2018-2019 Artist in Residence: Aileen Penner

Aileen Penner is an emerging mixed-media artist and encaustic painter based in Victoria, BC. Her formal training is as a writer and poet and it is her love of language, science and nature that informs and inspires her work. Themes in her work centre on loss: loss of species, loss of family, trauma and where to place our collective chaos and grief. She is heavily influenced and curious about scientific ways of understanding the world and she is equally interested in what goes into the “scientific method,” as what is left out.  Her work has been exhibited at the Fortune Gallery, the North Vancouver Community Art Gallery, Gulf of Georgia Cannery in Steveston, and the VIVO Media Arts Centre in Vancouver. She was the Artist in Residence at Camosun College this last summer working on a series of cyanotypes for a solo show of her work at Xchanges Gallery in Victoria, BC on October 5, 2018.
 
While in residence, Aileen will be working on a series of mixed-media and collage panels that look at animals, the museum and natural history and ask what role humans play in this (un)telling. She will draw on her love of scientific ways of knowing and a collection of natural history journals gifted to her by her science communication mentor, Jay Ingram, in creating objects the viewer can interact with.

www.aileenpenner.com





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2017 - 2018 Artist in Residence: Sean Karemaker​

​Sean Karemaker is an artist living in Vancouver, BC. After a childhood obsession with reading and writing comics, he obtained a diploma in graphic design from Malaspina University-College in Nanaimo (2002) and began a career in 3D design for video games, while also doing freelance work in graphic design and illustration. Personal narrative is a common element in his body of work, which encompasses diorama sculptures, comics, scrolls, and paintings. Sean’s work has been exhibited at such local art galleries as the Gam, the Gropps, the Seymour, the Pendulum, and the Ayden and YVR airport. 

While Sean is in residence, he will be completing his graphic novel, Feast of Fields, forthcoming with Conundrum Press (Halifax) in 2018. The book weaves through a cerebral account of his mother's childhood in Esbjerg, Denmark in 1961, Sean's interpretation of her stories, and his relationship with his mother. Sean is also working on a virtual reality component of the book that will provide an immersive storytelling experience. 

www.seankaremaker.com 
2016 - 2017 Writer in Residence:

Bren Simmers

An award-winning writer whose work is rooted in a sense of place, Bren Simmers is the author of two books of poetry, Hastings-Sunrise (Nightwood, 2015) and Night Gears (Wolsak and Wynn, 2010). Set in East Vancouver, Hastings-Sunrise is a book-length poem that chronicles the search for home in a city with an increasingly high cost of living and was a finalist for the 2015 City of Vancouver Book Award.

Bren completed a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia and has received grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, BC Arts Council, and the Squamish Arts Council. She won the ARC Poem of the Year Award and has been a finalist for The Malahat Review Long Poem Prize and the Bronwen Wallace Memorial Award.

www.brensimmers.com

Artist In Residence 2015 - 2016:

Anne J Steves

Anne J Steves is a visual artist working primarily through textiles, drawing and thread based media. Her work examines the narratives of place using the aesthetics of common craft materials. Anne engages with new places and communities through artist residencies, exhibitions and other travel opportunities and allows these experiences to influence her making process. So far this has included a canoe journey in Ottawa, a string figure themed artist book project in Victoria and a study of traditional wool blankets in Wales.

Born in Wales, Anne made British Columbia her home in 2000 and has since received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Emily Carr University of Art and Design (2007) and a Masters of Fine Arts from the University of Victoria (2010). Anne has taught drawing at the University of Victoria and classes at the intersection between art and craft at the Vancouver Island School of Art, Gower College in Wales and various community spaces. Her work has been included in several juried exhibitions including Painting On The Edge, the Wales Portrait Award and the Salt Spring National Art Prize.

WEBSITE: http://annejsteves.myportfolio.com
BLOG: www.annejsteves.wordpress.com
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Artist in residence 2014 - 2015:

Aimee Henny Brown

Born and raised in Western Canada, Aimée completed her undergraduate degree in Fine Arts at the University of Alberta. After moving to Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 2005, she obtained her Masters in Fine and Media Arts at NSCAD University in 2007. Aimée’s artistic practice engages archives and research to place historical content within contemporary printmaking, bookmedia and visual art. She has received several awards and grants, notably the Joseph Beuys Scholarship for Artistic Merit, a Canada Council Creation Grant, and an honourable mention at the 2011 Halifax Contemporary Visual Art Awards. Aimée has exhibited her work nationally and internationally, with group shows in Germany, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. She has completed several artist residencies in North America, most recently a year-long artist-in-residence program with Emily Carr University of Art and Design in Vancouver, British Columbia, this summer she will be participating in a thematic residency about the idea of portage on Pictou Island. She currently teaches sessionally with the Printmedia Department at Emily Carr University and hosts workshops in and around Vancouver about print and bookmaking.
 
http://www.aimeebrown.ca/ 
Artist in Residence 2013 - 2014

Anouk Jonker

Born in 1989 in Uithoorn, the Netherlands, Anouk became interested in art when she started practicing portraiture in high school. She received her BFA in 2011 from California College of the Arts in San Francisco, and has since continued to develop her studio practice. She has tried to combine her passions for art and travel, participating in studio residency in Paris at 59 Rivoli and a year-long residency in Harrison Hot Springs, British Columbia. Jonker’s paintings have been exhibited internationally in countries such as Ireland, France, the Netherlands, and the United States. She currently lives and works in Victoria, BC.
 
