Don Sucha

Don Sucha originally trained as a commercial photographer and attended programmes at The Banff School of Fine Arts and the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology. He has a previous degree in Philosophy. Currently, Don is pursuing a degree-after in Art History. He usually divides his course work equally between Art History/Theory and Visual Art practice. Don feels that to fully understand the historical and theoretical aspects of Art, he needs to familiarize himself with the varied techniques, materials, and approaches used by artists working in different media. In his photography practice, he is currently exploring essentialist approaches to photographic aesthetics and the semantic relationships of image/text pairs.

Afternoon Tea: Meet the Candidate When most political candidates were men, women spread the ‘gospel’ of Democratic Socialism throughout the prairie provinces, one cup of tea at a time. The photo in the teacup from our family archives shows the iconic Social Democrat politician, Tommy Douglas, campaigning at a social event. In the teacup is the logo of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation, later to be known as the NDP.

One Thing I Knew While studying the history of photography, particularly the work of Julia Margaret Cameron, I started to question the essential qualities of a "good" photograph which I've studied since the 1970s such as the sharpness of the photos. One Thing I Knew explores both the notion of essential qualities and the text/image relationship. I've been experimenting with a homemade pinhole lens, which I attached to a regular DSLR, effectively turning it into a digital "Camera Obscura". The soft softness of the photos achieved through this technique coupled with the nature of the text creates a dream-like feeling which would not be possible through either the text or images alone. The text is also derived from a document in our family archives and is a true story.

Kimberly O’Belenes

Kimberly O'Blenes was born and raised in Calgary Alberta. She is currently working towards a BFA from the University of Calgary and is on track to graduate in 2022. O’Blenes is an interdisciplinary, emerging artist who has exhibited her work in group exhibitions across Calgary and who has received numerous awards and scholarships for her creative and academic achievement. She has worked as a muralist, graphic designer, photographer, and more. She will also continue to create artwork within multiple artistic fields.

Calm Waves is part of a series of thirteen I did this fall to explore colors and textures in relation to dreams, emotions, and memories. In this specific painting, I wanted to explore how calmness comes in waves to push against rising anxiety and worry. I wanted to visualize my own desire to embrace calmness in the middle of chaos but also show how in the midst of calm moments, anxiety can be lingering just below the surface.

Bethany Chan

Found items from my childhood. A cardboard box containing an elephant plush, duck sandal, spool of thread, and ribbon.

A wooden mannequin trapped in his packaging tube, incapable of getting out, and unaware of what the outside world truly is.

An Arduino breadboard system providing electricity through a simple circuit and containing 2 LED lights.

Madison Cook

Madison Cook is currently pursuing her Bachelor of Fine Arts, Visual Studies at the University of Calgary. In her first year of university, she was chosen to receive the John Will Entrance Award in Art, which is awarded to one student each year based on their portfolio submission. Madison has worked in multiple mediums but has a passion for painting. Focusing more on abstract and surrealist art, she explores themes such as objectification of the female body and environmental concerns. She has created her own business, Maddie Customs, where she paints customized designs on clients’ shoes.

My work, Redtruck, is a comment on the oil and gas industry in Calgary, which is a major part of our economy. The title is a play on words from the term “redneck” which is a stereotypical reference to Calgary’s cowboy, blue-collar subculture. The skeleton of the truck, Calgary tower and surrounding buildings are representational of the downturn Calgary’s economy has faced over the last few years. The green landscape, fields and Rocky Mountains juxtapose sustainability while the sign in the foreground warns of the potential impact of the oil and gas industry.

I find memories fascinating in terms of which memories stick around versus those that fade. In my work, Hippo-campus, I have depicted the memories, meanings, and evolutions from a surrealist approach. The hippo in the bottom corner is a literal representation of what I imagine when I hear the word hippocampus, a structure in the human brain that deals with short-term and long-term memory. The figure in the back that is peering over the box represents long-term memory. It overlooks the objects in the foreground which are representations of the evolution of short-term to long-term memory.

Peyton Wong

Peyton Wong is a biracial artist in her fourth year of Visual Studies Undergraduate at the University of Calgary. Peyton has been actively engaging with the art scene, showing her latest work in the IGNITE! Festival - Emerging Artist Exhibit 2021 and PUSH Emerging Artist Exhibition 2021. Peyton works with several mediums including acrylic paint, watercolor, drawing, digital illustration, and mixed medium. Shortly, Peyton hopes to experiment with 3d elements in her work (including sculpture and installation.)

