Lisa approaches her work from a diverse set of backgrounds. She is in the final stages of completing her art therapy certification through the Toronto Art Therapy Institute. For her final project she facilitated, in February 2020, group art therapy with newcomer adolescents and young adults in response to the nine chapters of Kent Monkman’s “Shame and Prejudice: a Story of Resilience. She is a dedicated artist, accomplished at a variety of media, including oil painting, printmaking, and encaustic collage. She has a long background in social services, which spans being a youth worker and running art camps in rural Manitoba, being an art and fourth grade teacher in Madagascar, social entrepreneurship experience in Lusaka and the Zambian copperbelt region, Mennonite – Shia Muslim dialogue in Iran, and volunteering with various NGO organizations in Winnipeg.

Lisa has provided various group and individual art therapy services to adults with and without intellectual disabilities through L’Arche Hamilton and L’Arche Saskatoon, and has facilitated group art workshops with the Children’s Rehabilitation Centre and the Art to Inspire program at the Winnipeg Art Gallery where she worked closely with people living with dementia or Alzheimers and their care partners.

What inspires your creative expression?

I’ve been driven to make and create art for as long as I can remember. No matter how much time I devote to it I can simply never keep up with the things I want to make. My first true artistic discipline was oil painting. Since I became a Mom five and a half years ago I’ve spent much of my artistic energy on printmaking, especially lino cutting. Art can be part of the healing and shaking-up that this world so badly needs – I am drawn to art that makes that kind of good work explicit. Over the last 5 years, some of the artists whose work I’ve most closely followed include Christi Belcourt, Isaac Murdoch, Kent Monkman, Kit King, and Aleah Chapin. Fritz Eichenberg is also simply awesome and I wish he was still alive.

headshot photograph by Rachel Wilson

James Dixon is an Indigenous filmmaker and artist based in Winnipeg. With a BA in Film and Indigenous Studies from the University of Manitoba, James’ work revolves around his personal process of decolonization. His films have been exhibited widely in Canada, broadcasted on the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network, and collected by the Alexander Street Press. 

James is an accomplished arts educator who has worked with Freeze Frame, the Winnipeg Film Group, and Camp Aurora, providing workshops on film history, documentary filmmaking, and painting for both youths and adults.? James brings his enthusiasm and creativity to Artbeat Studio, with demonstrated experience and knowledge working within community development, media arts and management.?

What inspires your creative expression?

I’ve always been drawn to the work of Canadian artist William Kurelek, his work is realistic and symbolic, an ongoing search for artistic identity through an idiosyncratic and deeply personal manner. 

headshot photograph by Joanie Peters