Artists in the Canadian Forces Artists Program

Toronto-based Joseph Amato enjoys a varied career as a saxophone player, mentor, and musical scholar. Responsible for Strategic Partnerships at the Merriam School of Music in Oakville, he promotes Merriam’s visibility in the community.

As a jazz saxophone player, he has performed throughout North and South America. He is also an accomplished:

• vocalist
• arranger
• composer
• orchestrator
• music scholar
• music director
• private theory instructor

He received his MA in Composition from York University in Toronto, and is a PhD candidate in Composition.

Previous studies include creative music training at Humber College and classical saxophone performance at the University of Western Ontario.

Alicia Payne was born in London, England and lives in Toronto. She is a performer, writer and artist educator whose professional memberships include:

• Canadian Actors Equity Association (CAEA)
• Playwrights Guild of Canada, where she serves as President
• Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA)

She is an alumna of the Tapestry Opera Composer-Librettist Laboratory and has used theatre and opera to help youth write stories about their communities. Alicia is a co-founder of Arbez Drama Projects. Alicia was an ambassador for the Opening Ceremonies of the Invictus Games in Toronto.

James Arthur completed MFAs in creative writing at the University of Washington and the University of Brunswick. He has received honours and awards for his writing from many institutions in North America and Europe, including:

• a residency at the Al Purdy A-Frame
• a Canada Council for the Arts Creative Writing Grant
• a Joan Nordell fellowship from Harvard’s Houghton Library
• a Fulbright Scholarship in Creative Writing to the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry in Northern Ireland

His poems have appeared in:

• Brick
• The New Yorker
• The New Republic
• The London Review of Books

After studying photography at Concordia University, Jean-Pierre Aubé completed an MFA in visual arts at UQAM.

His interdisciplinary approach (audio performance, media art, installation and photography) borrows data-collecting procedures from scientific methodologies. He establishes connections and creates tools to capture various natural phenomena, such as the northern lights, solar energy, exoplanets or the presence of radio waves in our environment. In his work, Jean-Pierre Aubé transcends technique with a passion for the complexity of the material world, an inexhaustible source of inspiration.

Dick Averns lives in Calgary. He teaches at the Alberta College of Art + Design. In his works of non-fiction writing and lens-based media, Averns explores the politics of national identity. He looks at how different nations either enable or disable conflict-related cultural canons. Through this work, he provides benchmarks for “understanding how art and military activity can re-frame the War on Terror.”

Dick Averns was born in London, UK. He studied at the Wimbledon School of Art in London. He earned a Master of Fine Arts degree at the University of British Columbia. His works have been on exhibit at over 20 solo shows in Canada, the US and the UK. He is a frequent contributor to several art publications.

In August 2009, Dick Averns worked alongside Canadian peacekeepers in the Multinational Force and Observers. Averns was based at MFO North Camp in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, near the border with Gaza and Israel. He also travelled to:

• Cairo
• Tel Aviv
• Jerusalem
• the West Bank

Dick Averns had this to say about the Canadian Forces Artists Program:

"It was extremely hot, humid, gritty. Having several days alone in Cairo provided a good opportunity for acclimatization, becoming familiar with language barriers, and undertaking essential research at military museums."

"For my visit to the MFO deciding what might be portrayed was more complex.

"Canadian troops were under the auspices of MFO command in Rome, information dissemination was beyond the immediate control of the Canadian personnel. Hence, I really had little idea of what I would see until I arrived.

"The main content of my photographic series was not conceived until I arrived at MFO North Camp.

"In having chosen this venue because I consider the Middle East and Arab/Israeli conflicts as forerunners to the Global War on Terror, and thus its relevance to oil as a currency, upon arrival I was struck by both gasoline shortages in Sinai (and later the West Bank), and moreover the value of fresh water. Hearing of local kids begging for bottled water, seeing water meter signs on base warning of conservation and rationing, and experiencing the extreme heat and observing beyond the wire of the camp how Egyptian militia and Bedouin were so far removed from clean fresh water; this topic became a focus."

Karen Bailey was born in Ottawa and studied at the Reigate School of Art and Design in England.

Her past work includes:

• calligraphy
• heraldic art
• book illustration
• courtroom drawing

She now focuses on painting people at work. Her CFAP series documents military medical personnel at work at the Role 3 Hospital in Kandahar, Afghanistan. 'Behind the scenes' support staff interest her most. These people make it possible for the ‘front line’ service men and women to do their job. She pays tribute to those whose contribution often goes unnoticed.

