Bio
In conversation with materials, I explore our interconnectedness within biological and social communities. I am interested in the phenomenon of being in relation to the vast terrain of objects that have each followed a unique trajectory from the moment of the Big Bang, traceable as we all are, back to the dust of stars.
Working with steel, wire, branches, trees, rocks, AR (augmented reality) and video projection, I am a Toronto-based interdisciplinary artist.
With degrees in art and biology, I explore what it means to be human within social and biological systems. My work navigates human-scale contexts of large systems so massively spread across space and time as to be considered hyperobjects. One of the challenges of this approach is to recognize our place within ecosystems as connected and important in every action we perform.
Negotiating concepts of how we are in relation to interconnected communities is to experience the fragility and wonder of the world.
CV
Public art
ThreeSidesOneGesture, First Capital Realty/OCADU Public Art Competition winner, Toronto, 2019
The Earth Loves the Sky, Friends of the Pan Am Path/OCADU Rooftop Art Public Art Project winner, Waterfront Neighbourhood Centre, Simoni+Zaraimajin, Toronto, 2018
Inversion, Nuit Blanche, DrakeOneFifty, Simoni+Kilty, Toronto, 2018
Exhibitions
Winter Island Residency, Artscape Gibraltar Point, "Human Kind, Forest Mind," Blue Rock Collective, 2022
The Bentway Community Incubation Program, "Mirage Map," Blue Rock Collective, 2021
VRTO 3D Exposition Space, "Free the Fossil," AR (augmented reality), 2021
Festival of the Body Group Show, Great Hall, OCAD University, Toronto, 2020
Look inside, OCAD University Open House. 2019
Parting Lines II Group Show, Continuing Studies Gallery, OCAD University, Toronto, 2019
Tracing the Edges, Small Art, Big Heart Auction Group Show, Stephen Lewis Foundation, Waddington’s Auction House, Toronto, 2018
Festival of the Body Group Show, Great Hall, OCAD University, Toronto, 2018
Look inside, OCAD University Open House. 2017
Perspectives Group Show, Great Hall, OCAD University, Toronto, 2017
You Art Here Interactive installation and Group Show, Twist Gallery, Toronto, 2016
Home Group show, Cobalt Gallery, Toronto, 2014
CHEO Silent Art Auction Group Show, Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO), Ottawa, 2013 and 2014
Open for Construction Group Show, Cobalt Gallery, Toronto, 2013
Vagina Monologues Group Show and Fundraiser, Ramoma Gallery, Nairobi, Kenya, 2002
Education
Ontario College of Art and Design University, Sculpture and Installation, Toronto, 2016 – 2021
Toronto School of Art, Art courses, part-time, Toronto, 1999 – 2001
University of Toronto, Toronto, English courses, 1986 – 1990
Western University, Bachelor of Science (biology), London, Ontario, 1978
Clients
First Capital Realty Corp., Toronto
Author Susan Hughes, Toronto
Trustee Shelley Laskin, Ward 8, Toronto
Press/publication/award
"We are always inside an object," OCADU thesis, 2021
Project 31 Sculpture/Installation Award, OCADU University
Toronto Star "All set up with no place to show," Sue Carter Mar 2020
Yahoo Canada Original Videos, “What you missed at Toronto’s Nuit Blanche 2018,” October 1, 2018
Fantastic Female Filmmakers, Second Story Press, 2008
Hart House Short Story Award, University of Toronto, 1990
Community involvement
Artscape Gibraltar Point, Nest weaving event, March 2022
The Bentway Studio, Mirage Map Community Workshop, 2021
Lanterra Developments, Juror for public art project, 2021
Maryvale Public School, Grade 5/6, Art workshop in conjunction with ThreeSidesOneGesture, 2019
Arts 828 volunteer for low-income seniors, Toronto, 2016
No. 9 Eco-Art-Fest, Arts volunteer instructor, Toronto, 2015
St. Euphrasia Women’s Centre, Volunteer art instructor, Nairobi, Kenya, 2000 – 2002