Artist statement

I am interested in how we interact with each other from biases, habits, and occasionally with conscious cognitive effort. Racism and other divisions we make between people are so common that I suspect there are genetic bases for it. But, behaviours like this can be modified from within culture.

With all the injustices that have been done to the indigenous people, it would take a river of tears to even start to comprehend. When our leaders choose not to acknowledge and accept responsibility for their institutions, actions of the past and instead sit on their thrones against a backdrop of horrific atrocities, crying out fake tears, they make the reconciliation waters rougher and harder to navigate. Both leaders and citizens have a responsibility to acknowledge the actions of the monarchy, government, church, society, and individuals in the past and present, rip apart the oppressive seams, and look carefully at the frayed edges before we can begin to find our way to successful reconciliation.

About the artist

Linda Mackey Lang started taking painting classes at the age of 12. She studied art at York University and continues to learn as much as she can from her home and studio in Maynooth. As Doris McCarthy’s studio assistant, she first travelled to the high Arctic in 2002. The majority of her paintings tell the story of climate change and are based on the knowledge she gained from her Inuit friends, scientists and almost 20 expeditions to the Polar Regions. She has led painting expeditions and exhibited throughout Canada (including the Arctic), United States, and in Russia.

Linda is a former board member of the Society of Canadian Artists, an elected Signature Member of Artists for Conservation, former Art Liaison for International Polar Year, and founder of Polar Artists Group and the Arctic Quest 2006 project. She represented polar artists at the launch of International Polar Year in Paris, France in 2007, participated in the Circumpolar Artists Round Table discussions at the United Nations Office in Geneva, and in 2008 and 2009 she represented Canada at the Northern Lights Festival in the Russian Arctic. Linda has taught art workshops for the TDCSB, McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Students on Ice Climate Change expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctica, in Russia, and the United States.

Linda’s painting Follow Your Dreams was presented to Ontario’s Lieutenant Governor, the Hon. James Bartleman in 2006 by the TDCSB and three of her paintings are in the personal collection of Canada’s Governor General Mary Simon, to name a few.