Karen Bailey paints from her Ottawa studio and has exhibited in:

• USA
• Britain
• Ireland
• Canada

Karen Bailey had this to say about one of her CFAP paintings:

"Upon my return from Afghanistan in the summer of 2007, X Ray Technicians was the first painting I completed in my Kandahar series. I sketched Mohammed Hussein several times at the Role 3 Hospital - I was fascinated with the halo traction that rendered him immobile.

"This Afghan civilian fractured his neck as a result of being too close to an Improvised Explosive Devise. He emanated a great sense of calm and the military technicians worked with both sensitivity and intensity whilst preparing their patient for an x-ray. I sought to express this combination of calm and intensity in my painting."

Allen Ball was born in London, England. He earned his undergraduate degree there at Camberwell School of Art and Design. He then got a MFA at the University of Alberta on a Commonwealth Scholarship.

Over the past 20 years, his work has been grounded mainly in painting. He searches for the limits of its forms and applies the language of painting to new subjects. This includes large–scale immersive digital installations. It also includes collaborative works that explore how people view nanotechnology.

Many local, national and international public and private collections display his work. Both his research and teaching philosophy embrace the importance of public art. His 2007 tour of duty as a Canadian war artist in the Sinai Peninsula were an example of this approach.

Allen Ball holds 3 positions the Department of Art and Design at the University of Alberta:

• Associate Professor
• Painting Coordinator
• Associate Chair (Undergraduate)

Allen Ball has this to say about the Canadian Forces Artists Program:

"Participation in the Canadian Forces Artists Program has greatly enriched my professional life and practice. I have spent over five years developing the photographs I took during my tour of duty, which culminated in my solo installation at the ASC Gallery building in London, United Kingdom, on November 11, 2013. The exhibition ran until November 11, 2014, the centennial of WWI."

Allen Ball describes a few of his images below.

"This is an unaltered image that depicts the Canadian Forces control centre, called CANCON, taken at night.

"I arrived in Cairo, Egypt on June 3, 2008. Officers with the Canadian contingent met me at my hotel and we drove the 4-hour journey to El Gorah in Northern Sinai early in the morning on June 4, 2008… El Gorah is located in northeastern Sinai, in Egypt. The area is sparsely populated by nomads and by farmers who tend small orchards. It is basically a desert location, very few trees, rocky, sandy and bleak.

"I have little interest in the arms and machines of war, my intention all along was to simply document the daily lives of Canadians who serve with the Canadian Forces. To witness and reflect on the lives they lead when serving abroad and the conditions under which they perform their duties."

"A CF officer and an Australian Army Officer patrolling a used Israeli aircraft control tower."

"The office space of a CF officer whose duty includes organizing tours in the region for army personnel at El Gorah who are on leave."

"The complete Canadian contingent of Operation CALUMET based at El Gorah."

"The garage and vehicle maintenance depot at El Gorah."

" The office of a CF Airtraffic Controller whose duty includes managing the airspace in the region."

Born in Halifax, Alana Bartol comes from a long line of water witches. Through performative, research-based, and community embedded practices, she creates site-responsive works. They propose walking and divination as ways of understanding across places, species, and bodies. Bartol’s work has been screened and presented across Canada at:

• InterAccess (Toronto)
• Art Gallery of Windsor
• Access Gallery (Vancouver)
• Group Intervention Vidéo (Montréal)
• M:ST Performative Arts Festival (Calgary)
• PlugIn Institute for Contemporary Art (Winnipeg)

Her work has also been displayed in Romania, Germany, Mexico and the United States.

Alana Bartol lives in Calgary, where she teaches at Alberta College of Art+Design.

François Béroud was born in Switzerland and graduated from the École professionnelle des arts et métiers and the École de Technique du Théâtre, both in Bienne, Switzerland.

François Béroud has exhibited his sculptures in 15 exhibits since 1982, in:

• USA
• Japan
• Europe
• Canada

François Béroud lives in Montréal, Quebec, and teaches art at the École du Tournant, in St-Constant.

He had this to say about one of his CFAP sculptures:

"This sculpture is a tribute to sailors of HMCS Toronto. It represents the focsle of the ship on its way to new missions. At the top, a flame symbolizes hope as well as a guide for the crew to always find its way home to its country and for the sailors to return to their families."

