Born and raised in Alberta, Wanda’s artistic practice has spanned a lifetime and has covered the disciplines of paintings, drawing and sculptures. Before her engagement with visual arts, Wanda was involved with dance and performing arts. She operated a decorative concrete business for fourteen years and was an industry leader in this sector in Western Canada. 

As well as a Canadian wide exhibition record, Wanda has taught extensively in post secondary institutions in Halifax, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver. Her awards include the prestigious Canada Council for the Art “B” grant and numerous project grants from the The Alberta Foundation for the Arts. She graduated from Nova Scotia College of Art and Design with her Masters Degree in Fine Arts. 

Wanda lives, teaches, and works in Canmore, Alberta where she is actively engaged with various art community groups, projects and mentoring. 

Artist Statement:

My process involves scraping, drawing, rearranging and changing or even obliterating until it feels right. Some pieces are sanded back to an unrecognizable surface then ‘recovered ‘ through re-painting. It is this recovery that interests me. Both collectively and personally, the tendency to react instantly to the world outside and by-pass opportunity for inner reflection is re-enforced culturally and technologically. Working abstractly creates the space for reflection both mine, and the viewers. By allowing the painting to evolve along an intuitive path, I Iearn about the mechanics of thick and thin paint and excavate layers of potential meanings or responses that come to my conscious mind while I paint. The painting starts often as a black ink sketch, very small in my sketch book. I find that not thinking too hard about the work in the beginning usually leads to a more resolved sense in the finished work. I know when a work is done because it sits right with me. I don't have the urge to go in and adjust this or that. This process is slow, not fast and the time allowed for the painting to simmer is as much part of the process as the actual act of painting. The titles of these paintings refer to my memories of places and deep impressions of my physical experience of nature - fleeting moments recovered or recreated from a circumstance in time. In some cases the titles borrow from the language of computers to address the inner experience of processing memory, time and present experience. Ultimately I am left with more questions and more work..