Pretty Ugly: Art Beyond Beauty

Dimensions: 8 x 8 x 1.5
Artist statement: I was in my early 20’s when I began painting fairly traditional portraits and figures, but my work quickly became narrative when I became interested in the internal struggle of people and in their story. It was when I found myself struggling with mental illness that I began the work of getting to know myself through this new lens of sadness, and became interested in my own story. I was suffering from panic attacks, anxiety disorders and severe depression. I was very curious to know if anyone around me could tell. What did it look like? So I began a series of photographs and portraits of myself in those extreme moments. I painted a lot of people like that, in their moments of pain. I found their pain was often lost without the context of their story. Or if it wasn’t lost, it was too hard for people to stay with and look at; it was too painful. That is when I started experimenting with layering paintings and including imagery. I was searching for a beautiful way to incorporate instability and vulnerability into my paintings. I scratched and gauged the skin, I used grease pencils and oil pastels that resisted the acrylic paint, I obscured features and I layered in symbols, mostly flowers and animals. In essence, I was scarring and damaging the work, the same way people are, but in a way that was beautiful. I also knew that I couldn’t paint dark, or I’d never make it out alive. When I was 15 I became obsessed with Henri Matisse’s painting of the Red Room. It was a total color immersion experience: red on red on red, separated only by pattern. To this day I use the brightest colors I can get my hands on. I immerse myself in bold colors and intricate patterns. I never mind if my work is unsettling or offensive to people, but I also don’t mind if it is also a little bit beautiful. It reminds me of a quote by Tom Waits, “I like beautiful melodies telling my terrible things.” I want to tell you terrible things. I want to talk to you about sexual assault. I want to talk to you about anxiety, depression and suicide. But, I need you to be able to sit with it and not turn away. I want to talk to you through a beautiful melody. What person overcoming emotional vulnerability isn’t a little bit unsettled, but also beautiful? Resiliency is beautiful. Coping is beautiful. Barely hanging on is fucking beautiful.

Dimensions: 30 x 30
Artist statement: This painting is inspired by someone dear to me marching toward her 100th birthday. She would be horrified to be seen in her birthday suit, but I can't think of anything more beautiful than our aging selves replete with elephant skin, sagging stomach and breasts, and lines deeply etched into our faces. Lines that tell the many stories of life's regrets and small victories. Contrast this with kids in their late twenties getting preventative Botox. Give me the stories of life, give me faces with deep character. Give me people who aren't afraid to live fully and wear their stories on their faces.

Dimensions: 12 x 44
Artist statement: This piece was the result of “Calling all Artists”. A collaborative study group lead by Rabbi Harry Brechner. The theme was Revelation, studying “the Sinai moment” and the concepts of what is hidden, what is revealed, and how we deal with the mysteries. Distilling these ideas into an art piece was a unique challenge. I came to feel that Sinai is happening in the collective; an ongoing process and experience; a shared revelation. As individuals our own face is never known to us, except through reflections. Who we are and we are becoming is reflected to us by the people around us, the world we live in and are constantly creating. Glass became the perfect medium to bring these ideas together. The variety of textures and translucencies are like the filters through which our perceptions and memories are formed. Layering the glass on glass on mirror allows the faces to float and change as we attempt to get a glimpse of ourselves. Do you like what you see?

Dimensions: 9.5 x 14 x 4
Artist statement: Boris Bio Bush Bean is a self-based sculpture, 1 of 3 in a series. It is purposely created ugly, hard, mutated to inspire repugnance. My submissions to the Pretty Ugly show comprise three conceptualized Frankenfood sprouts sculpted from a single piece of Indiana Limestone. The term Frankenfood was coined by Paul Lewis, in a 1992 NYT op ed. The sculptures express a distaste for agriculture production using bioengineered seed that circumscribes the growth and protection of natural organic food. Genetically modified, mutated or gene edited food crops will apparently soon be the norm, i.e., currently representative of 60% of Canada’s (90% in USA) soy production. I have intentionally created germinating sprouts that are unappealing; monster-sized, resistant and presumably growing from desiccated earth, in contrast to the perfect form, intense flavour, and promise inherent in a natural green seed germinating. The mutant seeds are portrayed as ugly substitutes, as their effect on mankind is not yet understood, particularly where transgenic (animal) genes are engineered into a host organism. Pretty Ugly - the dark side of nature’s simplicity and beauty.