François Béroud visited HMCS Toronto, April 15-30, 2005.

Ardell Bourgeois was born in Alberta and moved several times before settling in British Columbia after his father retired from the Armed Forces. He graduated from the Emily Carr College of Art and Design in 1988.

He has won 14 awards at aviation art shows since 1994. His work has been in museums (including the Canadian War Museum and Canada Aviation Museum in Ottawa) and several magazines.

Ardell Bourgeois lives in Chilliwack, BC and is an active member of the Canadian Aviation Artists Association.

Ardell Bourgeois explained 4 of his CFAP paintings.

"I did a painting, instead of from the point of view of being down in the camp with aircraft coming over, I did a painting of you from above the aircraft looking down on the camp. The concept being that if anybody was at Camp Mirage they would be able to recognize some of the buildings and places that were around there and that would be a connection for the people from the ground crew, as well as the air crew that were flying the aircraft. It was just to try and come up with an image that was going to be more inclusive of everybody that was stationed there."

"Obviously, based on our anthem but the concept behind it is that I have the load master from the C-130 flight that was keeping an eye out his window station, strapped in. The idea being that if the pilot has to dive or something you don't have the crewmen bouncing off the ceiling and getting injured and things like that. Again, their job is to make sure that if there is a threat indicated that they can tell the pilot where it is coming from or if it is in the rear quarter, say eleven o'clock low, they can identify if there is a smoke trail or anything."

"[This one] I had more or less completed. It was originally intended as a sketch. It was the one that I painted at Camp Mirage of the Aurora that was, for whatever reason, non serviceable. I made some minor touch-ups when I got home but fundamentally it was painted plein-aire, sketched and painted on site.

"[The only difference I noticed was] there's a slight texture to the paint that's not on the other ones but that's largely because there was almost always a fine sand blowing constantly."

"While I was on the ground, I was able to observe some of the detriments that were left over from the 1980's when the Soviets were in Afghanistan. There's quite a bit of equipment that's just been abandoned, pushed off to the side of the airstrip, like a 1976 tail section...kind of their gate guard.

"I've got a Hercules, the one I flew in on, parked with crew members that were on board the aircraft."

Douglas Bradford, a life-long resident of Northern Ontario, has been a professional artist for the past 32 years. His water colours reflect the majesty of the landscape and dignity of its people. Since 1972, he has had several solo shows and his work hangs in museums and private collections in:

• USA
• Japan
• Britain
• Canada
• New Zealand

Douglas Bradford lives in Sault Ste. Marie. He continues his character studies that communicate the strength of character and quiet determination of the people of Northern Ontario.

Douglas Bradford visited HMCS Calgary from June 24 to July 2, 2004. Here are 2 of his CFAP paintings.

Leah Byrne has presented work at the Odd Gallery in Dawson City as well as in festivals and group exhibitions nationally and internationally. She holds a bachelor arts degree from New York University.

Philip Cheung is a photographer based in Los Angeles and Toronto. His landscape, portrait and documentary photographs have been exhibited in galleries, museums and festivals across North America and Europe, such as:

• Lumix Festival (Hannover, Germany)
• Flash Forward Festival (Toronto)
• National Portrait Gallery (London, UK)

In 2011, Cheung was named one of Photo District News’ 30 New and Emerging Photographers to Watch. He has been awarded research and production grants by:

• Ontario Arts Council
• Toronto Arts Council
• Canada Council for the Arts

Cheung has been recognized by the Magenta Foundation, Communication Arts and American Photo. His work is held in the collection of Akkasah, Center for Photography at New York University Abu Dhabi. He has appeared in features and reviews in The British Journal of Photography, CNN and TIME, among others.

Born in Summerside, PEI, Nancy Cole is a professional visual artist that uses textile as a medium. Her work deals with social themes with a strong narrative base. Her practice has evolved from traditional quilting to contemporary and concept based art pieces. She has received several grants and exhibited internationally.

"My work thrives on interaction. It is a unique interdisciplinary process that bridges visual arts, textile arts, installation, performance, and new media... . I have addressed universal issues through my practice such as foreign adoption (My First Cousin Once Removed), the birth of Canadian culture (Smile the While), climate change (Storm Surge), the search for the God particle (Big Bang), as well as more personal matters such as serendipity (Our Two Paths Crossed), friendship (Postcard from Portugal)."

