Artists
Lighting Souls
David Chinyama is a Zimbabwean-born Canadian multi-disciplinary artist living and working out of Toronto. Internationally recognized for his colourful textured mixed media paintings, Chinyama also works with sculpture, film as well as interactive media design often exploring subject matters centred on aspects of identity, encompassing various social, economic, political and religious connotations. His work represents personal fascinations shaped by memories, life experiences, and societal perceptions emanating from his upbringing in Africa to the multi-cultural influences of his adopted home city of Toronto.
Lighting Souls
Jacquie Comrie
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.
Lighting Souls
Loretta Faveri
Loretta Faveri – “In the years before I met my husband and had a child, my life was full of alcohol abuse and unavailable men. My creative output and self-worth were very low. Although I now lead a very fulfilling life of sobriety and gratitude, I sometimes feel the shame of my past creeping into my daily life. By no means do I feel completely healed of shame. However, I have developed a creative process that helps me overcome it. This involves writing love letters to myself, dancing, making music with SOMO (wireless, wearable motion-tracking device that turns movement into music) doodling and most importantly, not judging or being fearful of the outcome. My perceived “mistakes” are simply gateways to exploring something new. My goal is to use this creative process to help others in need.”
Lighting Souls
Nyle Johnston
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.”
