Natasha Ashleigh Walter-Pinay

Painting

My art is a dialogue with the faceless, the disembodied parts of ourselves. As an Indigenous-Canadian artist, I aim to produce work through a decolonial lens by deconstructing what it means to belong to a cultural identity and highlighting the struggles and complexities of living between ethnic origin and colonial/social influences. I feel that it is important to address topics surrounding the discourses of the revitalization of Indigenous cultural identity, the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) movement, and the journey toward reconciliation. I create works primarily through painting and jewelry; in painting I convey the displacement of one’s self through disembodiment, obscurement, or erasure within a figure, using bold high contrasting colours and materiality, in addition to fluid application of oil paint— Where as in jewelry making, I find an opportunity to learn and reconnect to Indigenous Cree teachings, practices, and traditions.