Fireweed Art Show
Showing from January 20 until February 20, 2017
Over 30 artists have submitted pieces that respond to the U.S. election results, for this show, which launched Inauguration Day. We've dubbed this art show "fireweed" as a commitment to focusing in renewal, regrowth, and rebuilding in the midst of despair. Below you'll find a list of the contributing artists. Prices (if for sale) and contact information are listed with each piece, so please contact the artist directly if you're interested in purchasing. Thank you for standing in solidarity with us.
Stephanie Adams
Title: untitled
Price: $400
Dimensions: 19 x 26 inches (28 x 40 with frame)
From the Artist: I painted this sixteen years ago. I have no idea what was going through my mind at the time, but I can't look at it and not think about Donald Trump and this travesty of an election.
Instagram: @governessgeneral
Thompson Brennan
Title: Black Flag (American Standard 2)
Price: $2,400
Dimensions: 42 x 42 inches (made up of 2 panels)
From the Artist: The recent American election is a triumph of lies, misdirection and the corporatocracy. Colour, like faith, has been drained from the flag. The stripes have been replaced by a bar code reading 1984.
www.thompsonbrennan.com
Instagram: @jthompsonbrennan
Rob buten
Title: Omar
Price: $400
Dimensions: 26 x 36 inches
From the Artist: This original painting on canvas was created mainly using oil paint along with acrylic, paste and oil pastels. The balloon is a reflection of a growing fear for a fragile and uncertain future. The vibrant colours are a means to convey emotion. Hope, love, strength and sorrow are all depicted in this painting.
ROBYN BRIDGEMAN
Title: Thrive
Price: $180
Dimensions: 12.5 x 14 inches (with frame)
From the artist: "Thrive" uses a vibrant palette of watercolours to make a bold statement on the importance of diversity in both our ecosystems and our society. The painting features the Palos Verdes moth and the Pteris Lidgatei fern, two North American species that are currently in danger of extinction.
www.zingibergingerbird.tumblr.com
@zingibergingerbirrrd
NAthan Christison
Title: Make America Great Again
Price: 4 available by donation
Dimensions: 11 x 17 inches
From the Artist: The image is Trump in front of Trump tower with police escorting sheep towards the centre of the tower.
joanna clark
Title: Running with the Bull
Price: $275
Dimensions: 17 x 21 inches (with frame)
From the Artist: I liken the US Election to the Running with the Bull Festival in Spain. A gory, spectacle with bulls running clueless through the street leaving carnage in their path while spectators shamelessly cheer it all on.
Jill Corbett
Title: Home of the Brave
Price: $75
Dimensions: 12 x 17 inches
Instagram: @jillcorbutt
Jenifer Darbellay
Title: She Brings with Her...
Price: $390
Dimensions: 22 x 30 inches
From the Artist: "She brings with Her..." is a piece about strength, culture, color, power and fierceness. Pushing through the doorway and trailing with her vibrancy and abundance in the face of uncertainty. She will Be.
Nick Fabin
Title: Sorrowful Times Make You Grow / Rough Times Make You Grow / Tough Times Make You Grow
Price: $60 (each)
Dimensions: 6.5 x 8.5 x 1.25 inches (with frames)
From the Artist:
"Sorrowful Times Make You Grow" is part of a series of three pieces originally intended as sympathy/condolence cards I created after the loss of my father. These illustrations acknowledge the legitimate sadness of any challenging situation but reminds us that there is a light at the end of the tunnel, and that we will grow from these experiences, making us stronger individuals! These are presented as shadow boxes, but if these images resonate with you or someone you love, you can purchase them as greeting cards from my card company FOLDED via etsy.ca/shop/foldedshop.
Instagram: @folded.shop
www.nickfabindesign.com
Janet Ford
Price: $100 (each)
Dimensions: 20 x 20 inches
From the Artist:
These are optimistic paintings filled with colour and flowers. One is of the earth and the other two are of gardens. Both represent a positive view of the state of affairs going on in the world right now. The triumph of good over evil. I painted them with the conviction that everything will be alright.
