EXHIBITION
Diversity
Art District Gallery
Cayley, Ferrie, and Watson Galleries
Reception: July 10 | 5-8pm
July 10 – September 7, 2025
DIVERSITY is a condition of being different with a variety of points of view. It is the utmost importance to recognize people’s differences and embrace new perspectives and ideas. The Art District Gallery artists reflect this within this group art exhibition.
DIVERSITY best describes this exhibition by eleven artists who display an exciting exhibit by melding different artworks from encaustic, painting, mixed media, and digital format to metal creations and wood sculptures on plinths.
Each artist is individual in their approach and technical skills that express their creativity and points of view. Art Cards displayed by artworks gives an opportunity to be inspired and learn about the artists inspiration, tools and process.
Alison Lucy, Cathy Amos, Daniel Anstett (the Dead Ant), Deb Flynn, Dominique Cinq-Mars Delay, Faith Hieblinger, Harry Kooy, Nancy Peng, Roslyn Ramsay, Tracy Blackwood, Guest artist: James Nye
Alison Lucy
My nest series uses reclaimed copper and brass wire along with found objects and applied traditional jewellery techniques such as roller printing, forging and soldering to create handheld sculptures. To me, the nest represents the nurturing and safety that we should all have the opportunity to grow from.
As my life and skills are constantly evolving, I have further adapted this concept to the construction of small 3D dwellings using hand sawn silver plated trays and manipulated objects. These tiny homes are encased in glass boxes to illustrate barriers to achieving the goal of safety and security as we strive to have a place to call home.
Cathy Amos
Cathy Amos is a visual artist painting in acrylics. She follows her intuition and creates mostly representational work in rich and vibrant colours. Drawing on her past quilting experience, she includes patterns and shapes making her work exciting and joyful. Still life and landscapes are favourite subjects which can be inspired by lots of colour or a minimalist palette.
Cathy’s artwork in this exhibition showcases her love of colour and patterns. She has incorporated many familiar items found in her surroundings at home and included pottery from local potters. She also chose some of her favourite fabric pieces which are used as backgrounds or foregrounds. Flowers are always part of the collected pieces and often a starting point for the painting.
Daniel Anstett (the Dead Ant)
As The Dead Ant, my art delves into mental health, identity, and the queer experience, expressed through the intricate processes of collage and mixed media. I dissect found images and paper, meticulously reassembling these fragments. This act mirrors the shared journey of confronting brokenness and rebuilding a personal wholeness—transforming diverse elements into something resilient and new.
This collection for the “Diversity” show embodies an ongoing spirit of exploration. While some pieces here explore material possibilities with paper and resin, much of my work navigates internal landscapes. Initially a form of personal escape, my art has evolved into a vital means of communication and engagement. These layered compositions invite close observation, ultimately aiming to celebrate the strength of the human spirit and the diverse beauty inherent in our reconstructed selves.
Deb Flynn
Sketching the homeless as an urban sketch/reportage project in 2023, carried my art in a different direction. of all the mediums I create in, digital illustration is my favourite. The “Living Rough” project taught me more about the homeless and I began depicting their lives in a digital realistic style, similar to the style of my watercolour painting developed in the earlier days of my art career.
Recently I’ve adopted a different digital approach, one that is cleaner with a defined style and a warmer, more serene palette. My intention was to show how the homeless, despite their surrounding chaos, work together to create a sense of family/community in their encampments. My art is meant to showcase this dismal culture, surviving amongst diverse city locales. It shows that I care and that I hope for a more promising future for those “living rough”.
Human interactions in public places have become my new project. Individuals interacting with each other, and with strangers are providing me with a whole new realm of diverse subject matter. Street musicians, buskers, the living rough, and those in the public market places, provide incredible subjects for illustration. I’m learning how home schooled children interact with customers in local markets as they learn new social skills. And how the homeless gather at the local library during inclement weather and genuinely take care of each other.
Learn more about the stories behind my art at debflynnart.ca.
Dominique Cinq-Mars Delay
I am a mixed media artist inspired by the vast openness of the Great Lakes, seas, and oceans. On birch panels, I create warm, minimalist renditions of waves, the delicate lace patterns left by the tide on the sand, or simply the feeling of calmness. Using organic and recycled materials, my work shifts between two-dimensional and tactile, inviting both visual and sensory engagement.
I have spent countless hours combing the shores of Lake Huron and Lake Superior, searching for birds hidden within pieces of driftwood. Much like a child finding shapes in the clouds, I look down at the sand, discovering the essence of birds in weathered wood. One by one, these lifeless fragments are reborn as sculptures. I seek to uncover the story of each bird—where it came from before washing ashore—giving new life to what was once adrift.
Faith Hieblinger
Using complementary colour and sweeping lines helps to create a sense of vibrant scenes. The chaos and stillness found in every moment of living life is both exhilarating and calming. I am fascinated and hold great wonder and respect for life around me. Working in a combination of oil, natural beeswax and tree resins adds a transparency that is both honest and intimate when telling this visual story. It is estimated that there are up to 1 trillion species that have ever lived on Earth and that 99 percent are extinct. Understanding that life outside of ourselves is not separate from ourselves, and that we are part of these enormous numbers of diversity, is overwhelming and can leave one feeling lost. A poem by David Wagoner helps to form my visual pieces.
Stand still. The trees ahead and bushes beside you
Are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here,
And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,
Must ask permission to know it and be known.