David Collier was born in Windsor, Ontario. He served with the Canadian Army and drew sketches for the Army newspaper before he took up cartooning professionally. He has produced 14 graphic novels and sketch books. His work has also appeared in 14 newspapers and magazines, including the Globe and Mail and the Hamilton Spectator.

David Collier lives in Hamilton, Ontario and is associated with Drawn & Quarterly.

David Collier visited HMCS Toronto from April15 to 30, 2005. Here are 3 of his CFAP drawings.

Scott Conarroe has a BFA from the Emily Carr University of Art + Dsign a MFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design.

His photographs of landscape and the built-environment are shown and collected widely. Scott Conarroe is a 2008 Chalmers Arts Fellow and among Photo District News' “Top 30 Emerging Photographers of 2010”. His study of North America's rail infrastructure is an Art Gallery of Windsor touring exhibition. He is Sulzberg Fellow at Villa Sträuli in Winterthur, Switzerland.

Scott Conarroe is represented by the Stephen Bulger Gallery, Toronto.

Sophie Dupuis is a director and scriptwriter from Val-d’Or, Quebec. She is one of the major figures in the new generation of Quebec filmmakers that emerged after the year 2000.

She has directed several short fiction films that have won awards at festivals both in Quebec and elsewhere, including:

• Faillir
• J’viendrai t’chercher
• L’hiver et la violence

Quiet Forces marks Dupuis’ first foray into the documentary genre. When not making films, she coaches young actors and coordinates the activities of the French-language erotic news site she co-founded (jesuisvenu.com). Dupuis is writing 2 feature-length fiction films.

Rosalie Favell is a photo-based artist, born in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Drawing inspiration from her family history and Métis (Cree/English) heritage, she uses a variety of sources, from family albums to popular culture, to present a complex self-portrait of her experiences as a contemporary aboriginal woman. Her work has appeared in exhibitions in:

• USA
• Canada
• Paris, France
• Taipei, Taiwan
• Edinburgh, Scotland

Numerous institutions have acquired her artwork including:

• National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa)
• Rockwell Museum of Western Art (Corning, New York)
• Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography (Ottawa)
• Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian (Washington, D.C.)

She has received numerous grants, and won prestigious awards such as:

• Karsh Award
• Chalmers Fellowship
• Victor Martyn Lynch-Staunten Award

A graduate of Ryerson Polytechnic Institute, Rosalie holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of New Mexico. She has studied and taught extensively at the post-graduate level. She has worked with grassroots organizations in Winnipeg, with Inuit educational groups in Ottawa and Nepalese women’s groups in Katmandu.

Nichola Feldman-Kiss obtained her BFA from the University of Ottawa and her MFA from the California Institute of Arts.

She has had 16 solo and 14 group exhibitions since 1992 in:

• USA
• Italy
• Mexico
• Canada
• Germany

Nichola Feldman-Kiss lives in Ottawa.

Kevin Goligher served in the Canadian Army until 1995. Since then, he has completed several shows featuring his and other experiences overlooked by the public. He is particularly interested in adding "I was there" details that only participants would notice.

Kevin Goligher lives in Kingston, Ontario.

Kevin Goligher attended Remembrance Day ceremonies in Kingston, November 2004. Here is one of his CFAP works.

Jacques Hamel was born in Québec City. He studied for several years at:

• l’Université Laval
• les Ateliers de la Ville de Paris
• the American Academy of Paris

He was an accredited copyist at the Louvre from 1998 to 1999. He spent another year at Art Students League in New York City. His works have been exhibited and accepted into the collections of museums across Europe and North America. He has had 4 solo exhibits, focusing his efforts on urban scenes.

Jacques Hamel lives in Québec City, Quebec.

Jacques Hamel visited a training exercise in Sherbrooke in December 2003. Here are 3 of his CFAP works.

John Horton was born in London, England. He graduated from the Poole & Bournemouth School of Art before joining the Royal Navy. He worked in design and architecture for several years before moving to Vancouver in 1964. His passion for marine art has increasingly occupied his time.

John Horton lives in Vancouver, BC, and is a member of the Canadian Society of Marine Artists.

John Horton describes a few of his CFAP paintings below.

"When the ship is on action station these days, yes the ship is going along but you don't see anybody. There are a couple of people on the bridge and everybody else is down below.