Christine Fraser
Title: Carbon and Petrol
Price: $300 (50% donated to ACLU)
Dimensions: 34 x 31 inches
From the Artist: “Carbon and Petrol” is inspired by the hidden but obvious collaboration between two political leaders and their petroleum and carbon based “bromance”.
Instagram: @strangestlittledrawing
samantha gill
Title: Porcelain
Price: $150 (20% will go to QMUNITY)
Dimensions: 11 x 14 inches (with frame)
From the Artist: The dancers are moving so fluidly through the frame but when you look at the photo, they look like porcelain. After the election results- I was reminded how most of us automatically move and flow through life but how easily we can break or even shatter.
We are all porcelain, we are all fragile. We need to treat each other with care and respect in order to succeed.
Amy Gogarty
Title: Morning Papers / Evening News: Abu Ghraib (excerpt) (laser decal on handmade stoneware plate)
Price: $200 (each)
Dimensions: 10-inch diameter (each)
From the artist: Although these works date from George Bush’s Iraq war, they reflect the same trepidation I feel with the inauguration of Donald Trump. The text on the plates was downloaded from the Internet (and thus publicly available) and consists of either a) legal opinions from high-ranking government officials stating that the Geneva Conventions do not apply to “non-State combatants,” who can thus be subjected to torture and b) sworn statements from Iraqis held in Abu Ghraib and other prisons who were subjected to such torture. By placing these texts on handmade, domestic dinnerware, I express the hope that knowledge of these sorts of events, no matter how carefully sanitized or contained, will seep under our defenses and drive us to action.
Kunsang KYIRONG
Titles: Fireweed / Hands
Prices: not for sale / $480
Dimensions: 14 x 17 inches / 36 x 48
From the Artist:
On "Fireweed" - Mixed media drawing on archival paper. Made specifically for Bandidas Fireweed event. A symbol of growth and resilience.
On "Hands" - Mixed media and embroidery on fabric. Using tags from clothing articles to shed light on the hands which created much of what we consume.
Let us not be fed into guilt
it may mirror our consumption
and to shatter that mirror would be to
shatter consumption itself
(kunsang)
ALI LAKE
Title: How to dismantle a wall and build a castle in the clouds (diptych)
Price: $100 (for the set)
Dimensions: 12 x 12 inches (each)
From the Artist: Torn textured paper, acrylic paint, and graphic arrows on one canvas show a wall partially dismantled and gathered into a bin, and on a matching canvas abstract castles float in the clouds, built from pieces of the wall. In a triangular section of each canvas other creative wall dismantling techniques are doodled haphazardly - walls exploded, bitten, or knocked flat.
Instagram: @alilakepaints
Facebook
Michele Ley
Title: Non-Dual Submission
Price: not for sale
Dimensions: 6 x 8 inches (with frame)
From the Artist:
Before Trump:
Meditate, Cultivate Presence, Grow Discernment,
Do the inner work necessary to hold a non-dual
center of being in the world off of the
dichotomies of
complacency/fear, strive/disconnect, and
right/wrong.
After Trump:
Meditate, Cultivate Presence, Grow Discernment,Do the inner work necessary to hold a non-dual
center of being in the world off of the dichotomies of
complacency/fear, strive/disconnect, and
right/wrong.
+
Give more money to good journalism, NGO nature conservancies, ACLU; work harder
at discourse with those outside my bubble; strengthen tribe support nets.
BoriA MAndlis
Titles: Devil in Law / Court of Justice / Democracy.End
Price: $220 / $700 / $140
Dimensions: 16 x 8 inches / 30 x 24 / 11 x 9
www.boriamandlis.com
Instagram: @b_o_r_i_a
CHristina norberg
Title: Building Blocks
Price: $400 (25% donated alongside Bandidas' Fireweed fundraiser)
Dimensions: 11 x 22 inches
From the Artist: We must be reminded that we each have within us the power to make change. When we unite and organize, that energy and strength becomes so much more, regardless of who is in political power. We are the building blocks of our future.
www.christinanorberg.com
Instagram: @norbergart
Niki Papp
Title: Change
Price: $100 (print) / $70 without frame (print)
Dimensions: 16 x 20 inches (with frame) / 11 x 14 (without frame)
From the Artist:
I illustrated the change of an era with something simple, the change of a sweater: putting it on always comes with a temporary darkness or distortion of vision. I captured and froze that state to symbolize the people who might feel tangled, confused or stuck in these interesting times we live in now.
