Metis artist launches her first solo exhibit

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"We are resilient as a weed and beautiful as a wildflower. We have much to celebrate and be proud of." With these words, Metis artist Christi Belcourt introduces her first solo exhibit in a public art gallery.

Walking into the Lessons from the Earth exhibition at Thunder Bay Art Gallery, one is greeted by large pieces that look for all the world like fine beadwork. Instead, they are acrylic paintings with floral themes.

Curator Tracy Henriksson explained, "In the past, the Metis developed distinctive floral patterns prompting other First Nations to call them Flower Beadwork People. Through the bead, Belcourt is connected to her Metis heritage and its artistic traditions."

By dipping the end of a paintbrush or a knitting needle into paint to create small raised dots, Belcourt creates a striking likeness of the beadwork traditionally noted on pouches, clothing, or other items used by Metis.

Interestingly, the artist invites people to touch her work. She said, "I believe that such an act will allow viewers to 'touch the past' and by doing so to draw into question events in Canada's history and how they relate to our existence today."

Belcourt makes her home in the LaCloche mountain range near Manitoulin Island in Ontario. Her ancestry is from the Metis community in Lac St. Anne, Alta. and from Bedford, N.S. She is a self-taught artist who has been painting since age 15. It was after hearing Daphne Odjig speak in 1997 that Belcourt took the leap from part-time painting to full time. Receiving the Metis Nation of Ontario's Cultural Economic Development Grant in 1998 helped her to become a professional artist.

Elements of the Woodland school of art are noted in her work, but Belcourt makes the style and content her own. Some work symbolizes nineteenth century Metis beadwork on black velvet. Other pieces, such as the Resilience of the Flower Beadwork People created in 1999, is on a soft yellow background overlaid with purple, orange and blue flowers.

"The plants within my paintings have become metaphors to parallel our lives," she said. "The roots show that all life needs nurturing from the earth to survive. Also, there is more to life than what is seen on the surface ... There are lines that connect the plants to symbolize our interconnectedness with each other and all living things within creation. The flowers and leaves reach upwards as we seek out our individual spirituality and look to our uncertain future."

Belcourt's ability tell the story behind her work adds greatly to the enjoyment of the exhibition. She said Medicines to Help Us is "a painting of the Metis Nation. Each plant depicted is a type of wild plant that can be found in one or all provinces from Ontario to British Columbia. Some of the plants are indigenous to North America and some are introduced species from Europe that also have been used by Indigenous peoples for medicines. The medicines and plants in this painting are my prayers for the Metis Nation to encourage healing."

In her Resilience of the Flower Beadwork People piece, Belcourt depicts the survival of the Metis, despite an often hostile environment.

"We have survived through incredible odds. We were a new nation being born, as Canada was being formed. We very easily could have been absorbed into the mainstream society. The pressures were there from all sides encouraging this to happen. No matter. We are here."

Though she's relatively new on the art scene, people seeing the work of Belcourt will be looking to see a lot more from this imaginative and articulate artist.