"So the latest painting I've just completed is actually in the operations room on Ottawa, where the Captain and a whole line of various members of the crew are poring over computers and are operating under a little red light, they've got the anti flash gear on and they've got the lights of the computer reflecting up on their faces, which actually shows some concern and concentration. This to me is probably very telling of how modern warfare is fought."

"I also wanted to show the air side. I was very aware of the fact that with the aging Sea Kings there is obviously the problem of keeping them flying etc.

"One painting I have completed is from the air from behind the Sea King (which is just banking to land on Ottawa). Ottawa is down below and also the Sudani line freighter which they have just been doing an interdiction on. Again, it shows the interdiction work going on and it shows the air side. In fact, Admiral Fraser said 'I have a funny feeling that is the first operational painting that may have ever been done of a Sea King in theatre'."

"I wanted to show what was being achieved and a little bit about what life was about in the modern Navy. I knew I had to paint some sort of ship portraits, as it were, to show what the job was and with that I had done one painting which immediately placed it in the Arabian Gulf. It shows interdiction work i.e. the rubber boat with the crew going up the ladder artfully armed to do an inspection and a search on this dowel with Algonquin in the background. It's painted at sunrise with the haze in the gulf which is from the sand blowing off the desert. It is quite an atmospheric painting but it does show the interdiction work; these are the conditions under which they are working."

"Migrant workers cross the Arabian Gulf in fast open boats, which of course would be an easy way for terrorists to escape from Iran or Pakistan. These vessels are stopped and the occupants interrogated, often under the blazing sun. This can take over 2 hours, which is hard on both sides.

I observed the Canadian sailors give humanitarian help to these poor people after no threat was detected. These workers are merely looking for a better life for their families but are caught up in the terrible politics of our time."

"This painting shows HMCS Algonquin returning to Esquimalt in October 2002 after a 7-month deployment to the Arabian Gulf. It is a painting to which all naval families can relate, hopefully depicting the joy of being reunited after a long absence in a far off theatre.

"The idea for the painting was suggested by Jane Town, wife of Captain Town who was Chief of Staff with MARPAC at the time."

"I remember one hot night standing on the flight deck. We were shadowing a deep sea "vessel of interest". The moon was bright but the horizon was again shrouded in haze. The subject hangs somewhere between romantic and sinister, like a cat stalking a mouse!"

Leslie Hossack is an Ottawa-based photographer whose work has been exhibited across Canada and featured in a variety of publications. In 2013, she was deployed to Kosovo with The Canadian Forces Artists Program, following in a long tradition of national war artists. Hossack has completed major studies of iconic architecture in:

• Vancouver from 2008 to 2013
• Paris in 2009
• Berlin in 2010
• Jerusalem in 2011
• Moscow in 2012

In Ottawa, her exhibition FALLOUT was presented at The Diefenbunker: Canada’s Cold War Museum.

In 2013, Leslie Hossack's series Stalin’s Architectural Legacy received third prize for historic architecture in the International Photography Awards. Her work is held in public and corporate collections in Canada, and in private collections at home and abroad.

Pristina is the capital of Kosovo. This damaged building is one tragic result of the 1998 to 1999 Kosovo War. During this conflict, the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), with air support from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), sought independence from the forces of the former Yugoslavia. Canada participated as a member of the NATO.

Nearly 15 years after the war’s end, the Canadian Forces Artists Program (CFAP) made it possible for photographer Leslie Hossack to visit Kosovo.

Leslie Hossack is interested in memory. Her series "The Kosovo Photographs" documents how the Kosovo War is memorialized in the built environment. In images such as this, her goal is to ensure that nothing detracts from the presence of this ruined building. Largely destroyed and noticeably isolated in the surrounding landscape, it survives as a witness to the defiant violence in Kosovo’s past.

Skenderaj is 30 kilometres northwest of Pristina. In 2004, the National Martyrs’ Memorial bearing the names of 2,184 ethnic Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) war dead was built there.

In this 2013 photograph, its landscaping is crumbling. With its dying shrubs, uncut grass, and weed-infested paths, it neglects the dead. Perhaps it does so intentionally. A year after Hossack’s visit, in July 2014, the European Union Special Investigative Task Force (SITF) announced that some of the KLA's former senior officials committed crimes against humanity and war crimes following the end of the Kosovo War in 1999.