A frog and her horse gallop across the dry plains as they spot an active wind farm. The wind above pushes against their bodies. The horse is disturbed by the dirt particles in the air and sneezes. Frog exclaims, “oh dear!” as she holds onto her hat.

This painting depicts a landscape that is true to the dry summers of western Canada. Everything feels real except for the frog. With the use of the plastic it reflects like a mirror, representing an alternate world from our own. How does our own world reflect or affect someone else?

This painting is about the conflict between the crows and scarecrows. Initially, the crows had everything for themselves, eating all the seeds from the crops. Then the scarecrows appeared, which became an obstacle for the crows. Now that the scarecrows are there, fewer crows are eating the seeds, allowing the crops to grow. In the end, the shoe element acts as an imposing element that gives rise to both the crow and scarecrow’s motives. Both sides share similar motives for survival.

Kafia Fazal

Kafia Fazal is an 18-year-old self-taught artist pursuing visual studies at the University of Calgary. Art has always been a means for her to express herself, and she has always utilized it as a type of therapy. Kafia attempts to make works that have a deeper significance to advocate for issues such as health and mental health.

My artwork examines the human form and the use of color. The piece was heavily influenced by a lenticular art technique where the picture changes depending on where the viewer stands. I wanted to find two images that would contrast and complement each other when planning this project. This piece was an experiment to push me further outside my comfort zone and try something completely different. I experimented with a more "3D" aspect while using a medium with which I was unfamiliar, in this case, colored pencils.

Junyi Bu

Junyi Bu's practice is undergoing constant evolution, influenced by the colorful world around her. Over the last couple of years, she has enjoyed exploring technicolor fantasy landscapes and whimsical natural settings. As a concurrent BEd and BFA student, she loves to share her passion for creating with the community. While the direction of Junyi's practice is largely undetermined, she is content with the evolution process and welcomes new diversions.

Bohemian Waxwing depicts a winter bird perched upon a crab apple tree, extracted from a photograph from a friend’s camera roll. The waxwings, often lounging around the tree, provided an interesting subject into a color study. In Bohemian Waxwing, I experimented with faded blues and pinks in the landscape and achieved a blurred-out shot using a dry brush technique. Bohemian Waxwing provides a window into the waxwing’s crabapple meal and reminds audiences that little moments of beauty exist in our backyards.

Flower Jar is an experimental study into a still life drawing and injecting colors in the painting that are not apparent in real-life. It's a spin-off on traditional still-life drawing where it was conducted as a live tutorial for a seniors class and children art class. Participants were provided with physical terrarium building supplies (flowers, rocks, jars, sand, etc.) and encouraged to paint their own designed terrarium. As a color study shared with many students, Flower Jar aims to capture life in an everyday object: a jar of wild Albertan flowers.

Isi Parente

Isi Parente is a born and raised Calgarian and Visual Studies student. She has a background in psychology and has always been interested in the way people think and interact. Isi finds most of her creative inspiration from the people around her. She enjoy experimenting with photography and digital illustration to create artwork.

The work shown is my take on the overdone milk bath photoshoot. Both light and airy, and dark and moody versions are depicted through this idea.

Digital photography and Photoshop manipulation. This is my favourite shot of my sister from a projection photoshoot. I love lines!

Digital photography and Photoshop manipulation. A Calgary classic, with a graphic twist. Proof that simple manipulation goes a long way.

Jane Xu

Jane Xu's art practice evolved out of its hobbyist chrysalis into a lifestyle when she discovered the plethora of art on the internet (along with fandom culture, of course). As a fan artist for so long, the social culture of sharing art is embedded within her practice. Jane believes that fanart (or any form of art that outsteps the traditional boundaries of fine art) deserves more credit, provided that it brings joy and personal development. Currently, she is expanding her experience with traditional modalities whilst whittling away at the new possibilities of digital art.

As one of my earlier pieces, this painting is a whimsical little scene of three figures in a peculiar room. What are they bantering about? If you guess right, maybe they’ll let you in on a secret. Guess wrong, and you have to move on.

Dogs definitely dream. This is a bonafide depiction of what my dog, Cosmo (three years old, collie, loud, stoic), dreams about when his eyes close; the luxury sandal chew toy, the synthetic lemon, and the gentle hug of the afternoon sun. The work was created at the University of Calgary.

Kuhlein Migue

Kuhlein Migue is a second-year student in the visual studies program at the University of Calgary. She grew up in the Philippines and moved to Canada in 2015 when she was 13 years old. Since then, Kuhlein has worked with various mediums such as colored pencils and oil paint to create portraits and landscapes. She developed a passion for photorealistic drawings, finding solace in the meticulous attention to detail it required.

