About Emily

Emily van Lidth de Jeude
multimedia social practice
Nexwlelexwm/Bowen Island
Canada

Web: emilyartist.ca
YouTube: emilyvanartist
Email: emilyvanartist at gmail dot com

Social practice artist, working through art and education to promote social and environmental engagement; to open communication about issues of human evolution and give authentic voice to others. Much of my work is interview-based, and many of my materials are reclaimed, having a history of use by women, children, and families.

I love words. I’m a writer and blogger and singer of traditional ballads and other songs. A storyteller. I’m also a neurodiverse synaesthete, so I experience music and emotion as a kind of moving visual poetry, often intertwined with story.

PROJECTS

Songs of the Apocalypse
A collection of very personal paintings (oil and graphite on canvas) loosely focused on personal, societal and ecological change; reminiscences of childhood traumas, abstracted as memories are, and visualized through song, colour, and movement.

w h a t . h o m e
An immersive two-channel video and fabric installation that digs into feelings of belonging, place and identity. Protagonists talk about their experiences of home, from political and racial tensions to living in a mud hut, a boat and a mansion, to homelessness, displacement, a search for belonging, and varying experiences of colonialism. what.home explores the universality of the human search for belonging and home.

(dis)robe
A growing collection of reclaimed, altered and painted white garments that explore our female culture and heritage, questioning what women choose to wear and to discard (to bear or to release), in the contexts of our societies, families, and personal life journeys.

One Solar Year
A collaboration between myself, my son Taliesin, and my partner Markus Roemer, this project is like a time capsule that looks at one specific solar year (from Winter Solstice 2021 to Winter Solstice 2022) from a social, ecological, and astronomical perspective. It lays out the events, rhythms and cycles that we live with, clockwise around the gallery space, so that visitors can experience them in new visual ways. One Solar Year brings together Markus’ graph of daily solar, lunar, tidal, daylight and temperature data with Emily and Taliesin’s ecology photos from the same time, as well as poems written by Emily that respond to concurrent ecological, seasonal, and societal events. 

change/able
Non-linear interactive canvas paintings. Each is a collection of square canvases that is interchangeable, rearrangeable, and rotatable. Each of these pieces is different for each person who sees and engages with it, inviting people to consider big ideas of art and human experience in a physically interactive way.

Girl Stories
Written mostly in 2014, this is a book of short stories that come together to create a short novel. From stark takes of growing up a girl in late twentieth century suburban Canada to vibrant narratives of motherhood, family, end-of-life and birth in an eerie setting of societal collapse, Girl Stories is an exploration of the emotional process of becoming and evolving a woman.

Woman Story
Woman Story is an installation about the stories we tell ourselves, as women. The installation is primarily mixed media nudes on reclaimed panelling, a mannequin with measuring-up tape, a video projection of the silent film “I Love Me I Love Me Not I Love Me”, and an interactive installation of women’s self-commentary. I am currently looking to show the nudes on panelling and interactive commentary in conjunction with the (dis)robe series.

I Love Me I Love Me Not I Love Me
Silent video projection of a woman (me!) going through a process of self-doubt, destruction, and renewal. A video of this installation is in the Woman Story section of the gallery on this site.

The MAMA Project
Endorsed by UN Women Canada, MAMA is a travelling art project that empowers mothers by inspiring and facilitating expression and dialogue about motherhood. It consists mainly of portraits of mothers on used bed linens, with painted quotes and recorded interviews with those mothers, accompanying. MAMA celebrates our common experience as well as the significance of our occupation in the development of humanity, and, by provoking thought and conversation about this, MAMA empowers us to mother conscientiously. The show has been installed numerous times in British Columbia and Washington State.

COMMUNITY WORK

Rickshaw Unschooling
As a dedicated unschooler and writer, I use this blog for much of my writing about alternative education and parenting. Rickshaw Unschooling is included on a few recommended reading lists for unschoolers and lifelearners. My own children are now grown, so the blog is quieter than it used to be, but remains as a resource for parents and educators.

Plastic Bag Art: In an effort to highlight our culture’s reliance on and over-use of plastic, at a time when plastic bags are being rejected across North America, I created a plastic bag kite, a plastic bag pathway, and a 16-foot-high plastic bag tree. These were installed on Bowen Island as commentary on the Municipality’s controversial use of large amounts of public funds to purchase and install a synthetic turf playing field. 4 other artists helped with the labour of these projects, but wished to remain anonymous. More recently I created a giant bull kelp out of garbage, as commentary on marine pollution and preservation.

Wild Art: Ongoing since 1997, an explorative art, science, and wilderness program for youth, as well as expressive art workshops for adults.