Contact Bandidas to get in touch with the artist:
sea patey
Title: untitled
Price: $50
Dimensions: 8.5 x 11 inches
From the Artist: Peer into the darkness of the self and of the whole. Lean into the discomfort of what's found there. Now grow.
Instagram: @seapatey
Ana Petre
Titles: Universe of Love / We Are Awakened / Cosmic Coherence / Fortune Teller
Prices: $150 / $50 / $35 (print) / $30
Dimensions: 5 x 8 inches / 8.5 x 11 / 5.5 x 8 / 4 x 6
From the Artist:
On "Universe of Love" - Gazing out from behind a blanket of stars into the infinite - a universe of love, we are all one - of earth.
On "We Are Awakened" - When we close our eyes to distractions we begin to notice the patterns.
On "Cosmic Coherence" - All knowledge is inherited, passed on to us through individual experience as a part of the greater collective consciousness. we have the power to manifest our destiny, to break destructive cycles and experience rebirth, regeneration, renewal.
On "Fortune Teller" - The man loosened his white collar nervous at what he would discover - at what the future of his livelihood would hold.
Looking down into the reflective crystal he saw a world consumed- a shadow of a home all used up.
Voice barely audible she whispered - no future if you continue on, no future long after you're gone.
Tiffany Prince
Titles: Election Night / Canadian Border Control
Prices: $300 / $100
Dimensions: 24 x 36 inches / 16 x 20
From the Artist:
On "Election Night" - This abstract painting represents the US election, represented by the Republican and Democratic party colours. The texture of the canvas symbolizes the gritty undertones of this rough and dizzying fight for the White house.
On "Canadian Border Control" - This painting is derived from a popular satirical meme which popped up after the US election regarding the response of the US public stating they were going to move to Canada is Trump became President. The meme shows the irony in the situation while also playing on Canadian stereotypes as well.
JASMINE SANCHEZ-ZILLER
Titles: A Thousand Words / Hold Me Down / Paint it Blue /
Price: $80 each / prints for $30 (50% of the proceeds donated alongside the Bandidas Fireweed Fundraiser)
Dimensions: 12 x 16 inches (each)
From the artist: The cycle of emotions.
Igor Santizo
Title: untitled
Installation
From the Artist: My interest with this work is in that shoes on a wire stand in for an undecidable factor, an uncertain message full of urban myth, communication, irreverent play and sub-cultural misunderstanding within the poetics of the city. There are many theories about what shoes on a wire mean, and it is the fact that their meaning is undecidable that is of interest to me, as an irreverent poetic.
M.J. Sarmiento
Title: Imprisoned Freedom
Price: $225 / $275 with frame
Dimensions: 11 x 14 inches
From the Artist: This image represents both chaos and freedom.
Matt Sesow
Title: Obama 3 / Trump (7)
Price: $375 (SOLD) / $300
Dimensions: 11 x 14 inches (16 x 20 framed) / 9 x 12 (14.5 x 18.5 framed)
From Gallery1515 (about the work): An expressive portrait of President Obama after the 2016 presidential election by Washington D.C.-based artist Matt Sesow. Sesow’s colourful and dynamic expressionist paintings may be unsettling to the eye, but his powerfully composed works are intended to challenge and inspire viewers beyond the limits of their typical responses. A resident of Washington D.C., Sesow’s proximity to the political center of the United States has undeniably influenced his compelling work. With the divisive nature of partisan politics, the vain disputes and petty calculations, the ugly entanglements and bickering of politicians, one cannot deny the existence of faulty systems that are readily being exposed. Sesow’s audacious paintings mirror and reflect the collective trauma in a politicized and troubled world that begs re-orientation, reformation and renewal. Sesow has been included in over 150 exhibitions worldwide and was honoured to have his work featured on a UN stamp in 2013.