In my portraits, I want to express the subject’s humanity and the intensity of their emotions by capturing all the intricate details of their features. In this piece, the eyes are the main focus. I chose a vibrant blue and exaggerated the wrinkles to depict vehemence and hopefully entrance the viewer with the subject’s gaze. Created with coloured pencils, this portrait of Ian McKellen took about 80 hours to complete.

Tarannum Rahnuma

Tarannum Rahnuma is a student artist based in Calgary, Alberta. Since she was young, Tarannum has been keenly interested in how nature can be used to represent abstract emotions and the mind. She enjoys incorporating aspects of human anatomy and surrealism in her works. Her art reflects her life-long infatuation with the beauty of the natural world, people, and dreams. Inspired by the life and works of Santiago Ramón y Cajal, Tarannum decided to pursue a bachelor’s degree in Neuroscience at the University of Calgary to someday understand the brain both from an artistic and scientific perspective.

In this work, I wanted to explore the various emotions involved when severing a deep connection between two people—the sadness, pain, hesitation, and also the opportunity for growth. I think of two hearts growing together, entangled, as a thing of beauty. However, I admire the strength it requires to do what is best for one’s well-being, even if that means letting go of someone important.

Eric Chen

Eric Chen is a Chinese international student and fourth year fine art student. He attended Murdoch Mackay Collegiate in Winnipeg and developed a strong interest in aesthetics and designing.

Self Portrait is a painting I created as an expression for the recent pandemic situation. Other than expressive brush strokes, another question to ask is, what keeps our masks on ourselves?

Tasia Selimos

Tasia Selimos is a fourth-year art and education student who recently started experimenting with intaglio, screenprint, and mezzotint processes in her practice. Currently, Tasia's artwork focuses on exploring the complex dynamics of home and identity.

Memories are hard to retrace, Days begin to erase, Time is no longer in place, Home becomes misplaced, Identity is replaced.

These are my roots,

from these stones,

my family grew.

Jennifer Lee

Jennifer Jaesung Lee is a first-generation Korean-Canadian emerging artist situated in Mokhinstsis, Treaty 7 territory. She is currently enrolled in the visual studies program at the University of Calgary. Since her early years, Lee has cultivated a strong eye for observing relations between land, the body, and culture. With mediums such as photography, textiles, and installations, she aims to capture and express the histories of the queer Korean diaspora. Her work imbues native Korean spirituality, folklore, and crafts to share with the viewer an often forgotten, and erased side of the Korean community abroad.

Precious Sleeves is a reimagining of queer Korean histories and traditions. The project references the story of Emperor Ai of the Chinese Han dynasty, who cut away his sleeves because he did not want to disturb his male lover asleep in his arms. Precious Sleeves is also a “queering” of the Korean paebaek wedding tradition, where family elders toss treats into the sleeves (hansam) of the bride’s robes to symbolize blessed fecundity. Three such hansam were embroidered with the colors of the “progress” variant pride flag for queer pasts, present, and futures. Queered Korean nature-based symbolism was also incorporated into the imagery. The “progress” variant of the pride flag centers on trans and queer communities of color who have been historically excluded in efforts for queer liberation.

Kennedy Callaghan-Sydlowski

Kennedy Callaghan-Sydlowski is a self-taught artist. In her spare time, she is a professional roller derby athlete and has traveled around Canada and America all her life. Besides skating, she've always been very passionate about art and is trying to represent any piece of her imagination she can from a visual standpoint! Kennedy's goal for her works is to create something visually striking yet memorable at every opportunity she gets. She also tries to impact someone or inspire them to think outside of the box!

Silenced Part 1&2: These pieces revolve around the troubles women face with feminism and the silence of abuse. The images are mirroring each other, in the fact that you wouldn't silence and stop the natural instincts of a tiger so why would you do that to a woman's courage.

Hurain Duaa Akram

Hurain Duaa Akram is a third-year Bachelor of Fine Arts Visual Studies major and BEd at the University of Calgary. She was born and raised in Calgary, Alberta. Her artwork and practice are heavily influenced by the land and those within.

Sanctuary: The feelings of warmth, growth, compassion, kindness, and closure are all personified; within people and even places. The work shows how I see these emotions reflected within myself and experiences of how my inner sanctuary would look.

Karen Uppal

Karen Uppal is a third-year student at the University of Calgary, majoring in Secondary Education and specializing in Fine Arts Education at the Werklund School of Education. After her bachelor’s degree, Karen plans on pursuing a Masters of Architecture program where she will incorporate her passion for fine arts in her studies.

