MASON YORK

Is a 19 year old trans and Indigenous artist from Alberta using art to navigate being a person of colour in Canada.

LIV SMRECIU

Liv is an Indigenous and queer illustrator living in Edmonton, Alberta. In 2018 she graduated with a diploma in Digital Illustration and Sequential Art. Since then, she has pursued various freelance projects while selling her art at local events. Much of her work is influenced by her fascination with myths, legends and the stories we create. In her free time, Liv enjoys watching horror movies with her cat.

JUNE LAWRENCE

I am a young, Queer, multi-disciplinary artist, who's works and mediums include: Painting, Prints, Photography, Graphic Design, Poetry and other written works. My art style varies medium to medium but I love working with expressionism, surrealism, as well as playing with formalism and colour theory. My art explores themes of home, displacement, politics, isolation, and work to name a few. I try to shed new perspectives in my works and offer the viewers the space for their own reflection into the feeling and space of my works. I am inspired greatly by the places, faces, voices, and music that I am surrounded by.

SOWL

Sowl’s goal in this earth with the knowledge of this god-given gift is to spread light and love & strengthen spaces internally, spiritually and externally through the power of art. Sowl offers a diverse set of skills whether its abstract designs to figurative. Sowl specializes in abstract and figurative and that has a lot of energy within their work. They feel like the world needs to see it because they see healing within them and that their destiny here on earth.

NATASIA MARTIN

Natasia Martin is a Canadian illustrator, lettering artist and educator that creates bold and playful artwork that shares intimate stories and personal experiences so that people can feel a sense of connection, belonging and empowerment.

She wears many hats as a creative. She primarily runs a paper goods studio, Natasia Makes, that creates greeting cards and art prints for both retail, markets, and wholesale. She also does illustration commissions, public art and art licensing. When she’s not creating or packing products in the studio, she’s an instructor at MacEwan University teaching the next generation of designers, and she hosts LW&D Edmonton, a meetup for underrepresented creatives. She has a Bachelor of Design degree from the University of Alberta and has been an illustrator, branding and publication designer for over 10 years in ad agencies, small studios and in-house.

After becoming a mother over the pandemic, she has shifted her studio’s focus away from commercial work and into visual arts. This has allowed her to express and process her personal experiences visually and honestly to help others feel comforted and a little less alone in their related experiences.

ARTHUR MATHIAS

Arthur is from São Paulo, Brazil, and he has been living in Edmonton for nearly 9 years. He is excited about the YEG Dignity murals because he wants to share a bit more about his country and his culture! Brazil is one of the most mixed countries in terms of cultures, races and ethnicity in the world and it’s poorly represented in the city. His work is pretty much based on ink pen and recently he has been mixing up with watercolour.

ALY PLOOF

Aly is an emerging artist, who focuses primarily on embroidery and painting. She grew up in the Edmonton area and has had the privilege of growing up exploring everything the city has to offer. It’s always been a goal of her to participate in a mural project, and this opportunity really spokes to her as her subject matter has always been nature and floral themed. Aly loves the idea of working as part of a group and helping to work on a mural to bring more beauty to our community.

KAMALAVASANI KARUNAKARAN

Vasani’s pronouns are (she/her) and she has been painting for as long as she can remember, she has experience with window painting for her local public library as well as commission art. Some of her favorite works shed light on the importance of nature and the natural environment. Moreover Vasani is a nursing student. She uses the LRT on a regular basis and she believes what we see first thing in the morning and the last thing before heading home can have a profound impact in helping raise awareness to a critical concept that is often overlooked in our digital world. 

She would love to continue depicting nature through her art on the walls of Edmonton. Vasani believes Edmonton to be a highly diverse community of different cultures, ethnicities, gender, orientation and race just to name a few. She would love for the Mural to depict mother nature through a diversified lens and tell the stories that as first generation Canadian, Indian, Tamil growing up never could have imagined to see represented at such grand scale. Vasani believes this would help Edmontonians relate and engage with the movement to raise awareness to our Mother Nature and the natural environment.

ROGER GARCIA

Roger is an illustrator and art educator. He is interested in being part of the YEG Dignity project to help and give back to the community and create art that pays respects to all diversities here in the city. As a refugee from El Salvador in the mid 80’s, his family and him faced many challenges here in the city that people still face to this day. Roger’s parents always taught his three sisters and him to stay humble and give back to those in need. And to this day, his family is in social work, volunteering for non-for profits organizations, and he shares his art skills with young and old people as well as non for profit organizations.

SEF SALHAM

Sef is a young queer immigrant artist who has used art as an escape his entire life. His art ties into his love for science and medicine, using elements of anatomy to tie in with elements of art from the macabre and baroque art styles. Sef tries to tie his life story into every piece of art he makes, and he wants to make people think about their own lives with his pieces. He loves discussing the intersections of science and art, and are always down to talk about art history as well! He is in honours science physiology at the University of Alberta, intending to go into medicine for forensic pathology, but art will always have a special place in his heart no matter where he goes!

MACHA ABDALLAH

Macha is a black Canadian artist of african descent based in Edmonton. She is a self taught painter and has started to expand her craft to digital art and mural art. Macha is currently working on the Lulu lane alley between 103 street and 104 of Jasper ave through the Edmonton Downtown Business Association. Prior to that she completed a digital mural banner in the theme of immigration at the LRT construction site downtown. Macha is looking forward to participating in more mural projects that promote diversity and culture. Additionally, most of her art has been centred around creating colourful portraits with representation of black and brown people. She works well independently as well as with a team. Macha has experience collaborating with multidisciplinary team members such as architects and writers.

LONG LY

Long is a third-year design student studying at MacEwan University. As a Vietnamese-Chinese student learning Canadian culture, he is enthusiastic about working hard and taking part in the exploration of different cultures, genders, races, and ethnicities through respect and curiosity. YEG Dignity Mural is an excellent opportunity for him to gain precious outside-of-school experience. Long believes that working and learning from fellow artists as a group not only encourages artistic growth but also teaches us how to bond and collaborate with others.

JORDAN VARNEY

Jordan is 19 and sees the opportunity to be part of the YEG Dignity Mural team as a way to learn, engage with different artists, and improve her skills with painting. Jordan specializes in digital art and would like to broaden her mediums.

DAL

Dal is a queer artist that has lived in Edmonton part time since 2016, full time since 2018. In the time he has lived in Edmonton, he became serious about his art practice and has recently begun a tattoo apprenticeship. Edmonton has been the place where his art practice really took form, and he owes a lot of his personal and professional success to the people and energy of this city. Dal loves drawing nature and animals in a stylized form, drawing inspiration from both downtown Edmonton, and the River Valley.

ALLISON OCHOA

Allison is passionate about community recovery and social justice. She is always seeking avenues to explore ideas and collaborate with others. Allison learns best when she is able to interact with other people in open conversation, exploration, and through playful creativity.

Allison is an Edmonton-based artist, musician, and occupational therapist. She grew up in Edmonton’s west side in a multicultural home of musicians and educators. On her journey, communicating through Art has been instrumental in her ongoing recovery from mental illness. 

Art is medicine for the spirit; the entire process of creating Art can be healing, practiced with the self and with others. We all have stories. Allison has found healing and insight through visual storytelling, music, expressionism; by connecting with others through creativity; and through service.