Dimensions: 17 x 9 x 5
Artist statement: Krueger Kidney Bean is a sculpture, 2 of 3 in a series. It is purposely created ugly, hard, mutated to inspire disgust. This mutant bean sprout has an adapted super pest carved into its craggy leaf. My submissions to the Pretty Ugly show comprise three conceptualized Frankenfood sprouts sculpted from a single piece of Indiana Limestone. The term Frankenfood was coined by Paul Lewis, in a 1992 NYT op ed. The sculptures express a distaste for agriculture production using bioengineered seed that circumscribes the growth and protection of natural organic food. Genetically modified, mutated or gene edited food crops will apparently soon be the norm, i.e., currently representative of 60% of Canada’s (90% in USA) soy production. I have intentionally created germinating sprouts that are unappealing; monster-sized, resistant and presumably growing from desiccated earth, in contrast to the perfect form, intense flavour, and promise inherent in a natural green seed germinating. The mutant seeds are portrayed as ugly substitutes, as their effect on mankind is not yet understood, particularly where transgenic (animal) genes are engineered into a host organism. Pretty Ugly - the dark side of nature’s simplicity and beauty.

Dimensions: 14 x 8.5 x 8
Artist statement: Svenghouli Soy Bean is a self-based sculpture, third of 3 in a series. It is purposely created ugly, hard, mutated to inspire repugnance. It has a metal futuristic worm that has somehow made its way through the sprout. The base is created from the same Indiana Limestone, but has been left raw - to depict dry, desiccated soil. My submissions to the Pretty Ugly show comprise three conceptualized Frankenfood sprouts sculpted from a single piece of Indiana Limestone. The term Frankenfood was coined by Paul Lewis, in a 1992 NYT op ed. The sculptures express a distaste for agriculture production using bioengineered seed that circumscribes the growth and protection of natural organic food. Genetically modified, mutated or gene edited food crops will apparently soon be the norm, i.e., currently representative of 60% of Canada’s (90% in USA) soy production. I have intentionally created germinating sprouts that are unappealing; monster-sized, resistant and presumably growing from desiccated earth, in contrast to the perfect form, intense flavour, and promise inherent in a natural green seed germinating. The mutant seeds are portrayed as ugly substitutes, as their effect on mankind is not yet understood, particularly where transgenic (animal) genes are engineered into a host organism. Pretty Ugly - the dark side of nature’s simplicity and beauty.

Dimensions: 9 x 12 x 4
Artist statement: I wrote this poem and then created this piece after my mother died, as part of my grieving process. It tells the stories of my family's bone experiences through time - broken bones, osteoporosis, leukemia. My mother was a very eclectic reader and learner. This was one her favourite books.

Dimensions: 24 x 24 x 1.5
Artist statement: This painting is about honouring the life giving force of the soils of the earth.

Dimensions: 7 x 12.5 x 5
Artist statement: I have a longstanding relationship with end-of-life issues and I'm always fascinated by the final breath of life. I was inspired to create this piece after a close friend died following a lengthy illness.

Dimensions: 16 x 18 x 10
Artist statement: Donald Trump has managed to get under my skin for almost 8 years now, which in retrospect seems like a huge amount of time in a finite lifetime to be affected by such a bad influence on civility and common decency. This piece was inspired and created in response to his blustering self-promotion as a “Stable Genius” early on in his presidency when even his supporters were starting to question his actions considering the turmoil that constantly surrounded him. The aggressive but somewhat unstable stance of the feet, the bulging middle and the hollow and empty form are all obvious inspirations from life. The piece also has all the angles, much like its life model.

Dimensions: 12 x 9 x 1.5
Artist statement: In the Dead of Summer I remember the feeling of the heat that would come in waves and at times you could see the waves making things move. The sounds of the crickets that would go silent and the snap of the Broom seed pods bursting open as you brushed past them in the dead grass of the fields. How dry the forest would get when the colours changed to orange, yellow and brown. It was pretty amazing watching the forest come alive again each year at the change of the season in springtime.

Dimensions: 19 x 13 x 2
Artist statement: My work for the current proposed exhibit aims to reflect the character, energy, and rhythm of street life at various locations throughout Bangkok, Thailand. The work represents digitally abstracted photographs taken on recent trips to Thailand between 2022 and 2023. Regardless of the medium I avoid literal representations and tend to employ modest abstraction with saturated colors, and aim to capture unscripted figurative compositions featuring a fair degree of angular tension. I am particularly drawn to raw street scenes as they are ever changing and offer the opportunity to see diverse groups engaging in an often-fascinating light. Captured at the right moment street scenes can resonate an irresistible energy, movement, and rhythm.

