Page 39 - 07_October 2024

The
ART
of Design
Portraits, abstracts, video and sound — no matter the form, these Edmonton artists have something to say. Once expressed, the messages received depend on your interpretation — and the paths from inspiration to final works are not always clear to the artists themselves. Bringing modern perspectives to old forms, these artists can’t help but create, and we can’t help but share their stories. Read on to find out what makes these people make the things we love.
photography Ryan Parker
KIRA CHANKASINGH
When you ask artist and painter Kira Chankasingh about the biggest design
lessons she learned at art school, unsur- prisingly, it comes down to the details. One particular instance that sticks out occurred while Chinkasingh was attending the illustrious Emily Carr University of Art + Design in Vancouver, having transferred there from the Alberta College of Art and Design (“I initially wanted to go to MacEwan,” she laughs, “But once they physically saw my work they were like, nah.”). While making line drawings on paper, her instructor passed by and asked why she wasn’t experimenting with differ- ent line weights. Chankasingh gestured to the three pencils she had in front of her. As she soon found out, that wasn’t going to cut it.
“She just took the pastel and turned it on its side,” Chinkasingh says, remember- ing that fleeting, but revolutionary, act. “Something as minuscule as that stuck
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