The forest breathes. Listen. It answers,
I have made this place around you.
If you leave it, you may come back again, saying Here.
No two trees are the same to Raven.
No two branches are the same to Wren.
If what a tree or bush does is lost on you,
You are surely lost. Stand still. The forest knows
Where you are. You must let if find you.
–David Wagoner
Harry Kooy
My art started with a simple twist of wire in the summer of 2011. When I work with wire my hands generate ideas on their own. If I’m lucky my head catches up and I can finish the piece. I hope that as long as my hands can work I will never run out of creative energy. I make unique, thoughtful and sometimes fun art pieces using wire, stone, wood, and copper. My work grows out of inspiration from nature, mechanical movement, and fantasy. Like a growing plant my projects weave in many unpredictable directions. I hope to make what people will enjoy and I am eager to share my work.
James Nye
“Creation born from destruction” was the guiding principle in which the
artist’s older, experimental or unfinished paintings were sliced into pieces.
These cut strips were reassembled to create colourful, abstract compositions. Painted shapes further animated the surface, and intriguing landscapes emerged.
Nye’s paintings are rooted in the realist, descriptive tradition of oil painting. The act of seeing is not always easy. To him, the beauty is in looking and not necessarily what you are looking at. In his paintings, there is an abundance of information at hand. Imagery overlaps. Systems collide. Colour, line and form blanket the landscape. Nye’s compositions are like a playground for the eyes and decoding their message requires a certain kind of visual agility.
For inquiries about purchasing, flexible financing or custom work, please contact James.
226.220.2591 | jamesnye.com | eimajeyn@gmail.com
Nancy Peng
Nancy Peng’s artwork is influenced by her studies in traditional Japanese arts including shodo calligraphy, sumi ink painting , tenkoku stone carving and the use of Japanese washi paper. She blends various techniques and integrates both Western and Japanese aesthetics in her work.
Nancy is a “Sansei” – third generation Canadian of Japanese ancestry. She negotiates and repatriates her cultural heritage in a third space, both as a foreigner in Japan and a visible minority in Canada. Through her art, Nancy is reclaiming her pride in her heritage and is transforming perspectives about Japanese Canadians.
In 2024, Nancy joined the Tomoshibi tour organized by the Nikkei National Museum. The tour provided insight into the incarceration of more than 22,000 Japanese Canadians who were uprooted from their homes on the west coast of British Columbia in 1942. Stories shared during the tour and visits to internment sites have helped piece together a history kept silent for so long.
In 2022 the Government of British Columbia delivered a formal apology to the Japanese Canadians for the past injustices. In 2025/26 the Province’s high school curriculum will include the internment of the Japanese Canadians.
For this exhibit, Nancy includes her reflections on the history of the Japanese Canadians and the impact that the internment camps in British Columbia had on her Canadian born parents
Roslyn Ramsay
Water’s reflected light and infinite imagery captivates my imagination and encourages an innovative freedom of discovery. I focus on light, motion and the energy of water, inspired by the spontaneous images and the emerging abstract shapes beneath, to create a visual experience of colour, texture and emotion. The intangible energy of movement and light play a vital role in my creative process.
Living on northern lakes has deepened my connection to nature, shaping my exploration of water through seasonal and climatic changes. My paintings reflect this connection to nature with a conscious awareness of our coexisting relationship to a changing environment.
My experiences captured through photography act as a starting point and I develop these concepts in my studio in acrylic on stretched canvas. My approach is intuitive in brushwork, palette knives or other mark making tools to capture the emotional and spiritual essence of the moment.
The concept of Quantum Entanglement, the idea that everything is connected, influences my creative interpretation of unseen possibilities. I strive to retain the transitional energy of water in my paintings, mindful of the shifting perceptions of reality and our interconnections to nature.
Roslyn Ramsay | https://www.roslynramsay.com | ramsay.verity@gmail.com
Sheila Trinkhaus
Sheila’s life as a professional artist started very early with pencil drawings, watercolours and quickly progressed to oil and acrylic paintings.
Throughout her life as professional artist Sheila has had the opportunity to be both educated, work and experiment in a wide variety of artistic endeavours.
Her very original works come from her life experiences that resurface in her art.
Being a multimedia artist allows her to create in different motifs and materials, with acrylic painting being the most preferred.
Sheila’s current body of work is stylized and created in a clean graphic style.
“Creating original art fuels my soul and hopefully in return brings joy and feeds others souls.”
Tracy Blackwood
As an artist, the practice of visual storytelling draws me in. Every piece of art I make ties me to my heritage, culture, and home province of Newfoundland and Labrador. My great-grandfather and grandfather were both ship captains, so there is a clear family connection to the marine nautical flags. The narrative of mariners and their necessity for communication amongst ships and between ships and shore is reflected in the nautical flags. To tell the story of life at sea, the connections in my artwork are meant to depict flags positioned in various settings, frequently affixed to fishing sheds or soaring on ship ropes. Every culture and society has important indicators that facilitate communication and make it easier to navigate that society because they are easily recognizable. This was, in fact, the historical purpose of the nautical flags. I consult the International Flags and Pennants (Marine Flags) alphabetical and numerical values and their meanings (whether simply a letter in the alphabet or number) as I develop concept sketches and/or studies in preparation for my final artworks. Incorporating these components into artwork allows me to create a visual narrative that appeals to modern audiences while also honouring the rich history of seafaring.