Break Free: Yesterday night, he put his filthy hands on your neck and choked you forcefully until he beat you to death. The damage that was done was visible through your fresh scars. But now, you must break free from this unnecessary pain and seek new opportunities that are waiting for you.

This sculpture represents the social issue of domestic violence towards women. The object of the heels becomes essential in symbolizing this meaning because it is a type of object that represents women’s identity in a manner. The purpose of incorporating the heels into the wooden frames is to explain how the women must break free as shown by the shadows. Furthermore, the broken mirror pieces are symbolic of the harsh realities of domestic violence that exist in society.

Growth: For the sake of a better future, I am leaving my homeland behind. I will remember my time in these dark slums as I advance to the next rung.

The sculpture showcases the poverty that an immigrant has gone through before leaving her hometown. This ladder acts as a metaphor for an immigrant’s journey of achieving goals when immigrating abroad but remembering what she began with, which was living in slum houses.

For this reason, this sculpture is made out of cardboard to represent the cheap and reusable materials utilized to create a slum house, there are found images incorporated and pieces of fabric on the bottom of windows to provide insight into the living conditions and how the interior looks like in a slum.

Anna Tran

Anna Tran has a strong interest in design and the impact it has in human interaction, emotional connection, and ambience within a built environment. As an emerging artist and aspiring designer, Anna bridges these two professions through the representation of the theory of design and the impact it may have on society through her abstract paintings and artwork.

Interchange: An exchange between the contrasting geometry and colors to create a banter between each object. Playing with a grayscale and gold color palette with differing opacity levels through the overlapping of the geometric forms to create a sense of balance within the entire art piece.

Gen Haveria

Many of Gen's works reflect her interest in socio-cultural identity, architecture, and psychology. She pursues an interdisciplinary art practice involving drawn, painted, digital, and sculpture works. She focuses on studying her personal experiences from a western context through the lens of Southeast Asian culture. With the influence of psychology and architecture, she aims to have the audience be more engaged with her works that depict her personal experiences within a space.

Now You See Me: My work explores the idea of self-surveillance and the surveillance of others through the lens of postfeminist media culture. I want to examine the concept of “being oneself” without the influence of the fashion trends in this generation and to show bizarre imagery using the most common female garment and confront the audience with a discomforting truth. At the same time, the eyes are the gaze we receive from ourselves, as well as from others. We assess our appearance and decide how we want to present our bodies.

Randi Woolford

In Randi Woolford's practice, she aims to analyze the social constructs of societal standards based on femininity, sexuality, and the concept of fragility. Often examining eating disorder behavior and how it emanates from the definition of femininity and sexuality and therefore reflect that internal window of obsessive behavior in their work. Within Randi's process of making, she is interested in symbolic imagery. This imagery is about ideas such as picking, staring, and guilt that they believe follow the mentality of eating behavior in young women. This behavior is encompassing an identity that is slowly built by self-hatred, distress, and egoism. Randi tries to study both oil paint and clay and their ability to express strength, delicacy, and, stability in this context.

The artwork Consume is about the overwhelming and intrusive thoughts that are a massive part of body dysmorphia.

The artwork Mortified is about feeling remorse about ones own obsessive actions, but the struggle to reach out in fear of mortification.

The artwork Peck is about the obsessive behaviour surrounding eating and the act of feeling/ being watched, leaving the figure to only peck at their food.

Zainna Alea Dilan

Zainna Alea Dilan is a graduate student at the University of Calgary, majoring in Architectural studies at SAPL with a Bachelor's degree in Visual Studies. She uses her work as a visual journal to express herself: colors and shapes to express her emotions onto a physical medium. It allows her to convey her feelings and thoughts through her paintbrushes to create her surrealist-inspired works that entice viewers to come and experience another realm. Currently, she uses her work as a platform to bring awareness to issues such as the rising hate crimes from COVID-19. In a way, she hopes that her works bring the community together and comfort as well.

Acceptance is a big thing to do; accepting your negative emotions, or accepting that you’re not okay at this point in your life is a huge step and takes time to do. We’re often told to hide our emotions because it’s a sign of weakness and move on from it. As an artist, I wanted to express my experience and shed light on mental awareness through my works. In a way, my work illustrates the idea that it’s okay to not be okay, and just let yourself feel your emotions.

Mehreen Ali

Mehreen Ali is a Pakistani 18 year old, born and raised in Canada. Currently pursuing her passion for art by majoring in visual studies at the University of Calgary. She always knew this desire to create was strong and ended up pursuing it. Her work aims to inspire and enchant the younger modern generation as that is what her work aims to attract. Although her art contains hints of meaning and personal symbolism, she mostly creates what she finds beautiful and intriguing, to appeal to the eye. Creativity does not always have to stem from deeper meanings.