The imagery she uses in her art is influenced by her European upbringing in a rural Canadian landscape. Her work explores the physicality of paint and the duality between abstract and representational art.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKjCeBT4l2o
http://anoukjonker.com/
Artist in Residence 2012-13

Siobhan Humston

Siobhan Humston is a full-time interdisciplinary artist, practicing painting/drawing, photography, sculpture, fibre arts & sound installation. By combining abstracted aspects of nature with man made elements, she creates narratives that delve into human's interaction with, effect upon and love for the environment; the story of degradation, resilience and of interconnectedness.

After receiving a Pollock Krasner Foundation grant to attend the Byrdcliffe Artist in Residence program in New York (2012), she returned to British Columbia as the Artist in Residence at the Ranger Station Art Gallery in Harrison Hot Springs (2012/3). The resulting work was shown in a solo exhibition called 'Exploring Totem' and two large scale drawings on paper were exhibited in the Second Fraser Valley Biennale at The Reach Gallery in Abbotsford. She was Feature Artist at the Vancouver Art Gallery Art Sales & Rentals Showroom, where a selection of her work is currently represented.

A solo exhibition of new work was shown at Elissa Cristall Gallery and in 'Draw the Line' at the University of the Fraser Valley Gallery in 2014. In September of 2014, Siobhan relocated to the Southwest of England to study at Falmouth University during which time she exhibited her work in two solo and one group exhibition and was Artist in Residence at Back Lane West, in Redruth, Cornwall. Having recently completed her MFA degree with distinction, she moved back to Vancouver, Canada where she is making art, exploring words, sounds and moving pictures and the glorious coastal region.

Calgary  www.herringerkissgallery.com/
Toronto  www.partsgallery.ca
Vancouver Art Gallery, Art Sales & Rental
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8YUO8-pN9Y
https://siobhanhumstonart.com/
Artist in Residence 2011-12

Aaron Moran

Aaron Moran is a visual artist based in Metro Vancouver. His practice incorporates sculpture, installation, photography and print. He received a BFA from Emily Carr University of Art + Design, and an MFA from the University of Windsor. During his residency, he completed projects for Zara, Sperry Top-Sider, and Scotiabank Nuit Blanche, and has since exhibited his sculptures and site specific projects in Canada, the United States, and abroad.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4wxyMVtviY 
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eH6hNuhvX8
http://aaronsmoran.com/
Artist in Residence 2010-11

Rhonda Simmons

Born and raised in Fredericton New Brunswick
Creativity is the walk and talk of Rhonda's life, being a lifelong learner and traveler with a deep commitment to family,friends and community. Rhonda's projects and work reflect the diverse nature of  interests which include Public Art, Installations, Social "Artivism" and Creative Facilitation.  This diversity has provided a balance between making and maintaining public art installations, running workshops, facilitating one-on-one artistic expression sessions and producing commissioned private creative works.
 An integral part of Rhonda’s work is the self-empowerment that it offers. It also serves as beacon for others like herself, looking to find their own personal power. She feels that community however, is her most important creation; the supporting and caring for herself and others as they go along their own stretch of road.
Artist in Residence 2008-09

Charisse Baker

“Before my residency at The Ranger station I was focused on the commercial side of artmaking. Working with the local community and having a space to call my own on Harrison Lake encouraged me to ask more expanded questions of the potentiality of art. I started to feel a greater responsibility as maker and used the studio as a kind of lab open for the local communities participation. I took my portfolio and questions from the residency and applied to a Masters Program in Social Sculpture in Oxford. By far my experiences at the Ranger Station have left the biggest impact on my art practice and I feel immense gratitude to the Kent Harrison Arts council and the community of Harrison!”

Charisse Baker was a Social Sculpture Masters student at Oxford Brookes University from 2009-2010. During her study she was involved in two collectives, made 10 short films and created performative work, interventions and installations.
Throughout her program she became increasingly interested in dialogue as an expanded art practice and committed herself to exploring the transformative potential of questions. In film making, for example the necessity to build a story in advance runs counter to the documentation of an honest impression of place. Therefore it is essential to abandon preconceived ideas and structures while attempting to suspend judgment on people, place and specific issues.