Category: What’s the Big Idea?

[caption id="attachment_129" align="aligncenter" width="239"] Finding a Dance Partner16 x 20 O/Cby Debbie.lee Miszaniec[/caption] Finding A Dance Partner is one of the newest paintings in my Western Series, which you can see here. This painting references an immigration poster advertising the charms of Canada to potential immigrants during the early years of the 20th century. Particularly, in this case, potential single female immigrants. During this time in Britain their was a great deal of discussion about the problem of the extra female population, for whom world conflicts had reduced the number of eligible mates. At the same time there was an imbalance (in the other direction) in the ratio of male to female immigrants to Canada. The idea of immigrating for better marital prospects, which the image seems to suggest is…

[caption id="attachment_116" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Cowboy CoffeeO/C 9 x 12Debbie.lee Miszaniec[/caption] Cowboy Coffee is a painting from my Western series. You can see more here. Painted on a bandana background, it refers to Cowboy culture prior to the invention of barb wire fencing, which led to the fencing off of range land and permanently changed ranching culture in North America. Previously ranching operations ranged freely across much on north america, with herds intermingling. The job of Cowboy was crucial and harsh. Rounding up and herding, sorting and branding cattle on the open range; cowboys lived with the cattle for the season, eating, sleeping and working on the range in makeshift and improvised settings. The text of this painting, Free Range Coffee, playfully alludes to both this reality, and to the current…

[caption id="attachment_113" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Wallflowersby Debbie.lee MiszaniecAcrylic on Canvas24 x 48[/caption] Wallflowers is part of my Landscape series. Completed in 2015, it serves a very special role: It is an idyllic image of a perfect day at Fish Creek Provincial Park in Calgary Alberta Canada. What's more, it is an encyclopedic painting depicting a range of attractive wildflowers which have been declared invasive species, because their hardiness and vigorous growth habits endanger bio diversity in natural areas by pushing out native plant species. This is a problem because animals and insects who rely on those native plant species as food sources may be adversely affected by their displacement. I created this piece in cooperation with the Friends of Fish Creek Park, as an aesthetic intervention and educational tool. The idea is…

[caption id="attachment_109" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Pancake Breakfast 9 x 12 O/C by Debbie.lee Miszaniec[/caption] Pancake Breakfast, from my western series, is a fairly straight forward piece. Growing up in Calgary Alberta, one of my favourite traditions of our annual (July) city wide Stampede celebrations are the free pancake breakfasts. For ten days, rich or poor, young or old, if you can line up on a sunny summer morning you can have a great breakfast, and entertainment, and possibly swag, all free of charge.  Breakfasts happen all across the city every day during Stampede. Put on by community groups, churches, corporations, politicians, dentists, you name it, they are a great expression of community inclusion and caring. Even if you can't afford to go to the Stampede grounds more than once, or at…

[caption id="attachment_95" align="aligncenter" width="222"] Dime Novel 1903 12 x 16 O/C Debbie.lee Miszaniec[/caption] [caption id="attachment_96" align="aligncenter" width="227"] Dime Novel 1907 12 x 16 O/C Debbie.lee Miszaniec[/caption] The Dime Novel Paintings are part of my Western Series, which you can see here. They are still life paintings referencing the covers of early 20th century Western themed weekly fiction publications. The West lives as much in the imagination, in hyperbolic stories of legendary skill and courage, as it does in historical fact. We are much nearer to the source of the legends than earlier stories of medieval knights or Greek heroes. We even have photography, which can show us the real faces of some of our legendary figures, should they actually have any base in reality. Yet this vision of the west…

[caption id="attachment_97" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Following Legends 20 x 28 O/CDebbie.lee Miszaniec[/caption] Hi there again, and happy Friday the 13th! Hopefully you all ate your Lucky Charms cereal this morning, and don't have any work to do under tall ladders or anything. Following Legends is the second of two paintings thinking about female western legend Annie Oakley. The legend of Annie Oakley forms the backdrop, the wall paper, to the life of the little girl from Wild Roses (last week). The little girl grows up and perhaps becomes one of the flag bearers at the Calgary Stampede, our equivalent to Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. And so "the show goes on", and "on with the show" as the text at the top of the painting mentions. You can see more of…

[caption id="attachment_98" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Wild Roses 20 x 28 O/C Debbie.lee Miszaniec[/caption] I began the tedious task of taking action on my New Years Resolution to spend my mornings on administrative work (like updating my website) and afternoons painting. While there is a daunting backlog of updates to be made, I made good progress on my landing page today. The image above, Wild Roses, is not in the web-galleries yet. Updating those will be a job for next week, and when that is done you should be able to link to a bigger image. (update: Western Gallery is now online!) Currently featured on my landing page, Wild Roses is one of my most recently completed paintings, from the body of work that I am painting for the  Western Showcase. I am a born and raised Calgarian. In Calgary the…