painting and make make it irreplaceable like changes i

37:47

can’t go back to

37:53

yeah exactly totally i really really enjoyed this one oh

38:01

thank you well this is another example like i had to like hold myself back but i think

38:06

it’s it’s like one of those little beautiful milestones as an artist to be able to be like

38:11

okay you know like i’m gonna stop and and it’s like it’s just beautiful as it is right

38:17

yeah and yeah i’m a huge fan like blue and yellow are my favorite colors and so that’s really like i just was

38:23

like ah the joy and the passion bubbled out of this series do you ever

38:28

make something and when it’s finished you think this is for me this is mine

38:38

well like that that large landscape one for sure is like you know one of my

38:44

children it’s hard to like me i can’t i can’t imagine ever letting go of that

38:49

but then i create some paintings too that i’m like oh my god i hate it

38:54

and then my husband’s like oh my gosh i love it and like he’s taken a painting that i did not enjoy and he’s hung it in his

39:00

office so to me i’m just like i just don’t understand but

39:07

yeah so not everything i create is great there’s there’s beauty in the failures

39:13

as well and that’s one thing um i did learn from my undergrad in visual art uh

39:20

i remember feeling blocked and like i don’t know what to do and this lovely

39:26

woman named dawn who worked in the administrative offices of art and design

39:32

she encouraged me to go and make an ugly painting and i was just like she’s like use the

39:38

most ugly colors you could think of and

39:44

so i like had like poopy green and just make a big mess but get it out there like just get

39:50

get making something don’t just stop and and be still just start with an ugly

39:56

painting and that was like one of the best pieces of advice i’ve ever received and so now like i just try not to judge

40:04

anything that i come out like whether i’m stitching or painting i’m not gonna like everything but just

40:10

the act of creating uh gets your creative juices flowing and helps you live in that state of

40:17

creativity where it’s not like writer’s block or artist block you’re just you’re flowing so it’s a nice uh trick

40:25

if you’re feeling stuck yeah absolutely well and especially if you you know are starting an artistic

40:32

practice and you are starting to make things and then you feel so discouraged because it’s not

40:38

exactly what you had envisioned in your mind i think that’s a really great trick to

40:43

just keep pushing through that and eventually you’ll you’ll get to where you want to be

40:49

yeah cool and so here is this the one in your husband’s office

40:55

no this is actually one right no i like this one

41:02

this is one of the ones i like um yeah but just again like i’ve always been drawn even

41:08

since i was a kid to either black and white which you see in my black and white photography

41:14

or really vivid intense colors that um come up against each other so yeah so

41:20

with this one i was actually picturing in like an abstracted um nature scene and just like let the

41:28

colors almost become pixelated uh and they’re it’s very textural as well so

41:34

yeah and this lawyer’s this piece which is awesome

41:42

yeah well it’s just it just goes to show that your pieces are so fun and they’re so bright that if you

41:48

just put it in like a dull office it completely makes it you know feel more fun and you know you

41:56

can get inspired by it and it’s something to look at other than you know exactly what’s in front of you

42:02

and you’re you know trying to get something submitted or whatever you can sit back and have some time to look at

42:08

the piece totally well i really i really believe

42:13

like creating um whether it’s your home or your office being creating an inspiring space

42:19

so whatever type of art resonates with you like surrounding yourself with beauty helps you to just live in in that

42:26

beautiful moment more absolutely so this is the pieces that we

42:32

have in art rental and sales um and do you remember when you made this one

42:40

yes so this would have been 20

42:45

2012 or 2013 because i made this one when i did my residency at harcourt house which is

42:50

2012 2013. oh nice and this one’s huge but it’s so like

42:56

striking because it’s so big that you just like you get lost and it’s yeah absolutely thinking the same thing

43:07

i had a client once who was looking at this piece and she kept referring it referring to

43:14

it as um the man in the mask the man in the mask man in the mask and

43:21

i was like i don’t know i don’t see it can you can you show me in and so she mentioned that the orange um

43:29

piece was like the face and then the mask was the yellow and the red or like kind of a

43:35

hat i guess you could say like a headpiece interesting that’s the cool thing i

43:43

think people like they look for the real world in abstract pieces right so cool

43:51

and this one she referred to as the dancing man okay which i totally see that if i’m

43:59

if i’m going for her yeah i can definitely see that one with this that’s for sure nice

44:07

yeah but these two pieces really complement each other uh very well i really enjoy these

44:14

yeah well i can totally for me i can picture these like in a home in an office in a

44:20

boardroom um because they are like they are almost like a little bit timeless in

44:26

terms of their subject matter and even though they might look like this one’s really good this dauntless

44:32

piece you can if you look closely you can see that there’s texture and detail

44:37

within the flat planes of color so yeah there’s a lot to like look at from

44:42

a distance but then also when you come up close um you can notice like really cool little details yeah

44:48

absolutely and i love that um when you’re when you’re seeing these in

44:54

person the colors are just so vibrant like it’s just the most

45:00

gold you’ve ever seen and it’s just so striking um yeah they’re really neat

45:08

thank you and then these ones are so fun yes i love these ones well the cool

45:15

thing with this is you can hang it vertically you can hang them all in a row um you can do like a square with them um

45:23

you can also hang them from their corners and as diamonds which i’ve done with some of the little

45:29

ones yeah so so you can hang them like in any way your imagination concocts yeah so they’re pretty cool

45:36

that’s awesome well it makes it so accessible for different spaces as well instead of having one very large piece

45:43

if you don’t have a home or an office that you can fit that in but you want some art like these little