Wild Food: Every year I lead edible plant identification walks for locals and visitors on Bowen Island. The idea is that through learning how our lives are integrated with our ecology, we can learn to know, appreciate, and conserve our own habitat.

SELECTED RECENT MEDIA

• 2023 Article by Mathilde Rohr. Hearth Gallery One Solar Year exhibition.
• 2023 CBC Radio interview with Rohit Joseph for NxNW. GPAG  w h a t . h o m e  exhibition.
• 2023 Article by Michael Gurney, North Shore News. GPAG w h a t . h o m e  exhibition.
• 2020 Interview with Emily Carr University Alumni Association.
• 2020 Article published in Collection Magazine. Print only. issue 83, page 86.
• 2019 Article by Alexa Culottis, PhD. ArtAscent Journal Bronze Artist (December 2019 issue: Motion). Full article in print or digital magazine only. Email for pdf.
• 2019 Article about change/able Undercurrent Newspaper
• 2018 Announcement of Amsterdam exhibit w h a t . h o m e by Goleb
• 2017 radio interview on Vancouver’s Early Edition (starts at 1:20)(archived)
• 2017 interview with Schema Magazine (archived; email for screen capture)
• 2017 news interview with BCIT Magazine
• 2017 Bowen Island Undercurrent article: w h a t . h o m e
• 2014 Bowen Island Undercurrent Article: Woman Story

MEMBERSHIPS

• Spilt Milk Gallery (Edinburgh) artist profile
• National Museum of Women in the Arts
• West Vancouver Arts Council
• Bowen Island Arts Council
• Bowen Island Nature Club

WORKS PUBLISHED/EXHIBITED

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

2010 – present	Wild Art Leader	Designed the Wild Art Program. As an explorative learning facilitator, I lead and mentored adults, teens and children in wilderness exploration, explorative art-making/learning/teaching. Ended the program because of long covid-related disability and to focus on my visual art career.	Bowen Island, B.C.
2019	Island Pacific School	Planned and taught a life-drawing program for students of the Monday mentors program. Grades 6-9	Bowen Island, B.C.
2018	Island Pacific School	Planned and taught a drawing fundamentals program for students of the Monday mentors program. Grades 6-9	Bowen Island, B.C.
2017	Island Pacific School	Planned and taught a 12-week colour theory program for grade 9 students.	Bowen Island, B.C.
2015	Island Pacific School	Funded by the Art Starts Program, planned and facilitated a cultural exploration and lantern-making project for grade 9 students.	Bowen Island, B.C.
2011 – 2015	Nature Club (F)unschool	Every Friday afternoon during the school year, led local families on wilderness exploration walks, discussing ecology, wild food, human impact on local ecosystems, etc. inspiring children and adults to get to know, trust, and value their surroundings.	Bowen Island, B.C.
2011 – present	Wild Food Tours	Organize and lead various wild food identification walks.	Bowen Island, B.C.
2008 – 2016	Rickshaw Art Gatherings	Each gathering has a planned activity, which ranges from quite technical (ex: tie dyeing) to very intuitive (ex: wild clay harvesting and sculpting). Focus is on creativity and artistic exploration for all ages.	Bowen Island, B.C.
2012 & 2013	Visual Art Mentor	Mentoring in visual arts for private clients.	Bowen Island, B.C.
2012	Bookmaking Instructor	Guest Artist at Island Pacific School, for bookmaking unit.	Bowen Island, B.C.
2010	Bowen Island Arts Council	Led adult bookmaking class (6 weeks).	Bowen Island, B.C.
2009	Jones House School	Led bookmaking unit for students in grades 6 and 10.	Vancouver, B.C.
2004	Bowen Island Parks & Recreation	Led sculpture class for children aged 7-10	Bowen Island, B.C.
2003	Island Pacific School	Led student bookmaking project	Bowen Island, B.C.
2001	Burnaby Parks/Recreation	Taught a pro-D workshop for Burnaby Recreation employees focusing on self-directed explorative art for children.	Burnaby, B.C.
1997-00	Bonsor Recreation Complex	Taught a variety of adults and children”s art classes, including murals.	Burnaby, B.C.
1996	Painting Lessons	Taught students aged 10 – 14, including design and direction of students in painting outdoor mural (4x7m)	The Hague, The Netherlands
1996	Drawing Lessons	Taught students aged 10 – 13	The Hague, The Netherlands
1994	Art Lessons	Taught 5 students aged 12 – 14	Sorrento, B.C.
1993	Art Lessons	Taught general arts to a group of 6 children aged 4 – 8	Bowen Island, B.C.

