Louise grew up in semi-rural southern Alberta and spent much time exploring its wild areas. She had an inspiring art teacher in high school who encouraged deep exploration into the depths that were really only communicable via art. She studied art at the University of Calgary receiving her BFA from Emily Carr University in Vancouver, with further study at Central St. Martins in London, UK. She also received a Masters degree in Myth, Cosmology, and the Sacred from the University of Canterbury, UK. Her work is in numerous private and corporate collections in Canada and the UK.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Photo by Rennie Brown
Artist Statement
Being a part of nature, being embedded in it and living on it, it appeared to me that acting in compliance with the laws of nature was something self-evident and necessary for survival.
My works are visual poems, informed by nature and its processes as well as my experiences of the liminal and the mundus imaginalis. I explore what might be a truth to be perceived behind the fade of the literal, as well as the relationship between humanity and the natural world. I am profoundly interested in stone and it is usually a beginning point for me. I think of them as fluid, moving, living things, and I try to capture that dynamism and stillness together. I think about the long, slow, radical change represented in that stone, about the fire and heat now held so still in the palm of my hand, about the poetry of geology.
My clay pieces reflect my interest in geological processes. In contrast, paint is much less humble but more ephemeral. The juxtaposition of these two very different media illustrates my own interest in dialogues and dualities. By using both, I maintain a liminal space within my art practice. I am exploring the relationship between humanity and the natural environment.
Photo by Rennie Brown