Linda Wiebe is a visual artist,
community artist and educator who has participated in numerous exhibitions and
arts-related projects and has earned a reputation for being an active,
supportive and nurturing member of her community. Her approach as an educator
is guided by the belief that creativity belongs to everyone. Colour, texture
and the creative impulse are inherent to her work. She has developed a personal
language that conveys a sense of transformative myth using images of doorways,
arches, feminine form, found artefacts, hidden and emerging from layers within
landscape. Linda has co-created and implemented a variety of community art
projects on her own and with the community art collective, Worth Their Salt,
locally and as far away as Peru. She completed her BA Honours Art at McMaster
University, in Hamilton, Ontario in 1990 and a Bachelor of Education in 2007 at
Western University in London, Ontario. Her work hangs in many North American
private collections, including San Miguel, Mexico.
Inspired by
the theme, “All Things Bright and Beautiful, Linda shared that, ”I decided to
honour the simple things in nature seen on walks around town in Goderich,
Ontario where I live.” There is a sense of delight in discovering something new
on the same path. Created using encaustic and
mixed media, “The Birds and the Bees,” includes a robin, the harbinger of
spring, oak leaves, a reminder of fall, flowers, connecting us to the earth and
the stars, and an egg, evoking a sense of origin and creation. The
painting is divided into sections to suggest botanical drawings, photographs,
quilt pieces, or the dividing lines on a sidewalk.
Linda said, “I
also pay homage to the bees who play a role in creating my encaustic paint composed
of beeswax, dammar resin and pigment. Enkaustikos is a Greek word meaning “to
scorch or burn in.” The paint is applied in a molten state and fused with a
torch to become one with the surface of the painting. Similar to my walks
around town, there are always surprises in this process that invite new
discoveries.”
