TERESA POSYNIAK, "Consensus: The Blackfoot Portrait Series," October 3 to November 15, 2008, Bilton Contemporary Art, Red Deer

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TERESA POSYNIAK, Consensus: The Blackfoot Portrait Series

Bilton Contemporary Art, Red Deer

October 3 to November 15, 2008

By Beverley Beckley

Creating portraits in encaustic, among other methods, Calgary artist Teresa Posyniak captures the theme of resiliency as a positive force within the individual, and realizes the beauty of the human body and its relationship to its environment. Posyniak had been drawing the figures of women since the late 1980s, and the idea for Consensus came up after she met Linda Many Guns, a Blackfoot Elder from the Siksika Nation near Calgary. Their friendship led to a portrait sitting, and discussions about how Many Guns wanted to be perceived, the role of her culture in the images, and her relationship to the landscape and Blackfoot community. All of those questions created the framework for Posyniak’s larger series. “My pieces about Linda and others are initiated by me, and my subjects work with me to come up with imagery which not only describes them, but also describes their Blackfoot heritage,” Posyniak says. Many Guns has been involved in the planning for the show, and will be present for several special events around it. “We hope to speak to the public together about the ‘consensual approach’ to making this work,” Posyniak says.

Represented by: Bilton Contemporary Art, Red Deer; Masters Gallery, Calgary; Mountain Galleries, Banff and Whistler.