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XListen, Art is Freedom
Two Indian girls on a rock.
Artist’s Statement — 2026‑06‑18
My work has always lived at the intersection of faith, democracy, and nature, but in recent years another presence has entered the canvas: the Windigo. Not as a monster, not as a threat, but as a spirit of warning. A teacher. A mirror.
On the morning of June 18, 2026, I kissed the newest addition of the Windigo on my painting Troublemaker, The Coming Storm and welcomed the spirit into my home. This gesture was not ritual or superstition. It was acknowledgment. The Windigo appears when the world is out of balance, and my work has long been a response to imbalance — in politics, in the environment, and in the human heart. This painting carries years of layered meaning. The homeless man sleeping under the trees, wrapped in a multi‑coloured coat like Joseph of the Bible, first entered the work between 2017 and 2019. An Alberta sheriff supervisor, named Peter saw a broken eagle head, rather than a homeless man lying on the ground. That moment of mis-seeing by me became part of the painting’s mythology, and I later added the totem pole to honour the symbol of vision and protection. The white circles and storm clouds were added weeks before COVID‑19 struck the world. I did not understand their meaning until long after the pandemic began. My brush often knows before I do. Artists feel the weather of the world before it breaks. Last week, during a rain storm on the back lawns of the Alberta Legislature, facing the Pillar of Strength, I added the newest paint. Rain and wind shaped the strokes as I filmed the moment in memory of the OPP officer who died in the line of duty in Ontario. Storms carry grief as much as they carry warnings. This painting has grown alongside my encounters in the public sphere — the people I meet, the tensions I witness, the moments of conflict and compassion that unfold in Edmonton’s shared spaces. My art is not created in isolation. It is shaped by the indigenous man who spat in my face on the number 8 bus, in Old Strathcona last Saturday, the city officials who tried to stop me from filming, the peace officers who told me City Hall was “private property,” and the retired sheriff supervisor, Peter, to whom I gifted On Guard for Thee, the second‑last painting from my 2016 Fire and Rain project. My work is part truth, part fiction, and entirely reflection. Every social art project I’ve created since 2013 has ended the same way — with me looking into the mirror. The Windigo is part of that mirror now. A reminder that imbalance is not only out there in the world, but also within us.
Troublemaker, The Coming Storm is not a prophecy. It is a record of warnings, encounters, storms, and symbols that have followed me for years. It is political commentary, artistic reflection, and spiritual narrative woven into one. This is the story the painting carries. This is the story I carry with it. The Painter. AI Edited.