Dreamer is about the lonesome most individuals face and how it can cause you to experience thoughts you normally wouldn't consider. When somebody is alone, they are surrounded by their mind, body, and soul, nothing more. Being alone with just your thoughts can sometimes have a negative outcome, your happiness withers away without even realizing it. The only thing you realize is that you are in an endless loop of thoughts and dreams. I hoped to display this feeling in my piece.

Aidan Hulse

Aidan Hulse is a fourth-year undergraduate fine arts student at U of C. She focuses mainly on painting, and other forms of 2-D mixed media. Aidan has been making art since she learned to hold a pencil. She loved to escape into her own world and use her artwork as a form of storytelling and a method to dissect and better understand her life/the world around her. Aidan hopes that next year she will move forward with her career by taking a Masters of Fine Arts.

Gaia: She goes by many names: Mother Earth, Mother Nature, Demeter, Danu, Jord, and many more. She holds so much life, so much beauty. She takes care of us and keeps us alive, in return we do not take care of her. This acrylic painting was a surrealistic take on the earth, Gaia. She is painted in her ideal form, however her face is shrouded in shadows. She is grieving the loss of her natural habitats. This motif of a life giving, and nurturing earth is one that has endured since the stone age, however it is about time that humanity gave something back.

Sofia Perez Segoviano

Sofia is a Mexican-Canadian student artist studying at the University of Calgary. She is a student in the Faculty of Arts studying towards a major in Psychology (Hons.) and a minor in Visual Arts and Art History. She's currently in her fourth of a five-year degree plan. She has always liked creating art but has only taken skill-building more seriously relatively recently, and she enjoys learning the basics and expanding my creativity. Once Sofia graduates, she's hoping to pursue a career path that would allow her to combine both of her passions in a fulfilling way.

Gone Fishing: This piece was made as a project for an Art course in which we were asked to collage various morphed pictures of our surroundings into one cohesive painting on masonite board with acrylic paint. Normally, I would plan my paintings out beforehand but the energy and colors of this piece came as a result of spontaneity, risk, and recklessness. For me, this painting is my best representation to date of a piece with energy and subjective meaning through abstraction. My favorite aspect of this piece is the flow I see. In the dispersion of line and color, I attempted to create a suggested path for the eye to follow and I often find myself getting lost in the said path when I revisit this painting.

In The Garden: I created a piece to visualize the call for respect for women. The flowers are meant to represent the unique intricacies of each individual. I express-dried flowers in the microwave and arranged them in a way that highlighted the breasts and vagina. The larger flower in the middle of the figure represents the core muscles of the body. The way I ordered the flowers was also loosely based on a vertical gradient matching the coloration of the photograph. The composition of this piece is quite simple but with that, I am pleased with how I was able to balance the qualities of dried flora, photography, and ink.

Purgatory: The most somber piece of mine, Purgatory is a symbolization of a simultaneous feeling of helplessness as well as relief. I created it to convey a feeling of vulnerability but also alleviation, similar to what I imagine the process of death to be. In my mind, death is a process in which you are released from the entanglement of the complicated intricacies of life in this realm, and you are released into another existence. To me, this is not a scary process, it is not threatening, which is why the skeleton is depicted with a relaxed and undisturbed pose and facial expression. The vines themselves are scattered with leaves to convey the presence of life, the realm that the skeleton is exiting. I added a singular vine under the skeleton's right knee to add an element of intrigue for the viewer to create a narrative of the movement in this scene.

Chris Maier

Canadian born from a family full of German immigrants, Chris Maier has been making paintings since the seventh grade. Since their youth, they have been immersed in the worlds of skateboarding, music, and art. Their father is a classical guitarist, and University professor, and their uncle is a practicing gallery artist with a focus on oil painting. Luckily because of this, they have been exposed to fine art and music their entire life. Travelling throughout Germany since their infancy, and travelling through western Canada and the US exposed them to different artistic movements that influence them to this day.

Jonathan See Lim was a very prolific graffiti writer from San Francisco in the 1990's who was better known under the alias "TIE". On March 18, 1998, Jonathan was climbing an apartment fire escape and scurried down after being threatened by a resident with a gun. After frantically explaining that he meant no harm and he was just painting graffiti, Jonathan ran down the steps towards the sidewalk. As he ran, he was fatally shot in the back of the head by the resident. No charges were ever laid. Jonathan was 18 when he passed, and will forever be remembered as a martyr for graffiti.