MURAL/WINDOW-PAINTING CONTRACTS

2018	Private Client	Sandhill crane with chick (interior glass door painting).	Bowen Island, B.C.
2018	Private Client	Blackberry vines on three bathroom windows.	Bowen Island, B.C.
2016	Private Client	Wraparound kitchen mural – birch forest with barred owl.	Bowen Island, B.C.
2010	Private Client	White branches mural.	Bowen Island, B.C.
2010	Private Client	Children’s cozy corners with murals, (consultation with the children): One dark wizard corner with swirly gradient blue starry night, glowing stars, and blue curtains with application of glowing stars. One bright fairy tree corner with false gate leading to fairy-inhabited tree, organza curtains and child-created leaves. This is an unschooling family, and very important that the children are a part of the design process and development.	Bowen Island, B.C.
2009	Bowen Children’s’ Centre	Windswept tree mural in daycare.	Bowen Island, B.C.
2008	Bowen Children’s’ Centre	Interior decoration, playhouse design, cloud murals in washrooms, and multi-wall forest-mural in preschool classroom.	Bowen Island, B.C.
2007	Bowen Island Gas Station	Seasonal window painting: Pine Siskins on the Christmas Bird Count, in memory of Alan Shatwell.	Bowen Island, B.C.
2007	The Purple Door Gallery	Large window paintings: river rocks and water.	Bowen Island, B.C.
2007	Bowen Children’s Centre	Mural: winter tree (to be decorated by teachers).	Bowen Island, B.C.
2006	Private Client	Window painting: faux stained-glass	Sorrento, B.C.
1999	Private Client	Provincial French landscape (dining room) Faux finish (stucco look) with gilded vines (bathroom)	Vancouver, B.C.
1998	Private Client	Window paintings: maple tree and ocean scene	Vancouver, B.C.
1998	Private Client	Optical illusion: shelves containing old books and ephemera painted onto front of dresser.	Vancouver, B.C.
1998	Private Client	Faerie-landscape on all three walls of walk in closet	North Vancouver, B.C.
1995	Private Client	Giant sunflowers and sky in water-closet.	The Hague, The Netherlands
1994	Giant Steps West	false window: ocean vista	Kamloops B.C.

JUROR’S CHOICE AWARDS

1996	Cedar Trees (oil on panel) Interior Island Forest (oil on panel) Him and Me (triptich of intaglio prints) (sold)	Shuswap Festival of the Arts	Sorrento, B.C.
1995	Grootvader (graphite drawing)	Shuswap Festival of the Arts	Sorrento, B.C.
1993	Fuchsia (oil on paper)	North Shore Spring Juried Exhibition	North Vancouver, B.C.

VOLUNTEER EXPERIENCE

2009-2016	Board of directors, Bowen Nature Club, and Founder and Leader of Nature Club (F)unschool:	Set up and maintain membership as well as website, email communication, etc. Redesigned logo. Organized various events, and began (F)unschool program for families. (F)unschool is a weekly wilderness walk that acquaints adults and children of all ages with the local ecosystems, as well as our place in and the value of these ecosystems.	Bowen Island, B.C.
2000 to present	Community	Volunteer with various community events and organizations, often face-painting, organizing, planning, front-of-house/gate duties, decorating, graphic design, setting up and maintaining web-presence and email lists, etc.	Bowen Island, B.C.
2003-06	Board of directors, Bowen Island Family Place, and Founder and Leader of Mothers Place Program:	vice president, president, Mothers Place Coordinator. Conceived, developed and implemented a program to support new mothers on Bowen Island: grant-writing, newsletter production, community networking, and developing and running a weekly parent-child circle time, with developmental games and activities, as well as an ongoing weekly speaker series.	Bowen Island, B.C.
2001	Bowen Island Music Assoc.	Light Effects for Fruit/Resin concert.	Bowen Island, B.C.
2001	Vancouver Aquarium Marine Science Centre	Wrote, illustrated, & produced a children’s book for Aquarium use: How to Slurp Clams.	Vancouver, B.C.
2000	Vancouver Aquarium Marine Science Centre	Completed volunteer training program; worked mainly with Riverworks program.	Vancouver, B.C.
1998-00	Member of housing co-op	(many volunteer duties, mostly for membership committee).	Vancouver, B.C.
1994-96	Shuswap Festival of the Arts	(many duties).	Sorrento, B.C.
1994	Giant Steps West	working daily with autistic children	Kamloops, B.C.

LANGUAGES

English (first language)
Dutch (fluent: written/spoken)
French (fluent: written/spoken)
German (presently learning – not yet fluent)

EDUCATION

1998-2001	Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design	graduation BFA, 2001: printmaking, sculpture	Vancouver, B.C.
1997-1998	Douglas College	Biology, English, and First Nations Studies	New Westminster, B.C.
1994-1996	Royal Academy of Fine Arts	major: painting minor: printmaking	The Hague, Netherlands