01May 2019 by DebbieleeMiszaniec

Art In Transit: Installed! (plus bonus Inglewood art)

Commissions, The Story Behind the Painting, Uncategorized
You may recall I posted last spring that the City of Calgary was interested in reproducing my little painting,  Pancake Breakfast, in the large, on glass for the 17th Avenue BRT project. Well here is the finished project! [caption id="attachment_348" align="aligncenter" width="225"] Pancake Breakfast, Reproduction of glass, Installed[/caption] I really like where it was situated, close to the Blackfoot Diner in Inglewood. When the former owner, Edna, was alive, she was known to give free meals to the homeless on occasion, so the placement of this symbol of Calgary hospitality seems appropriate. What do you think? Speaking of Inglewood and the Blackfoot Diner, (two, or rather one in another, places which meant a lot to me growing up in Calgary,) here are a couple paintings I did a few years…
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05May 2018 by DebbieleeMiszaniec

Talking About: Buffalo Bill

Events & Announcements, The Story Behind the Painting
[caption id="attachment_334" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Example of a header from an early Buffalo Bill Dime Novel[/caption] This is a quick announcement: I will be giving a talk emerging from my new series of paintings exploring Buffalo Bill in the context of the fictionalization of history. The talk will take place at Heritage Park Historical Village & Museum. It is scheduled  for Thursday November 22nd 2018 at 2pm. Stay tuned for further updates as the time draws near!
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09Mar 2018 by DebbieleeMiszaniec

This Weekend! March 10 -11 2018, Canada West Artist Drop In:

Events & Announcements, The Story Behind the Painting
Canada West Artist Drop-in Heritage Park Historical Village, Gasoline Alley Museum. Journey of A Lifetime Exhibition (January - April 2018): Saturday, March 10, Sunday, March 11 11:00 AM-2:00 PM FREE with paid admission to Gasoline Alley Museum [caption id="attachment_225" align="aligncenter" width="242"] A Level Playing Field16 x 20 O/C[/caption] The Canada West series are a group of oil on canvas paintings created by artist Debbie.lee Miszaniec. The works revisit early 20th century Canadian advertising posters that were intended to encourage immigration to the Canadian West. Each painting interprets the source image through juxtaposition, modification, or both. Debbie.lee is a life-long painter, a student of art history, culture and society. Visit the Journey of a Lifetime exhibit and join the artist for a session of informal dialogue and gain insight into this colourful…
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16Feb 2018 by DebbieleeMiszaniec

Event Announcement: Mini Artist Talk/Tours

Events & Announcements, The Story Behind the Painting
[caption id="attachment_224" align="aligncenter" width="242"] The New Homeland16 x 20 O/C[/caption] This is a quick announcement to let you know that March 10th and 11th 2018 between 11 am and 2 pm I will be at Heritage Park's Gasoline Alley giving mini artist talk/tours about my Canada West paintings and how they relate to their exhibition, Journey of a Lifetime. The talks are not posted to the website yet, but will be free with admission to the exhibition. Find out more about the exhibition here.
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09Feb 2018 by DebbieleeMiszaniec

Dime Novel 1907: Revisited

The Story Behind the Painting, What's the Big Idea?
[caption id="attachment_289" align="aligncenter" width="225"] Belle of the Brawl(formerly Dime Novel 1907)12 x 16 O/CDebbie.lee Miszaniec[/caption] Last week I talked about my reasons for revisiting a painting, so I won't go into that much here. What I will talk about, are the changes I made to this one, and why. Amoung the many funny things I could be entertained by in this antique image of the west, one of the things that kept happening as I looked at it, was my increasing identification with the contested object of the narrative. The bull is trussed up and appears to be at risk of being re-branded by cattle rustlers. Our hero and heroine have happened upon this scene and have rushed in to defend the bull from the cattle rustlers. But they are…
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02Feb 2018 by DebbieleeMiszaniec

Dime Novel 1903: Revisited

The Story Behind the Painting, What's the Big Idea?
[caption id="attachment_286" align="aligncenter" width="225"] Oh Zee, What Did You See?(formerly Dime Novel 1903)16 x 20 O/CDebbie.lee Miszaniec[/caption] This painting might look familiar. It was Dime Novel 1903. The funny thing is, I often paint something because it is a longer form of thinking about the thing. There is something there that I need to get to the heart of, so I need to chase that thought down through the act of painting it. Sometimes the thought keeps circling after the painting is 'finished,' and I need to revisit it. That is the case with both of the Dime Novel Paintings. I will talk a little about Dime Novel 1907 next week. So what was it about 1903 that brought me back? I was fascinated then as now by the conflicting…
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16Jan 2018 by DebbieleeMiszaniec

Event Announcement: Journey of a Lifetime

Events & Announcements, The Story Behind the Painting, What's the Big Idea?
[caption id="attachment_224" align="aligncenter" width="242"] The New Homeland16 x 20 O/C[/caption] I am pleased to announce that the seven paintings in my Canada West series, which centre on themes relevant to immigration, will be on display in conjunction with the exhibit The Journey Of A Lifetime. The Exhibit is on display from January 23rd - April 22nd 2018 at Heritage Park Historical Village. It is built around the last surviving colonist railway car in Canada and is partially sponsored by BMO. I have included my Artist Statement relating to the Canada West series below: ARTIST STATEMENT To judge the past by it’s advertising literature, one would assume that immigrants to Canada were a fairly homogenous, and privileged, bunch. The Canada West series explore that assumption. The Canada West series are paintings…
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05Jan 2018 by DebbieleeMiszaniec

New Year, New Blog

Events & Announcements, Introduction, The Story Behind the Painting
Hi all. For my first post of 2018, and my first post in a while, I wanted to start with a recap of the past year, and then introduce a few changes for the next year, specifically involving this blog: I started this blog November 4th of 2016, a little over a year ago. In the past year I have learned that regularly posting articles to a blog in a journalistic fashion is really not for me. When I have the time, I am stretching for things to talk about. When I have a lot going on to talk about, I don't have much time for blogging, or for going through reams of spam searching for legit comments before I write anything. I debated scrapping the blog altogether, however I…
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25Aug 2017 by DebbieleeMiszaniec

Coming to VASA! Mystical Magical Fantasy.

Events & Announcements, The Story Behind the Painting, What's the Big Idea?
Upcoming Show: I am happy to announce that I will have three artworks in an upcoming group show, Mystical Magical Fantasy, at the Visual Arts Studio Association in St. Albert Alberta. The show runs Tuesday October 3rd to Saturday October 28th 2017. Opening reception Thursday October 5th, 6-9pm. Visit the VASA website for address and other details as they become available. Artist Statement: The Fun Money Series of paintings are part of an exploration of the cultural significance of money and the ways that we learn in childhood to think about money through fantasy, play, and story. I incorporate coin shaped foil candy wrappers into the paintings to create fantasy worlds in which the main actors, represented by plastic figurines, interact with the coins in different ways. Much like the…
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