Canoe: Iconic Canadian
After years of travelling to different parts of the globe, I would always return home with an immense gratitude for Canada’s space, fresh air, and water. I felt a deep sense of pride in being a second-generation Canadian and I wanted to celebrate this pride through my paintings in some meaningful way.
Inspired by the Canadian historian Pierre Berton’s tongue-in-cheek definition of a Canadian as “someone who can make love in a canoe without tipping it over,” I thought I would like to paint this amazing iconic object that is so definitive of Canadian identity.
I started to paint the canoe imagining the beginning and ending of a journey, the deep connection to nature, and the history of the First Nations spiritual and practical relationship with the canoe.
Whether a spiritual or purely a recreational connection, all of the pieces celebrate the national pride of being Canadian.