Aislinn Hunter is the author of 6 highly acclaimed books:

• 2 novels
• 2 books of poetry
• a story collection
• a book of lyric essays

Her first novel "Stay" was published in 2002, reissued in 2012 and made into a film in 2013. Her second novel "The World Before Us", won the 2015 BC Book Prize and was a New York Times Editor’s Choice Book.

Aislinn has:

• BFA in History in Art and Creative Writing (UVic)
• an MFA in Creative Writing (UBC)
• an Master of Science in Writing and Cultural Politics (University of Edinburgh)
• PhD in English Literature (University of Edinburgh) where she wrote on museums, 'thing theory', affect and resonance

Her third collection of poetry, "Linger, Still", was published in the spring of 2017 by Gaspereau Press.

Aislinn Hunter lives in British Columbia.

John Hutton was born in Windsor, Ontario. He is a member of the Canadian Aviation Artists Association. His works have been exhibited and accepted into museums and private collections across North America.

John Hutton lives in Windsor, Ontario.

John Hutton visited an exercise of The Snowbirds. Here is one of the paintings he produced.

Born in Scotland, Richard Johnson studied at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design. His drawings and writings have appeared in many publications.

In 2003 he was embedded with the United States Marine Corps for the Detroit Free Press. In 2007 he went with Canadian forces in Kandahar, Afghanistan, for the National Post. He returned to Afghanistan in 2011 and 2012. In 2015 he travelled to Ukraine with the CFAP.

Catherine Jones was born in Halifax and studied at Nova Scotia College of Art and Design.

She created a study called "At the End of the Day", that includes 21 portraits of veterans from Canada, Britain and Germany. It was inspired by a Dinner of Reconciliation in Ortona, Italy in 1998 and based on the theme of forgiveness. "Forgiveness is the rarest of all human attributes," she explains. She has held 15 solo exhibitions since 1980, including "At the End of the Day". Some of her work was unveiled in the Senate of Canada.

Catherine Jones lives in Halifax.

In April 2007, Catherine Jones participated in the Vimy Ridge Memorial ceremonies. More than 19,660 Canadian service men and women from the First World War (WW1) have no known grave. Of these, the names of 11,285 Canadians are listed on the Vimy Memorial.

In 2003, the remains of 2 soldiers from the 49th Canadian Infantry Battalion were discovered near Avion in northern France. Extensive historical, genealogical and forensic research has been conducted in an effort to identify them. Representative of Their Numbers (Oil on Canvas, 137 x 107 cm) is an interpretation of the last moments of these men’s lives. It represents all of Canada’s First World War soldiers who have no known resting place.

Simone Jones is a multidisciplinary artist who works with film, video, sculpture and electronics. Many of her works question the nature of perception. She is interested in how we see and how we translate what we see through various techniques of representation.

Jones graduated from the Ontario College of Art (OCA)(Ontario College of Art & Design Univerity) with a concentration in Experimental Art, and received her MFA in Sculpture Installation from York University in Toronto. Jones has exhibited her work at national and international venues and is represented by Ronald Feldman Fine Arts in New York.

Mary Kavanagh is a visual artist and Professor in the Department of Art at the University of Lethbridge, Alberta.

She has been studying the Cold War and nuclear testing programs. As part of that, Mary Kavanagh has researched and documented activities and items at several historic sites:

• Trinity, New Mexico, site of first atomic bomb test
• Hiroshima, Japan, site of first wartime atomic bombing
• the Diefenbunker, Carp, Ontario, official Canadian bomb shelter
• Wendover Air Base, Utah, training base for WWII atomic bomb missions

Her participation in the CFAP included "Exercise Vigilant Eagle 2013". This was a tri-national live-fly, simulated terrorist hijacking out of Anchorage, Alaska, and Anydyr, Russia. The 3 countries were the US, Russia and Canada. It was staged by North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and the Russian Federation Air Force (RFAF).

She also visited DRDC, Ottawa, where she filmed the Radiological Analysis and Defence (RAD) group in radiation and chemical detection training.

Mary Kavanagh is the recipient of numerous grants and awards. Her work has been extensively exhibited in solo and group exhibitions, most recently Future Station: 2015 Alberta Biennial of Contemporary Art.

These photographic portraits depict DRDC personnel, Jason Brown and Aimee Jones. They are wearing protective clothing designed by Canadian military scientists for defence and combat.

