2022
Mural on vinyl

Jacquie’s artistic practice is about colour and mental health. For her, colour is the universal language of emotions, a science of light and energy, known to possess healing properties and the ability to inspire our thoughts and the way we feel. In this work, she explores the concept of fire as a threshold and a passage to life, a moment and state in which the spirit and the fantastic miracle of creation find their way to a new home.

“Crowning is often referred to as the “Ring of fire” in the birthing process. That moment when the baby’s head becomes visible in the birth canal after fully dilated. The very portal of the divine and the ethereal, the intersection of the physical world and the spiritual. It is the continuation of our bloodline and the point of origin for every human being. Through energy we live, grow, nurture our bodies, and sustain ourselves to continue the cycle of life handed by our ancestors. What an honour, and a privilege to be a mother and a creator of human life. This is a homage to birthing, creation and transformation.”

Jacquie Comrie is a Toronto-based multidisciplinary artist whose vibrant body of work intersects contemporary art and wellness on a global scale, using colour as a medium of social impact and mental health.  Whether as murals on buildings, large-scale structures, or canvases, her body of work is a dynamic exploration of the science of colour as the universal language of human emotion. Colour has been proven to have a direct effect on human emotion, for which her palettes are consciously designed and orchestrated aiming to cater to mental wellbeing at large. In such divisive times, and with mental health issues on the rise across the globe, her work aims to contribute to much-needed spaces of mental elevation and reset,  to ultimately help improve the quality of life of all individuals–one wall at a time.

www.jacquiecomrie.com   IG: @jacquiecomrie

2021
Mixed media on paper

Speaking to the concept of the First Family, Nyle’s Tarot Card Series encompasses Anishinabe pictography and Egyptian symbolism to bring forward traditional teachings, stories about the wind and fire and all natural elements in a magical and mystical way: from physical to spiritual. 

“I’ve always been fascinated by the Tarot Cards since I was really young. My mother is a librarian upon my First Nations. So I spent a lot of time in the libraries growing up and was always drawn to different mythologies and different creation stories from around the world. I was always very fascinated by Egyptian history and mythology and iconography because within Egyptian iconography, I see a lot of my own culture represented within that, that being Anishinaabe pictographs, so it was a wonderful opportunity to revisit that passion and infuse my own Anishinaabe iconography into it. 

(..) One of the things that I really love to bring forward is the concept of the First Family being creation all around us. First Family being that air, that wind, that fire, that rock, that water and the stories and the teachings and the history that they have and bringing those forward in a nice, gentle way, and creating a sense of awareness, it’s our duty to steward the land and to protect and preserve it and to share their stories so the next generation can benefit from that as well, there’s so many different teachings and representations of what that fire does for us and how sacred that fire is.”

Nyle Johnston’s spirit name is Wiishkoonseh Miigizi’enh means Whistling White Headed Eagle. He grew up in Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation and apprenticed with Storytellers since his youth. Sources of his artistic inspiration include woodland painters, Story Tellers and the traditions of his indigenous culture. Johnston notes: “In a time of reconciliation, it is important for all people to know that we exist and have such a strong, beautiful legacy of stories and teachings from the Anishinaabe Nation that are grounded in my experience and identity.”