About the artist and the work

Bio

After a career as clinical psychologist, Lyn studied visual art at Thompson Rivers University. In 2019 she was awarded a TRU Undergraduate Research Award Program Scholarship, and on completing a BFA in 2020, was awarded the TRU Fine Arts Medal. Lyn exhibits paintings, drawings, collage, photographs, sculpture and installation art at galleries and community venues. Two of her works have been purchased for Thompson Rivers University’s Permanent Collection.

Statement

I choose strategies and materials opportunistically, melding freely the media best suited to a project. My strategies range from the traditional avenues of expression travelled by our species for more than 30 millenia — drawing, painting and sculpture — through more recent approaches such as photography and installation. I may marry ancient fibre art techniques, such as wool felting and knitting with electronic microcontrollers and programmable LED strings, and a life-sized papier mâché pig might be the front-man for an immersive video about factory farming and tropical rainforest destruction.

Much of my work revolves around social and ecological justice issues. My work points not only to the ways that Earth homes us with abundance but also the ways in which, as participants in modern industrial capitalism, we despoil our planet through our rapacious approach to the riches Earth offers. A further thread in my work is the destruction of social harmony and human lives by both failure to share fairly those riches and the disproportionate burden generated by our rapacity that falls on those who have contributed least to the resulting climate emergency. My aesthetic expression of this critical social perspective offers the solace of beauty and the delight of the unexpected in works available to the public. I understand art as social action that leavens life with meaning, beauty and surprise.

Curriculum Vitae

residing & working on unceded traditional lands of Tk’emlúps te Secwépmec

EDUCATION

   2020    Bachelor of Fine Arts, Thompson Rivers University (TRU), Kamloops, BC

   1979    Master of Arts (Psychology), Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC 

   1972    Bachelor of Arts (Anthropology), Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC 

Other Studies

   2021 to present   ScholarswithoutInstitutions, Kamloops, BC

   1978—1983  Doctoral Studies (Psychology), Simon Fraser University Burnaby, BC 

AWARDS

   2020   TRU Fine Arts Medal, Thompson Rivers University, Kamloops,

2019   TRU Undergraduate Research Experience Award Program Scholarship, Thompson Rivers University, Kamloops, BC  

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

   2022    FireWild. Salmon Arm Art Gallery. Curator: Tracey Kutschker. Salmon Arm, BC

   2021    Omnium Gatherum: a collection of miscellaneous things. The Cube Gallery at Kamloops Art Gallery. Curator: Craig Willms. Kamloops, BC

                          2018 Public vs Private. REpublic Gallery. Curators: Monica Martha McGarry and Robin Hodgson. Kamloops, BC

           Life Drawing. TRU Art Gallery. Curators: Elizabeth Sigalet, Lea Bucknell.  Kamloops, BC

           Chahal Priddle/TRU Exhibition. Chahal Priddle Law Office. Curator: Donald Lawrence, Kamloops, BC

           Formation Inspiration. Salmon Arm Art Gallery. Curators: Kazia Gueho, Christyn Rebmann and Tracey Kutschker. Salmon Arm, BC

   2017    No Time to Say, “Hello, Goodbye”. TRU Art Gallery. Curator’s Invitational Group Exhibition. Curator: Terryl Atkins. Kamloops, BC

   2016    An Interrogation of Ignorance and Folly. Salmon Arm Art Gallery. Curators: Susan Miller and Tracey Kutschker. Salmon Arm, BC

   2015    Plein Air & River(s) Run. Chazou Gallery. Curator: Tricia Sellmer. Kamloops, BC

CURATORIAL ACTIVITIES

   2019    From the Selfie to the Self: Photographic Works. Curated in collaboration with Sophia Dodic. TRU Art Gallery. Kamloops, BC

COMMISSIONS

   s/laughter song, 2017 (oil on panel). Cover image for Sing . . . despite (chapbook), Pete Smith, above/ground press, Ottawa, 2020

   Present Harm, 1998 (ink on printer paper). Cover image for Harm’s Length (chapbook), Pete Smith, Poetical Histories, Cambridge, 2001

COLLECTIONS

   eye to eye seeing/not seeing, 2019 (photographic mural print). Acquired 2020: Permanent Collection of Thompson Rivers University, Kamloops, BC

   . . . crows and goldfish everywhere, 2016 (oil on canvas). Acquired 2020: Permanent Collection of Thompson Rivers University, Kamloops, BC

MEDIA INTERVIEWS

   Michelle Young, “Learning their lives to the fullest,” June 2020, Thompson Rivers University Newsroom, Kamloops, BC

   Jill Sperling, “Kamloops senior receives award upon graduation from TRU,” June 2020, CFJC TV, Kamloops, BC

   Robin Phelan, “Never too late to paint,” March 2017, Thompson Rivers University Newsroom, Kamloops, BC

   Shelley Joyce, “No Time to Say ‘Hello, Goodbye’ — Exhibition at Thompson Rivers University”. September 2017, CBC Daybreak, Kamloops, BC

   Shelley Joyce, ” Plein Air & River(s) Run — Exhibition at Chazou Gallery”, September 2015, CBC Daybreak, Kamloops, BC

PUBLICATIONS: EXHIBITION REVIEWS

   “Kelly Richardson: Using beauty — and technology — to tell dystopic tales about environmental collapse.” Galleries West, 10 March 2022.

   “Jin-me Yoon: Hauntings of Self and Migration”, Galleries West, 20 May 2022.

PRESENTATIONS

   Philosophy, History and Political Science Conference, January 2020, Thompson   Rivers University, Kamloops, BC

                        “The Uses of Beauty: Evoking Forest Ecosystem Relationships in a Visual Art Installation in the Context of a Climate Emergency”

                        “Not Just Bread and Circuses: Spectator Sport in the Era of Mass Media as a Potent Tool to Enhance Viewer Support for the Permanent                         Wars of Late Capitalism”

ARTS COMMUNITY

   White Rabbit Gaze (artist collective). 2017 to present. Kamloops, BC

   Arnica Artist-Run Centre.   Vice-president: 2018-2019; Board member: 2016-2018. Kamloops, BC