45:48

tiny ones and especially because you can hang them differently it’s so versatile for a space yeah totally

45:57

well um and i have a couple more questions for you um what is your favorite subject or

46:05

style um that you’ve done so far oh i honestly feel like i don’t

46:14

necessarily have like one style or subject it’s almost like having to pick which is my favorite

46:20

kid right like really the heart of all of my work is

46:26

um storytelling and it is the idea of like communication and that that communication might even be

46:33

um like an emotional state like in it like an idea um abstracted

46:40

so for me when i’m like wanting to make something i really start with like the idea like the

46:46

meaning or the message that i want to create or communicate and then i ask

46:52

myself okay well should this be a painting or should this be

46:57

a film like a video format or should this be a photograph or should i like and sometimes i sketch

47:03

things out first and i’m like conceptualizing like what what way do i want to say this

47:08

maybe it’s words maybe it’s words and image or maybe it’s a poem um so in terms of having one favorite

47:16

favorite but i do i would have to say that like in terms of my writing and my visual art like my writing is

47:23

very like it comes from the head space yeah sometimes i can get like i’m like oh i need to break and

47:30

i’ll go from writing and i’ll do something visual and same with visual sometimes i’m just

47:35

like oh i’m just not like having this breakthrough i need so then i’ll switch back to writing

47:40

so i really feel like all my different art forms are connected um they all speak to each

47:46

other so for example like even one of the books i wrote expecting sunshine

47:52

it’s a memoir and then i felt like oh i need to communicate

47:57

this story and this life experience through something visual so i created uh

48:03

expecting sunshine documentary film yeah but it’s also a documentary that

48:10

interviews doctors nurses other brief parents and also has like artistic

48:15

um creations where for example when i’m pregnant with one of my

48:22

children after my loss i had one of my friends do a body art painting of three

48:28

different gestational stages um and then we symbolically removed uh

48:33

we have just different kinds of like artistic ways of communicating the message but

48:39

through film so that’s really at the heart of what i do is storytelling and i just find

48:44

whichever creative outlet best communicates that message and sometimes it’s it’s one of them or sometimes it’s

48:51

all of them yeah wonderful do you have any

48:57

uh influence or inspiration from other artists currently um

49:03

well right now i’m reading like a oh i think it’s like a 500 page book on

49:09

andy warhol and the book is so big and so heavy

49:14

because it has so many um actual like color uh reproductions of his artwork

49:19

in it i can’t even take it anywhere with me i can only read it at home because it probably weighs like 10 pounds

49:26

um i’m super inspired by his creative process not necessarily

49:32

that i want to like make art that looks like his but more of of of his artistic journey and how he

49:39

um incorporates photography into his silk screens and and paintings and like every sort of

49:46

everything’s connected and then he’s also a filmmaker which i hadn’t really known about before

49:52

i started reading this book like he was a prolific filmmaker

49:57

yeah i know lots of like drugs and sex and like you know scandalous

50:03

topics for the 60s and 70s when he’s releasing his film that he was a big pioneer of like the

50:09

underground like screening underground filmmaking um in new york at that time so it was

50:16

it’s such a like an inspiring read so i’m super inspired by him i’m always like always inspired by

50:23

canadian artists um there’s so many contemporary ones that like i couldn’t even

50:28

like the list is so long but like i love emily carr like the group of seven um and i do

50:35

think like the group of seven tom thompson their color choices are very vivid and

50:41

so i would see them as like definitely an influence of like my color choices even

50:46

though i’m not necessarily painting um you know the lake and natural

50:52

mountain and tree landscapes but their color choices and more

50:57

impressionistic and vivid colors really speak to me yeah and i’ve always been a fan of robert rauschenberg

51:04

oh language artwork so like if you visit my studio i try to keep it

51:10

clean but i have boxes of like random things and i’m like

51:15

one day i’m gonna bring all these like weird things like i literally have a box of buttons and

51:20

bells like weird stuff if i have a shed full of wood like wood i’m not

51:27

going to burn in a fire but like i’m used somehow sculpturally um

51:32

i don’t know i just i save all these little weird things so robert rauschenberg like his his artwork um like the goat that’s

51:40

painted like i can just picture i saw some of his work when i have visited different galleries in the states

51:46

and it’s just so like quirky and unexpected that um yeah i really love like assemblage yeah

51:53

i i find that like i find inspiration um and other artists but also like in

51:59

movies and like you know netflix some of these shows that they’re putting out like the way that they filmed them is so cool

52:06

so i really find inspiration everywhere i go and i think that’s something about just being attuned to the world and

52:13

paying attention um yeah like like really trying to notice people

52:18

and the places where i go um yeah inspiration abounds everywhere

52:25

wonderful yeah well allowing like you said having your eyes open and allowing that to naturally come in

52:32

and affect you in a way that you want to make something and you want to create out of that i think is really really

52:39

cool and it’s a really great point because inspiration does come from so many different places

52:44

yeah wow awesome well uh we have reached our time for

52:50

today so thank you so much for having us today alexis it was an honor to learn about your

52:57

artistic practice and um yeah i’m so excited to see what you make next all of your

53:05

things that you make oh thank you it was my pleasure and i can i can see your passion for art

53:11

and everything you do come through as well so thank you for this conversation it was wonderful yeah absolutely any folks who are

53:18

watching have any questions for alexis or for me at our rentals and sales just feel free to reach out

53:24

um like i mentioned earlier alexis has a wonderful website um so just shoot over an email to her or

53:31

over to me at art rental at youraga.ca thank you all so much stay safe and

53:37

we’ll see you next time awesome thank you take care everyone

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