Susan Greig
Landscape Painter
Susan L. Grieg is a contemporary landscape painter and owner of 100 Braid St Studios & Gallery located in New Westminster. A life-long artist, she received training in graphic design & illustration but decided to pursue work as a muralist and developed a successful line of custom painted children’s furniture. Acrylic on canvas is now her main medium but she also enjoys working with mixed media. Susan has participated in many groups shows and her work is hanging in private collections in BC, USA and Mexico and at BC Children’s Hospital.
A resident of New Westminster for the past 15 years, Susan loves to paint life along the Fraser River and West Coast landscapes. The influences that can often be seen in her work are the Group of Seven artists, Ted Harrison, graphic artist Dard Hunter, antique block prints and stained glass. Susan has aboriginal ancestry and is currently exploring and being inspired by Métis culture and how traditional arts can be translated in a modern context.
Artist Statement about Through My Eyes series:
I come from one of the many Indigenous nations (Cree) who have cared for Turtle Island, also called North America, from before the arrival of settler peoples until this day. I have a shared history with everyone living here that is coloured by the damage done by colonialism, yet I must recognize that because of my ancestors (French) who came here to conquer, I exist. Both these stories belong to me. It is something I have struggled with as I see others take steps towards truth and reconciliation.
In this series of paintings I am looking through my Métis glasses, my lenses of learning that are allowing me to heal these two incongruent parts of myself.
The infinity symbol found on the Metis flag represents the endearing quality of my people but also the marriage of two cultures. I have chosen white silvery light to flow around the things I see and for healing. Métis are known for beadwork and embroidery so the large flower in the centre speaks to this but my design is actually one of natures fractal patterns and represents oneness of spirit-the fact that we are all one. The green in the flower represents my heart centre and the recognition that it is only love that will heal and dissolve the differences and past hurts.
Learning and reclaiming my Métis heritage is a long process. Because of colonialism, the shame of being Métis and the burden of being unseen and unheard, has been carried by those who came before me. It is through truth, acceptance, knowledge, and by shifting my glasses and lenses of belief that the past will heal and never more be able to define my present or future.
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