CANMORE – Banff born and raised artist Elise Findlay will be in the limelight for her first solo exhibition on home turf.
The accomplished local artist will have her exhibit, Another Life, open for viewing from March 30 to May 1 at artsPlace. An opening reception will be held April 4 at 5:30 p.m.
“This is the first solo show I’ve had in our community and I’m really excited to be like, ‘see, here’s what I’ve been doing,’” said Findlay. “It feels like a bit of a showcase for my own community, and [to] get a chance to show everybody what I’ve been up to.”
The exhibit features canvas plucked apart for its fibres to give it a new life in the shape of tools and woodworking equipment. The art represents canvas being reborn, as well as a reflection of the near decade she spent as a cabinetmaker in Canmore.
“We’re working with these very delicate soft feminine materials and then recreating kind of hard masculine woodworking objects or woodworking tools out of this material, and it kind of creates this conversation between my old life and what I’m doing now,” said Findlay.
“Also, the ways in which something that can feel really bad at the time, something like the experience of burnout can really transform your life into something completely different and something wonderful, and so that process of pulling something apart, creating something new is kind of what this body of work is all about.”
After her work of cutting, sanding and building cabinets, Findlay pursued an education at the Alberta University of the Arts, which ultimately set her on the path to becoming a full-time artist. The body of work featured at artsPlace is what she spent eight months working on at school for her graduation showpiece.
“The exhibition that’s coming up, titled Another Life, is really a reflection on my experiences, working as a cabinet maker in the Bow Valley and some of those experiences as a woman in the construction trades, but also a look at the way returning to school and pursuing the arts has really transformed my life,” said Findlay.
Her exhibit has been displayed in Edmonton at the Alberta Craft Discovery Gallery, but it has yet to be shown on Findlay’s home soil.
“So now it’s coming home and I get to display it in my own community, which I’m really excited about,” said Findlay.
On Jan. 29, Findlay was announced as the first-ever artist-in-residence for a female emerging artist at the Canadian War Museum. She plans on using the same technique of pulling threads from various materials for her work with the museum, which will be showcased at the Outside the Lines exhibition in Ottawa from May 24 to Jan. 5, 2025.
“With my new projects, too, I’m kind of always working on pulling canvas apart or pulling a different material apart…,” said Findlay.
“Watching my mother make me supper at her house, I’m pulling canvas apart driving her a bit crazy as all the little threads get all over her house.”
She has also had multiple pieces featured with The Clematis Collective in their exhibit, The Place I Am, which was the previous exhibition at artsPlace. Additionally, her piece Under the Mountain’s Shadow became part of the permanent collection at the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies.
“The Place I Am, is with The Clematis Collective which is a group of women artists and non-binary artists and really was looking at how place and environment can really help support mental health,” said Findlay.
Along with her personal work, Findlay is the chair of the Public Art Committee with the Town of Banff and runs her own crafting group.
Findlay will be returning to school next year to pursue a master’s in art through the University of Calgary.
“That’ll be the next big thing I’m working on, and that work is really going to be focused on how art and community can help build each other up,” said Findlay.
