by Luisa Ruiz

Heather Collins was born in Montreal. Passionate about art from an early age, she drew and painted her way through primary and high school, eventually attending Sir George Williams (Concordia) and the Ontario College of Art. After graduation she worked for a year in the art department at the Ontario Science Centre before becoming a freelancer. Based in Toronto, she raised two children with her designer husband and illustrated over 80 books in a long, successful career. Heather’s award-winning work has been published around the world in both English and foreign language editions and the original drawings from many of her books are now a permanent part of the Osborne Collection of Early Children’s Books.

"I love to paint and I love being outdoors — and plein air satisfies both passions. Painting a scene live, in the open air, is exhilarating. I am often in a swoon as I watch a sky with racing clouds, patterns of colour and the dramatic play of light and shadow in a pond or on a field of grain. Painting has become an obsession — and capturing the essence of what has moved me is the challenge I set for myself."

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Blake Lannon, originally from California, spent 18 years in New York City when conceptual art and neo-expressionism were at their peak.

Her work has been influenced by her passion for beauty, travel and studies of Eastern religions, in particular Buddhism. Her premise in painting is that all material things have weight and balance, so she considers it essential to balance our being and keep it centered and peaceful in the midst of difficulties.

Returning to California, her work focused on the Earth as body. She began a new series of paintings in which she reflected the devastation of mining and deforestation seen from the sky. Those paintings show the brilliant colors of the Earth and the tailings that remain from its destruction.

Over the several years that Blake has lived here, the people and history of Mexico have changed her way of looking at the world. Her recent paintings reflect a deeper understanding of the Earth as body.

The title of her current exhibition is Yugen, a Japanese word that triggers a mysterious sense of the sad beauty of human suffering.

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Luisa Ruiz is a chemistry teacher, transpersonal psychotherapist, grief counselor and workshop facilitator, death doula. The Founder of Death Café in Mexico, she has worked for the NGO Uno en Voluntad giving grief workshops. She also worked for Elisabeth Kübler-Ross Foundation as a course and workshop facilitator and as a death doula. She loves reading, writing, hiking and travelling.

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