Seanna Quressette
This one-woman show is a celebration of 60 years of creativity and survival. As a survivor of pervasive childhood trauma, I now live with complex PTSD. Art making has been a crucial part of my healing. While I still get triggered and have episodes, art making always helps to bring me back to present moment. I am doing this show now to share my journey from trauma to surviving and to thriving.
The works include a few series: Madness paintings that express the darkness and chaos of getting triggered and a series call Joy paintings of the exuberance of life. The show also contains works in acrylic and mixed media paintings and mixed media sculptures from the past 30 years of creating – Other Times, Other Stories. Finally, this show includes a series called Mathematics that is a collection of meditations through paintings and creating mandalas. My creativity has taken many forms in my life including writing; knitting; painting in watercolour, gauche mixed media and acrylics on paper, canvas; and, sculpture. I have created works on found objects and canvases and have created new works specifically for this show. I have been an artist and writer for most of my life. I am a published poet, and my art has been gallery shows since 2010. My artwork lives with collectors in Canada and the United States.
I am a self-taught artist, and I have attended courses at Emily Carr University, with local mixed media artists and at the Gibsons School of the Arts. This is my first solo show. My work is expressive of my emotions and my state of mind at the time of creation. Some pieces are raw expressions of triggers and/or trauma responses. Finally, my intent with this show is to let you in on the secret of my healing process.
There are two pieces in the show that beg deeper explanation: Christianity was painted during a time when I was working with Indigenous communities and listening to community members talk about the deep wounds of Residential Schools. This piece reflects the fullness of my experience of organized religion.
The My Sacred Heart sculpture includes shards of glass from the break in at The Gallery George and a sacred heart patch made by trace of grey designs (t.o.g.). This piece is best understood by reading the poem near the sculpture called My Sacred Heart. The sculpture is the centrepiece of the exhibit.