On "Trump (7)" - From the first series of Matt Sesow's 2017 Trump stencil paintings, "Trump (7)" includes Sesow's iconic red circle to single out and bring focus to the next President of the United States. With its dripping black spray paint, Trump's face is a blur, a dark shadow looming over a great many American people.
www.sesow.com
Instagram: @sesow
BETH Stewart
Titles: Awakening I / Awakening II / Aesthetics of Morality / Cartography of Chaos
Prices: $195 / $165 / $425 / $175 (All proceeds fund peer support activities of war affected children in north Uganda)
Dimensions: 12 x 12 inches / 10.5 x 11 / 16 x 20 / 10 x 12
From the Artist:
On "Awakening I" - This painting emerged as I moved through the fear, past the shock, and then into a deep personal anger that I had actually been shocked along with so many (mostly white) people. Of course, before the election I had simply been able to pretend and believe it wasn't really so. On our way to school the morning after, my two youngest sons actually listened carefully as I explained their privilege to them as white males in this world and the responsibilities that go along with that. It suddenly felt imperative that they understand this now.
On "Awakening II" - This is the second painting I finished after the election. It reflects my subsequent movement through emotions and thoughts and my realization of the urgency and necessity of working together to resist and disrupt the narratives that are already becoming normalized.
On "Aesthetics of Morality" - Is liberal morality an elite world view for white people? Meaning, education and security seem to be necessary foundations for white people to be able to have the perspective that enables a liberal, egalitarian morality. But marginalized, racialized people have that perspective whether they like it or not... The kind of perspective that is only attainable from being on the margins, looking inward at our society. This is the perspective that matters.
On "Cartography of Chaos" - I study children, war, and poverty (PhD). I have consequently been thinking a lot about foreign policy under Trump and how children around the world will suffer from increasing international hostility. This painting reflects the sense of chaos I feel when I try to comprehend an escalation to political tensions around the world and how this will impact children who already live in politically tense contexts.
Sarah Stonehocker
Titles: Hollywood (top set) / Harrah's (bottom set)
Prices: $90 (for each set)
Dimensions: 28 x 14 inches (each set)
From the Artist:
On "Hollywood" - Street images of American public November 7, 2016, 1 day prior to the 2016 U.S. election. An observation on the final day before this historic change.
On "Harrah's" - Street images of American public November 7, 2016, 1 day prior to the 2016 U.S. election. An observation on the final day before this historic change.
Laurel Swenson
Title: Below the Surface
Price: $1400
Dimensions: 24 x 30 inches
From the Artist:
Below The Surface is an abstract painting that responds to our current times epitomized by the Trump election and the revealing of more aggression than most of us realized existed. This painting may evoke the sense of a deep body of water where our unconscious is working beneath the surface to move us forward. It might feel like a treasure map to guide us through challenging obstacles. While this moment feels dark, we can feel the light emerging in our consciousness, like the fireweed's struggle to bloom.
Rebecca Taylor
Title: Good Will Prevail
Price: $275 (with frame)
Dimensions: 13.5 x 17.5 inches (with frame)
From the Artist: Over history, the world has seen a number of leaders who have caused harm to both people and the environment. My piece is taking an optimistic view that despite the outcome of the election and dark days ahead as represented by derelict buildings, good will ultimately prevail once again as represented by a stylized lotus flower superimposed over the images.
Corie Waugh
(It Was) All Me / 2016
Titles: untitled003 / untitled004 / untitled005
Prices: $50 (no frame) / $100 (no frame) / $75 (no frame)
From the Artist: It Was (All Me) was created during a thematic artist residency on Toronto Island, the theme of the residency was Alchemy, centered on the change of one thing to another with emphasis on growth and connectedness to nature.