The Artists

Haruko Okano is an installation artist whose work has been exhibited from the local to the international level. Her current work attempts to integrate her artistic practice and daily spiritual beliefs with her love of the land. Her installations are viewer interactive and combine commercially produced natural products with organic detritus materials. Okano lives in Vancouver, BC.

Jane Isakson obtained a degree in fine arts after an athletic career during which she represented Canada in the biathalon event in two winter Olympics. Jane’s current body of work has focused on the northern landscape and the migration patterns of wildlife throughout the region of the Yukon. Her paintings have been featured in solo and group exhibitions in the Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Alberta.

The work of Ron Bolt has been described as photo-realism; he explores the power and strangeness of nature by looking for relationships of patterns, colour, form and detail. Ron Bolt’s career includes over 60 solo exhibitions from coast to coast and many group exhibitions in Canada and abroad. Numerous commissions include murals, books, a stamp, and a large work for Canada’s Consulate in Sydney, Australia. He is a recipient of the Government of Canada 125 medal (1992) and the Queen’s Jubilee medal (2003). He lives in Baltimore, Ontario.

Joyce Majiski is a self-taught artist who started her career in wildlife biology and later worked as a hiking and rafting guide. She is a visual artist living in Whitehorse, Yukon, who draws on her connection to the natural world as the basis for her creative energy. Majiski makes use of several media including handmade paper, print and natural objects to recreate environments. Her work has been shown in solo exhibitions in Alaska, British Columbia, California and the Yukon.

Gwen Curry is an installation artist whose work explores the environment as subject matter, with a special focus on flora and fauna, both living and extinct. The idea of “witnessing” has been an important aspect and has resulted in works in diverse media including printmaking, drawing, large mixed media works, sculpture and installations. She taught in the visual arts department of the University of Victoria from 1978-1994 and has participated in almost 100 group and solo exhibits in Canada, the United States and Europe. Her work is represented in many public, private and corporate collections. Gwen Curry lives in Brentwood Bay, near Victoria, BC.

Jose Mansilla-Miranda was born in Chile and came to Canada in 1979. Jose’s work has dealt with his interest in re-connecting with his psychological and symbolic memory of the ancestral memory of the Americas, awakening and expanding his consciousness in harmony with nature and exploring his artistic creativity and cultural identity. Mansilla-Miranda’s work has been featured in major solo and group exhibitions in Canada, China, Cuba, Mexico, South America and Europe. He lives in Ottawa, Ontario.

Michael Belmore, of Ojibway heritage, is a sculptor and installation artist whose work has been exhibited in Canada and the United States. Michael’s work explores the use of technology and how it has affected our relationship to nature. His work is represented in the permanent collections of several Canadian institutions as well as in numerous private collections. Belmore lives in the Haliburton Highlands in Ontario.

Marlene Creates is a visual artist who lives in Newfoundland. For over twenty-five years her work has explored the relationship between human experience and the land, and the impact they have on each other. She has participated in over 200 solo and group exhibitions, both nationally and internationally, and has taught visual arts, worked in artist-run centres, and been a guest lecturer at over 100 institutions across Canada and abroad. Her work is in numerous public collections in Canada, including the National Gallery of Canada and the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography.