Over the last couple years, my art and I have been featured in various places on the internet. Instead of extending my CV , I thought that a post with some of the links might be helpful. This is a chart of links that I compiled tonight. It is by no means complete but it gives a good sense of my emerging art career.
The “Truth” image went viral during the week leading up to Canada’s first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, Sept. 2021. Across Canada, the image was featured with an orange background. In this post, Po expands upon the image and how it’s popularity took off during that week, click here. The truth image was one of 10 Indigenous Themed icons that Po was commissioned to illustrate Indigenous “Ways of Knowing” for the Queen’s University Office of Indigenous Initiatives website in 2020.
Since then, the icons from the collection decorate and honour a multitude of Queen’s University documents and events. When Po created the icons, the brief was to create something similar to the University of Saskatchewan images. The brief that she was given went a step further, “but one-of-a-kind.” The commissioning committee wanted Po to create illustrations that distinguished Queen’s University from all other Universities. So, in short, the brief was like having one’s cake and being able to eat it too. To paraphrase the brief, one could say: “illustrate icons like U of S, but make them nothing like U of S.”
When Po offered her idea of creating circular icons, like buttons, that could be easily used across the University platforms, it was a NEW concept. Contemporary graphic circular Indigenous Illustrations were, in general, not being used by other Universities, so there was really no comparison at the time. It can be argued that if one sees circular, graphic icons like the ones the Queen’s University has, it was because Po and the OII created them first.
The icons also featured Po’s circular composition and artistic style that is inspired by wild grapevine silhouettes cast by the bright noonday sun.
It was quite the day, September 30, 2021, for Po who was inundated with a multitude of requests to use the “Truth” image because the public, somehow, began to view it as the new Orange Shirt Day for the “Every Child Matters” campaign. With each call, Po referred the people to the Queen’s OII because they commissioned the image.
Now that 3 National Days for Truth and Reconciliation have passed (Queen’s Gazette ), it seems that the public have adopted the image as another representation of Truth and Reconciliation during Orange Shirt Day. Here are some links to examples of where the image has been shared and/or published:
Women’s Shelter
Girl Guides of Canada
York School Board
Pickering College
Municipality of Dundurn
Newmarket Mayor’s Office
Fringe Toronto
Queens Arc
Queens Law
Po’s contemporary art style and circular imagery has been growing more popular since Queen’s University published the images on the OII website. This past September 2023 the Broadview Press Indigenous Philosophies of Turtle Island Anthology: Ways of Being in the World featured her artwork. The editor from Oklahoma , Andrea Sullivan-Clarke and University of Windsor professor contacted Po because of the Queen’s Page. Also a Salish construction and land development company (the branding has not yet been made public, so the images have net yet been publicly released for public viewing) commissioned Po to do their new logo and branding imagery based upon the “Elder in Residence” image from the Queen’s Faculty of Education Indigenous Initiatives.
We all have our own method and strategy to create our art pieces. For me, I start with 2 things:
1/ An idea notebook that I enter flashes of visions, ideas, concepts, and sketches of possible cool things to do in the future. I also include inspiration quotes and sometimes reflections about my experiences. I keep sheets of paper on my bedside table to record dreams too. When one idea doesn’t float at one point, it may in the future.
The following image was eventually painted in 2022 as a mural for Queen’s University’s Kingston Hall Reflection Room but I first created it in 2018 for my 3rd year BFAH class and it was rejected by the professor because the prof said that, “It looks like something you’d paint in your garage.” The thing is, it was the beginnings of my current art style and landed me several commissions when I finally finished it outside the course.
“My Creation” mural took 4 years before it was commissioned and mounted. It began with a simple sketch and grew for years. The mural was created because the ASUS executive adored the original digital image and had been awaiting the chance to have it painted. This is often how commissions work. The organic growth and development of art concepts can take many turns until it reaches its destination. I still find the journey amazing.
2/ The second thing I do for art creation is take photos or have photos of me in the environment. I like to catch a moment – the nuances of life that happen in a moment in time. The following digital image is a current idea that I am working on as I consider the painting medium and final expression. The piece is entitled, “My Drum and Me.”
Again as one can see, a beautiful moment in time captured by a photo and/or inspiration notes and drawings can lead to some really beautiful art pieces in the future. If anything, their journey materializes as life takes its own twists and turns. An art concept never gets old, it simply waits for its time to shine, but as it waits, the inspiration weaves itself through one’s career and the creation of other pieces. Art is not created in a vacuum – it lives and breathes through us as artists and art enthusiasts. Art is alive, even as it awaits its birth.
It is difficult to believe, but it is true. I had lost track. How funny is that!? As they say: “It never feels like work when you love what you do.” I guess, when not sleeping, I am creating. With that said, I often wake up suddenly with an art project idea and quickly sketch it down on a pad of paper that I keep on my bedside table. So, maybe I am working, even in my dreams.
Also, since my 25th birthday in April 2022, I have had a lot of life altering things happen. My family and I moved our home from Belleville to Kingston, and I received a couple new teaching positions. As both a treat and necessity, I even bought my first vehicle. Although the move had its challenging moments, it provided me with space for a small gallery, a bright meeting space and mural painting room, plus a rough space for wood working and drum building. I like to make most of my own hardwood stretchers and like to stretch my own canvas. This winter, I will be able to use a wood steamer that I built in the summer. I can’t wait to bend my drum frames and circular painting stretchers. As you can imagine, life as an artist is never boring.
As an emerging artist it is really exciting as my art is growing in popularity. While preparing competition documents for a current mural commission, I put together a snapshot of my most recent art and art-related projects. As strange as it may sound, I surprised myself. I knew that I had been busy, but when I compiled it in a list, I was like: “Wow, I guess I have done a lot.” The following is the rough list that I compiled. You can read more about these projects in my CV.
– 7 digital web icons – Queen’s University
– 1 painted drum – Queen’s
– 2 painted drums – Private Commission
– 2 exterior murals – Base31
– 1 interior mural – Base31
– 5 Sensory Garden signs – Base31
– 2 digital border templates – Base31
– 1 interior mural – Queen’s
– 1 book cover digital to print image – Broadview Press
– 5 title page digital to print images – Broadview Press
– 1 logo digital to web and print – Kingston School of Art
– 1 logo digital to web and print – WEYTK Communities Inc. (B.C.)
– 1 painting – QAC/Parrott Art Gallery
– 1 art print stone lithograph – PEC South Shore Joint Initiative (created 2018)
– 1 painting – PEC SSJI
– “Must We Wear Heals” sculpture / cast (created 2017) – Parrott Art Gallery
– “Emergence: Future Unknown” painting – QAC / Parrott Art Gallery
– “Drumming Sounds of Colour” 15 piece solo painted drum exhibit – Parrott Art Gallery
– 5 Sensory Garden signs – Base31
– 3 large painted drums – WEYTK
– Mural reveal presentation – Base31
– Drum exhibit art talk – Parrott Art Gallery
– Concurrent Education seminar leader – Queen’s
– Artist in Community presentation and workshop leader – Queen’s
– Nursing medical textbook cover
– Drum creation for spring show & sale
– Ongoing paintings
– Elementary online Itinerant Art Teacher – ALCDSB
– Grades 9 & 10 Visual Art PECI
– Grades 9 – 12 Visual Art – Regi & HC, ALCDSB
– 5 monthly Creation Stations – Agnes Etherington Art Centre
– 1 March Break Art & Sports Camp – Agnes
– 1 Summer Art & Sports Camp – Agnes
– 1 digital online video children’s story book – Youtube
– Teaching Gr 12 Media Art – University of Windsor
– Teaching International Baccalaureate Visual Art – University of Windsor
– Kingston in Focus
– QAC Umbrella (this winter 2024)
– QAC Member Spotlight
– County Arts Member Spotlight
Tett Centre for Creativity and Learning, Kingston – Training November 2023
My new studio is a place for me to create, have zoom meetings with clients and present my artworks. I do not have a walk-in store location at this time. Thank you for you understanding.
It dawned on me that I have not posted any photos of my new Kingston Art Studio. Although I do miss being down on Bagot Street (I adore downtown Kingston), the suburbs in the north end provide me with more creation space, easy access to building supply stores, Michaels, and the my much needed inspiration trips into the countryside north of HWY 401. The following photos are of my space where I create:
“Drumming Sounds of Colour” exhibition is being displayed by the Parrott Art Gallery in Belleville Ontario. The collection features 15 hand drums that Po made and hand painted. It is the first drum exhibit of its kind.
In a recent press release ( Intelligencer local paper ) it is written: “…an exhibition by local artist and drum maker Portia “Po” Chapman, called “Drumming Sounds of Colour” located in our corridor cabinets. This painted hand drum exhibit and sale, displays fifteen drums. Most of the drums feature elk raw hide stretched over white cedar forms and are painted in colourful acrylics with designs inspired by nature…”
Although it is true that the imagery is “inspired by nature,” it is truly inspired by Po’s experiences growing up with Nature. The 15 piece collection is inspired by Po’s personal relationship with Creation as she grew up in the woods west of Tweed, Ontario. Accompanying the drums are 6 poetic verses that Po and her family wrote together. They tell Po’s story – the story depicted in both the painted images and the size progression of the drums. As such, the exhibit delves into the life and mind of a girl, reclaiming her Indigenous heritage, growing into womanhood as she is guided by Creation. It is a story of the preservation of innocence as revealed in Nature.
The simplistic images, in Po’s characteristic style, are of creatures in relationship with each other and the human experience of that relationship. In this case, creatures seen and unseen. The exhibition also includes 3 drums focusing on virtues: “Love” features a mother and child beneath the watchful , loving protection of a Bald Eagle; “Knowledge” features two people sharing stories around a sacred fire beneath the wing of a Ravine knowledge keeper; “Truth” features two people standing on Turtle Island as Creator lifts the turtle above the turbulent sea.
The poetry features a telling of the drumming pulse of Creation and how it awakens us when we notice it throbbing through our individual and collective pulse. Here is an example:
The drum exhibit is an amazing feat, as it is the first of its kind, at least locally. As a mixed media visual story teller, Po created the exhibit with two things in mind, to share the beauty of her Creation experience and to inspire viewers to tell their stories and share what they see. The exhibit is an amazing experience to take time and to take in.
The exhibition runs until December 1, 2023. If you would like one of the drums for your personal collection, some of them are available for purchase. You can contact gallery staff and they will assist you.
Portia “Po” Chapman Becomes Agnes Etherington Art Centre Art Educator
In September 2022, I was thrilled to receive an email from the Program Coordinator, Charlotte Gagnier, at the Agnes Etherington Art Centre (commonly called Agnes), inquiring if I would be interested in leading a couple of the gallery’s Creation Stations. Creation Stations at Agnes, are free family (with children ages 2+) arts days that occur once a month. Being a very family oriented artist, who views parents/guardians fostering and encouraging arts experimentation among their children from a young age, this was an opportunity that I was excited to be a part of. At first I was signed on for 3 Creation Station sessions in October, November, and December of 2022, and have now been signed on as Art Educator for more at Agnes. I just completed leading the art segment of Agnes’ Art and Sports March Break camp (in partnership with Queen’s ARC) and the March 2023 Creation Station, and I am signed on to lead the April 2023 Creation Station as well. I could not be more thrilled about working with Agnes!
Funny thing is, a full circle scenario has taken place to get to this point! In my final year of the Concurrent Bachelor of Education program at Queen’s University, I was scheduled to complete a 3-week long practicum placement in the programming department at Agnes during March 2020. I was super excited for this opportunity and was in the placement for 1 day, until… just think about the timing for a second… the next day the Covid-19 pandemic was officially declared, and I was not able to return to the placement.
During this placement, I was going to help run the March Break camp, but of course this did not happen. I thought for about 3 years that I lost this opportunity and my time at Agnes was not going to come. Fast forward to March 2023, and I have now lead the 2023 March Break Camp! It was always meant to be, but just not at that time. I live my life putting full trust into the Creator, never looking back, and THIS is what happens.
Keep reading below to learn more about my Art Educator experience at the Agnes Etherington Art Centre, in Kingston, Ontario.
For Each Creation Station I have lead thus far, I have designed activities that use various art making skills that are attainable by 2 year olds up to adults, depending on how far the participant is able to or willing to take the possibilities. For each session, I prepare 3 different activities often involving making objects out of recycled cardboard, decoupage/collage, painting, printing, paper folding/quilling and other hands on crafty projects. Some activities have included using recycled cardboard to make small treasure boxes and decorative homes, collage scenery pictures, block printing using foam, and paper folded snowflakes to name a few of the activities and are often based on a theme such as the season during which the Creation Station takes place.
The March 2023 Creation Station took place on March 19, and was inspired by Springtime. Participants enjoyed making flower wreaths by cutting out and folding paper to make leaves and flowers, paper quilled trees, and spring themed still life paintings (based on a still life scene I set up).
For the 2023 Art segment of the Agnes March Break camp, I designed a week long project; Mixed Media Diorama making. The goal for this project, was that each camper would explore a wide variety of mediums and techniques throughout the piece by making small elements each day using a different medium or technique that come together at the end of the week to make a completed and cohesive diorama.
Throughout the week, campers learned new art terminology, used the creative process by creating a detailed plan with theme before beginning “the making” of their artwork, and explored diorama construction, watercolour techniques, paper mâché, paper quilling, clay sculpting, block printing, acrylic painting, scratchboard creation, and a 3D tissue paper craft. Campers enjoyed using a variety of mediums and techniques and leaving at the end of the week with completed dioramas.
On the last day of camp, most campers proudly stood in front of the group to present their completed dioramas, each with their own storyline and theme.
This was such a fun, memorable, and enjoyable program to lead!
The above images compiled some of my research prior to designing the mural. I like to immerse myself in the space, story or activity that I am painting. These photographs were take in early May 2022 during the Prince Edward County Birding Festival along Long Point Rd. You can see how my visit influenced the subject matter that I chose to include. The photograph immediately below was taken at the Lookout. As soon as I stepped out of the car, the green in the lake was awe inspiring. I knew at that time, I would paint the lake and sky in the background. Prince Edward Point is so beautiful, one cannot help but paint and/or photograph the landscape and waterscape.
As you can see, the above photograph inspired the composition of the mural. The image below is my initial pen and ink drawing on paper. There were many lilac bushes along Traverse Ln too. However, they had not yet bloomed as depicted in the drawing below.
The image, immediately below, is the digitally coloured rendering of the above pen and ink drawing. Since the mural proposals were rigorously assessed by a jury of artists, the proposal image was to depict the final mural as closely as possible. You can see that the actual mural mounted at Base 31 in the Aviators Garden is very similar to the proposed image. When commissioned to create a piece of art, I try to produce what the client had first desired to have in the beginning. In this case, supply chain issues made paint colour duplication a very challenging hurdle over which to leap, but I came close.
The series of images below were taken in my Bay of Quinte studio.
Before drawing the image onto the MDO plywood, I primed the board 2 times – front, back and sides – sanding between coats on the front and edges. Then I caulked the edges and levelled them off smooth with a trowel. Again, once dry, I sanded and then sealed. The face of the board, in the first image, is slightly green because I had the bright white primer tinted. This made the process of drawing and painting a much more peaceful and enjoyable experience. Because my style features smooth, flat colour blocking and draping deep lines elegantly pulled by a variety of brushes, the mural ended up having about 5 coats (7 including the primer coats) of exterior translucent paint using a clear base. You can notice how the first coat appears to be streaky but the objective for the first coat is to capture the flow of the desired image while assuring minimal brush stroke ripples. The thinner the first coat, the better. For exterior murals such as this one, I prefer painting multiple thin coats to assure durability.
I find such joy standing beside my artwork after it has been installed on the desired site. This photo was taken at Base 31 in Picton, Ontario, during the Aviator Garden murals’ unveiling event.
For art commission inquiries, please visit my About/Contact page. I would be thrilled to create a piece for you.
To read about my experience at the mural’s unveiling ceremony at Base 31 click on this link: Portia Po Chapman Mural “Warbler Watching” – Photos of Unveiling Ceremony in Aviator’s Garden at Base 31 PEC, Picton, Ontario, July 9, 2022
I was overflowing with excitement during the unveiling of my newest mural commission at the Base 31 PEC Community Open House in Picton, Ontario, on Saturday, July 9, 2022. My mural entitled “Warbler Watching” was part of a collection of 6 murals commissioned to hang upon the exterior of the former Officer’s Quarters of the WWII flight training site. An additional mural was mounted on another building as well. The collection of murals entitled, “Nature’s Aviators” celebrates the flying wildlife who call Picton, Ontario home. In my piece, I am sure you can guess which natural aviators I chose to celebrate…you got it right, WARBLERS!
The day was such a wonderful experience for me. I was grateful to be a part of the festivities and the Community Open House for this newly branded historical location. From the moment I stepped on the grounds to the end of the day, I was on the go. The festival atmosphere included musical entertainment, street artists, food and beverage booths, tours and of course, the unveiling.
When I first arrived to Base 31, I had an interview with Base 31’s videographer, Ophelia Spinosa, lined up in the Aviator’s Garden in which the wall of commissioned murals was located. I was overjoyed to share the inspiration and process of creating “Warbler Watching” with Spinosa, a high school friend of mine who I hadn’t seen since my Grade 12 Graduation from Nicholson Catholic College in Belleville, Ontario! Funny how the Creator works, isn’t it?! My interview appropriately took place with my mural situated behind me. After the unveiling ceremony, Spinosa interviewed all of the additional artists who were in attendance.
Just before the ceremony, I was delightfully introduced to some of the other mural artists and we all sat together at what I like to call, “The Artists’ Table.” It was really cool being the youngest artist to attend the unveiling ceremony. Sitting at that table was like finally having moved from the kids’ table to sitting with the adults for Christmas Dinner! OH, BTW, I invite you to watch my performance art video “Turkey.” It features the day in the life of a Roasted Christmas Turkey at my grandmother’s table (music and video by me and fam).
After the unveiling ceremony, during which the Base 31 Manager of Public Art and Placemaking and curator of the mural project, Christophe Doussot, and the Chief Placemaking Officer, Assaf Weisz shared their words about the project, I proudly posed with the other artists.
One of the best parts of the day for me, however, was having the opportunity to talk about my artwork with the many viewers and hear about what they see in or feel from the mural. Thank goodness I had my bright pink, classic Po, business cards ready to give out!
It was also special to talk to one of the head gardeners of the Aviator’s Garden, where the murals are located, who planned the placement of the beautiful indigenous plants that were recently planted in the premises. Many of those plants I had included in my mural such as cedar and lilacs.
It was an absolutely wonderful day and I hope that you too have the chance to see our murals and visit Base 31, Picton, Prince Edward County, Ontario.
Portia Po Chapman Reveals New Hand Drum Materials – Thanks Bill Worb Furs!
For my new collection of hand painted hand drums, I have been called to use sacred white cedar tree wood and elk rawhide. My supplier for these materials is Bill Worb Furs from Winnipeg, Manitoba. I hope this gives an idea of the size of the drums and the raw materials being used. The drum frames are 14″ in diameter.
I will post more information soon.
Belleville, Ontario, Canada
portia@loveartbypo.ca
613-779-7975
Love Art by Po 
