The realm of video jamming and performative media art is a fairly new foray for me as an artist, but one that was a natural transition from my filmmaking.  I began performative work with the Works Art and Design festival in 2005 with a live media/video/digital art interactive installation as a collaborative piece between myself and 3 other artists (Tim Folkmann, aAron Munson, Marsh Murphy and electroacoustic pre-recorded work provided by Shawn Pinchbeck) in an improvised, artist interactive and audience interactive format.  Over the last year and a half I have had several such performances that have broadened the scope of practice of my work, from performances with musical groups to installation pieces to multi-media and interdisciplinary collaboration.

Born and raised in Edmonton, Kelly has spent the last 5 years coordinating Art events and helping local artists display and sell their work: first at the Paris Market, and  then at the Red Strap Art Market. In particular, her work as manager of the Red Strap saw Kelly involved in producing a wide variety of special events, visual and performing arts shows, concerts CD release parties, and Arts Festival events.  Years of focusing on the work of other Artists gave Kelly great inspiration and numerous ideas for original pieces, but with no formal training, she had very little idea of how to ‘put it all together.’ Kelly is looking forward to Cortex 2007 as an opportunity to expand and grow as an Artist.  After having been so inspired last year, she hopes that her work will, in turn, inspire one of the many talented Artists involved this year.  

I was born in 1981 and grew up here in Edmonton.  I have a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Alberta, where I specialized in painting and sculpture.  I have shown my work publicly, mostly at cafes and small businesses in Edmonton. I have been making art as long as I can remember.  It’s just something I need to do.

... is a photographer and poet living in Edmonton.

 

I am interested in the interconnection that exists between people as well as between man and place/space ...

It is my goal to generate new meanings and narrative structures, and provoke a reassessment of conventional assumptions regarding transience and the eternal, and the fact that much of human endeavor had been focused on negating or denying the one in favour of the other.

The materials I use to create paintings and collages are integral to the exploration of these issues. I juxtapose beeswax, bark, leaves, bones, wood, and other natural materials with man-made materials and found objects such as plaster, inkjet prints and photocopies, gel transfer prints, ephemera from old books, rusty machine parts, keys, watch and clock parts, chains, nails and bolts. The tension generated between these disparate elements through their re-contextualization within each new work is the point at which new dialogue can begin.

I am honored to be a curator of CORTEX.  This project has brought an amazing collection of people and ideas together – may this fertile ground produce ongoing bounty.

Photography has been a constant companion throughout the last 30 years. At times demanding, and at times tremendously forgiving the medium continually opens new ground for me visually, with work ranging from traditional heroic landscapes, to the studio, to high tech composite imaging. In recent years I have become interested in both the narrative qualities of individual pictures and the effects of juxtaposing text and visual images. I began taking pictures around 1980 and there are days when I am still uncertain what they are really trying to tell me. In many ways, I hope that question is never fully answered.