Once Upon a Time there was an Artist Named Garry Sanipass…

Garry Sanipass

Artist statement 2023

Well first I guess I do what I do, because I always wanted to be an artist.  I have a deeper need to communicate. I see images in my head and I want to explore the images and present them to a wider audience.  

I like the idea of creating my own paints and tools, as much as possible. I’m not making my own brushes yet but I do make my own pigments and paints.  As much as possible anyways. For instance.  I’ll make the pigments and mix it with refined linseed oil, but I don’t make my own linseed oil just yet.  If there is such a thing as a collective unconscious, I feel that I am tapping into ancient creators from the past by making my own supplies. I like the idea of performance art because I use my own body.  

The other part about creating the materials, is creating the content.  I feel like I am having a conversation with some other part of myself.  A part of myself that speaks in symbols and images rather than words.  It also speaks in dreams and intuitions.  I use active imagination to refine images that pop into my head.  Active imagination via Carl Jung’s technique.  In carl Jung’s redbook, he was very honest about himself and through his own therapy, and I am trying to be as honest as I can at the same time I am discovering more and more about myself.  It’s all there in the paintings.  Or in the performances.  

Mediums and materials.

In Painting I either use egg tempera or home-made oil paints.  As much as I can.  So, in egg tempera I use the yoke of the eggs mixed with pigments from stones or plants.  If I cannot get the colours I need I will use artificial pigments.  But I still mix them with the yolk.  

In oil paints I will do the same thing as egg tempera, but simply replace the yolk with linseed oil and varnish.   A 2 to 1 ratio. 

For performance art.  

• I use my body, a location in nature, rocks, clothes from frenchies, I made my own mask from plaster of Paris because it’s simple and effective.  I try to make things as simple as possible.  You don’t have to go so complicated. Oh also for my performance art in sackville I used technology.  I wanted to use technology, digital computer.  So I would have a mixture of nature, my body and technology and I wanted to bring it all together because I have this idea…I know you are not suppose to this but I studied art history and the major art movements because I want to be a successful artist and I believe in the laws of design and art.  I don’t think it’s only this improvisational creative muse that comes down from the heavens and puts inspiration into your head.   I think that there is rules and you are building upon the previous art movements.  But, in the conversation or the story of art I find that it is very biased towards European history and European movements totally disregarding indigenous peoples.  We are left out of the conversation we are left out of the story.  I think it’s important to be in that history. We can go back and we can unring that bell as much as we can, I am an artist and I am indigenous so I am going to include it along with everything else.  So although I am trying to bring all European art movements and history into my work I am also trying to bring in the indigenous side as well and mixing them together. In that way, there is conflict between the two and in that conflict we are creating something new, which is the philosophy of Carl Jung. The dualities of one’s shadow and light give rise to creativity.  

I think my art is about time.  It is a judgment on societies reaction to time.  We want things NOW. 

Relationship between your concept and materials- how your influences and how they manifest in your work. …i am somewhat influenced by Marina Abromovich, how she sacrifices everything for art. She is fearless in how much she gives. I like the idea of giving all of myself to art. I am telling a story….i think western world or maybe European world has dismissed indigenous peoples and an indigenous worldview. And there is room for both. Open a person’s mind, to maybe change their perception briefly. I think, what I’m ultimately doing, however, is unconsciously changing my own perceptions and coming to grips with my own demons.

Artist bio

I currently work and live on the Bouctouche FirstNation in New Brunswick Canada. I am indigenous Mi’kmaq.

In painting, I realized what art is and what it is not. I thought art was about breaking new ground. Bucking the trends and being different for the sake of being different. What I now realize is that art is about communication. Not between artist and observer, but between observer and their psyche. The artist provides catalyst for that conversation. The artist creates a fundamental truth about themselves, an image or an idea from their subconscious. I am presenting a fundamental truth about myself and it is often misunderstood because the observer projects their own experiences and their own hate and love and angels and demons.

I like to work with Egg Tempera because I can make my own paint. I like the idea of making as much of my materials as possible. I like painting the human body and portraits and mostly symbolic content. I accidentally was involved in performance art when I was asked to create a small performance for a film for FAVA in Quebec. Since then I created another performance for linda Rae Dornan at Struts Gallery in Sackville. I like the idea of created a longer story in a performance piece and I’m using my own body to tell that story.

Solo exhibition

2020 Societe Culturelle, Kent Sud Bouctouche, New Brunswick. Titled:Mask Medium: egg tempera

2020 Created Here Magazine, Virtual Exhibition titled: Mask. Medium egg tempera

Group Exhibits

2020 Gallery du t’chai, Richibucto, New Brunswick Medium: egg tempera

2021 Gallery du t’chai, Richibucto, New Brunswick Medium: egg tempera

2021 artist residency, FAVA, Montreal, Quebec Medium: performance art

2021 artist residency, FAVA, Montreal, Caraquet, New Brunswick

2021 Wabanaki Exhibition, Toronto, Ontario Gallery on Queen

2022 Performance art, Struts Gallery, Sackville New Brunswick organized by Linda Rae Dornan

2023 selected for 2023 for provincial art collection, collectionArtNB