The highly sophisticated suits were then used during the Syrian Civil War in 2013 to protect against chemical weapons. The Expulsion's emphasis is on her subjects’ underlying vulnerability. Through its imagery and title, it subtly refers to the bible story of Adam and Eve following their banishment from the Garden of Eden. It also critiques the promise, represented by the helmets, that technology will bring safety beyond the reach of atmospheric fallout and toxic drift.

Gertrude Kearns was born in Toronto. She has won several awards from the Ontario Society of Artists, the National Aviation Museum and others. She has had over 20 solo exhibits across Canada since 1989. Her work is in the collections of the Canadian War Museum and 10 other institutions. A common theme of her works is the physical expression of engagement and its psychological impact.

Gertrude Kearns lives in Toronto and is affiliated with the Propeller Centre for the Visual Arts.

Gertrude Kearns visited a FIBUA training exercise at Petawawa, 21-8 August 2004. She also spent a month with Canadians in Afghanistan in 2006. Here is how she explains one of the paintings from that visit:

"This painting set the tone for the series [of six works for the Army]. In so doing it was the most difficult at which to arrive. It is based on a day spent in the mountains with the Canadian detachment at the Afghan National Training Centre in Kabul.

"Our 15 Canadian instructors in general coordinated the efforts of six or so other coalition countries teaching the Afghan National Army.

"I have tried to synopsize moods, training activities, history in an upbeat but editorially tinged war poster feel. The context is ‘EH’ land meaning Canada, in relation to Afghanistan. The currently used word ‘asymmetric’ (defined by Wikipedia in the context of warfare as a term that describes ‘a military situation in which two belligerents of unequal power or capacity of action, interact and take advantage of the strengths and weaknesses of themselves and their enemies’) is a loaded wordplay meant to imply also Canada’s propensity for almost 50/50 divisiveness on crucial national concerns. There is internal interaction, physical, psychological and verbal. Interaction with the Canadian public is subtly intended as a projection in this painting in particular."

Born in Solothurn, Switzerland, Thomas Kneubühler has been living in Montréal since 2000. In 2003, he completed a Master’s degree in Studio Arts at Concordia University, Montréal.

His work often deals with social issues and how technology is affecting people’s lives. His work has been presented in many exhibitions in both Europe and North America, including at the Québec Triennial at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal (2011), at the Centre culturel canadien, Paris (2012) and at the Ausstellungsraum Klingental, Basel (2013). In 2011, he was awarded the Pratt & Whitney Canada Prize of the Conseil des arts de Montréal.

Bryne McLaughlin wrote this about him in Canadian Art:

"Whether it is the ambiguous boundaries of public and private space, the all-pervasive spectre of security surveillance or even the radiant, if dehumanizing, beauty of cityscapes, Kneubühler's practice tellingly identifies the co-existing insecurities, uncertainties and subtle pleasures embedded in the structures of modern life."

This photograph is part of a series of 8 images called Days in Night. It was made by photographer Thomas Kneubühler at Canadian Forces Station (CFS) Alert, Nunavut, in February 2013. CFS Alert is the most northerly, permanently inhabited place in the world. It is just 817 kilometres from the geographic North Pole. It houses many temporary inhabitants, as it hosts:

• an airport
• an Environment Canada weather station
• a Global Atmosphere Watch monitoring laboratory
• a military signals intelligence radio receiving facility

The station has polar night from the middle of October until the end of February. Photographing illuminated darkness fascinates Kneubühler, who has previously made images of barely lit office towers and mine tunnels. Here a bright red light centres a web of blue-lit communication towers and wires. There is so much light, that the stars are hardly visible. This image shows such a diversity of human activity that it calls into question any description of Alert as isolated.

The ground is frozen for almost 10 months of the year at Canadian Forces Station (CFS) Alert, Nunavut. Ice and permafrost meld land and sea together and fog often envelops the area. Alert is considered a hardship post, which means that people’s stay here varies from 3 to 6 months and no family is allowed. The temperature was minus 45 degrees Celsius the day Thomas Kneubühler arrived. Interested in photographing the polar night, Kneubühler responded to the variety of light he discovered:

• starlight
• moonlight
• electric light
• briefly, sunlight

Here, an icy outcrop catches the sun’s rays. The extraordinary beauty of this glittering arctic scene belies its inhospitality. Without the modern technology available at CFS Alert, human survival is impossible.

