Artist Statement
Henry David Thoreau once said, “The world is but canvas to our imaginations”; Slovia uses the canvas to reimagine the world. Slovia explores and challenges themes of decline, depletion, polarization, extraction, accumulation, gender, and power, but proffers a transformational justice within the structural hierarchies of our historical present. She seeks pathways to transform embodied realms by representing an authentic, agentic truth where diversity becomes a thriving vitality for all. She doesn’t avoid pain but refuses a lens of apocalyptic anxiety and imagines a place for hope and love.
Slovia works with Chiyogami, Katazome-shi and Japanese tissue papers, because when creating with them, a small arc of paper becomes a complex brushstroke that imbues the work with a depth of texture and detail. This invites the viewer to consider the work, the subject and the thematic origins from different perspectives. Her method was developed after a health event that left her unable to open a tube of paint, but able to tear up beautiful papers and uncap a pen. From the learning that disability can provide, she knows the value of approaching life and art unconventionally.
Slovia draws her artistic inspiration from current events underpinned by social justice theory, including critical theory and intersectionality. Her deep love of paper undoubtedly grew from the dearth of school supplies available growing up.
Artist Bio
Edmonton-born Slovia is a maker by nature, a stylist by history, a scholar by need and entrepreneur by career. Slovia descended into the pandemic as a graduate student in the University of Alberta's Women's Studies Department and emerged from it a visual artist. Her artistic training, taken at the University of Alberta's Faculty of Extension, led to her visual expressions of social, political, and cultural theory.
With time and intention, she is painting her graduate degree in Gender and Social Justice. As a mixed-media artist, Slovia's current works are largely in acrylic and Chiyogami paper. The layering of a variety of media offers an assortment of possibilities within her work; the meaning of colour, balance and texture all play a role in her imagery.