Dimensions: 20 x 24
Artist statement: I am an artist who uses my camera as an investigative tool. I dig beneath the surface for invisible truth, open to the optical unconscious revealed by my camera in my quest for the poetic. In this image lies the remains of unexpected beauty in the silent eco-disaster of a dying lake, and the empty husks of stranded stinking fish speak volumes about the massive industrial disregard for the earth. Despite the urgent need to protect our natural resources, political inaction and the influence of powerful interest groups continue to hinder progress. The importance of preserving our water supply cannot be denied, yet it remains a topic of debate among politicians.

Dimensions: 16 x 16 x 2
Artist statement: Flowers, cars, and people can still be beautiful long past their "useful" life. This image was taken of a bouquet well past the point many people would discard it.

Dimensions: 7 x 24 x 1.5
Artist statement: I have a difficult time calling the birthing process ugly, but I feel as though many parts of it are. From unwanted pregnancies, vagrant fathers, to children that are the 'wrong'sex' birthing is fraught with ugly issues, but there is still an inherent beauty in a new life. This particular painting is a less literal reflection on the birthing process. It reflects myself giving birth to myself with all the ugliness and beauty that the birthing process entails. For a woman to become beautiful to themselves and see the inherent beauty of life, means acceptance of both the pretty and the ugly bits that make up oneself.

Dimensions: 22 x 14 x 1.5
Artist statement: Dead and decay, but creating beauty for the next cycle of life. The textures and fall colours attracted me to this scene in Goldstream Park during the Salmon run.

Dimensions: 25 x 9 x 6
Artist statement: Makeup and I have had a long and complicated love affair.  As an adult, I was diagnosed with an autoimmune condition, which made me highly sensitive to metals and chemicals and severely impacted my glow up by limiting the products I can use.  This change sparked an interest in learning more about the manufacturing side of the cosmetic industry. Mica is a mineral that is sparkly or pearlescent and is frequently used in cosmetics.  Half the mica used in the world today is mined in India.  Mica mining is dangerous and mine collapses and deaths happen frequently.   The mines themselves are more like small holes in the earth, so small in fact that the miners have to be equally small.  Most mica mining is done by children.  Children who miss out on school, play and a childhood.  They risk their lives, and many are killed, as a result of our quest for glowing skin and sparkly eyes. My work features 2 faces, the top white face is lustrous, glowing and shiny representing western makeup wearers like myself.    The bottom face is that of a mica mining child, their bright golden opportunity of living their lives muddied, bloodied and crushed by the cosmetic industry and our hunger for beauty.

Dimensions: 5 x 13 x 13
Artist statement: Wabi-Sabi is an ancient worldview based in Zen Buddhism. It is “centered on the acceptance of transience and imperfection.” -Tess Buckley. This aesthetic has deeply influenced the Asian ceramic tradition and has become an iconic style of handmade pottery across the world. Typically, this work “is a symbol of purity and simplicity in which they are handmade and irregularly shaped, with uneven shape, glaze, cracks and a beauty in the deliberate imperfection.” -Tess Buckley This deeply textured bowl has an eroded, aged finish and includes the black, incomplete circular brushstroke, called “enso”, that serves as the Zen-Buddhist symbol for Wabi-Sabi. It is said to represent “infinite motion: always moving, never standing still”. The black ceramic orb is meant to evoke this circular motion when the vessel is held and rocked.

Dimensions: 13.5 x 13.5 x 1
Artist statement: As an untrained artist, I find it challenging to make something that may be considered "conventionally beautiful", but I find great beauty in so many things that nature and humans discard. This is the way that I can make art that I find beautiful, by using things that have a little beauty left in them and giving them a new stage.

Dimensions: 28 x 40 x 2
Artist statement: Breasts disjointed, proportions wrong, head skewed at an impossible angle... and betraying myself by trying to fit into a place that is all wrong for me. I try to disguise my ugly bits with pretty colours, superficial patch up jobs that a little plastic surgery or an eraser could fix, but can it ever truly help the isolating feeling of feeling pretty ugly both inside and out. Will pull myself together. Paradoxically this drawing was really fun to do!