Maskull Lasserre was born in Alberta in 1978, and spent his childhood in Southern Africa. He completed an Undergraduate degree in Visual Art and Philosophy at Mount Allison University. He then did his Graduate studies in Sculpture at Concordia University.

Lasserre works full time out of a studio in Montréal. He has shown work across Canada, and completed several public sculpture commissions. He returned from Afghanistan in March of 2011 where he traveled as an artist with the Canadian Forces Artists Program.

Maskull Lasserre visited HMCS Calgary from August 29 to September 9, 2005. This drawing is one of the images done aboard during their power trial.

Born in Mont-Joli, Quebec, Guy Lavigueur was interested in aviation even before photography. He studied at Dawson Institute of Photography in Montréal.

Aerial photography is at the centre of his recent work in the Canadian North. A member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts since 2004, he has exhibited across Canada:

• Cube Gallery in Ottawa
• Eleanor-London Gallery in Montréal
• Emily Carr University of Art + Design in Vancouver

His work is also in many public, corporate and private collections in North America and Europe.

Emmanuelle Léonard is a Canadian photographer and videographer, born in 1971 in Montréal. She received Masters in media and visual arts from l’Université du Québec à Montréal.

Since 2007 her work has been presented across Canada and around the world, including exhibitions in:

• Paris
• Berlin
• Québec
• Dresden
• Toronto
• Montréal

William MacDonnell studied at Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. Many of his works represent war and its effects, including:

• war-torn fields in Indochina
• German cities in 1919 and 1946
• the aftermath of peacekeeping operations in Croatia
• the signing of the armistice after the First World War

Throughout his works, he reflects on collective memory and forgetfulness.

William MacDonnell lives in Calgary and has presented 24 solo shows since 1979.

The Wall was from William MacDonnell's visit to Croatia in 1995 as part of the previous Canadian Armed Forces Civilian Artists Program (CAFCAP).

William MacDonnell describes Waiting for Twilight from his visit to Afghanistan in 2005:

"At Patrol Base Wilson, on the first night, I was coming out of a large sleeping tent at sundown and saw the DCO and his driver talking to an officer who appeared to be about to lead a group of LAVs out on night patrol.

"I rather hesitantly started to photograph the scene, not knowing whether I was allowed to do so, or whether on a personal basis, people might not want to be photographed.

"Shortly afterward, the DCO turned to me, not smiling, and I thought I was going to be severely reprimanded. Instead, he was delighted, and suggested that I shouldn’t concentrate just on operational situations, but to pay attention to people like sentries, who spend hours at the main gate guard tower, or even more importantly to people like “swampers” whose job consisted in filling gas cans day in and day out – probably the least enviable job at any base."

Allan MacKay was born in Charlottetown, P.E.I., and graduated from the Nova Scotia College of Art in 1967. He has enjoyed a long and multifaceted career in the visual arts as:

• arts administrator
• professional artist
• gallery curator and director

He was the founding Director of the Southern Alberta Art Gallery. He was also Director of the Mendel Art Gallery, Saskatoon, and of the Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery of Toronto.

Allan MacKay lives in Kitchener, Ontario, and works as a curatorial consultant with the Kitchener Waterloo Art Gallery.

Allan MacKay describes 5 of his works created for the Canadian Forces Artists Program (CFAP).

"As part of a tour, we were driven outside the perimeter of the airstrip towards Tarnak Farm. This was very flat desert-type ground, dotted with white flag ground mine locations and was the location where the four Canadian soldiers were killed and eight injured by the American friendly fire bombing. Beyond this point we approached Osama Bin Laden's fortress in the desert."

"I was in the area of the coalition mess tent taking shots to describe this site at meal time and tell the story of the coalition and the mix of forces gathered there: which included Canadians, Americans and Special Forces whose personnel were a mix of various countries. In the background is the main street in the airstrip area."

"This image was taken on a drive in the Tarnak Farm area and approaching what I understand was the Osama Bin Laden fortress where he centralized his activities in this area. The perspective depicts the view from the armoured vehicle with details of the gun and elements of the receding road in this heated, dust-filled environment."

"This image is at the perimeter of the Khandahar airstrip. The structure in the distance is the ruins of a building that was being occupied by Canadian, American and Afghan forces.

"It was at the base of the structure that we arrived and met a number of Afghan soldiers and Canadians who drove in on another personnel carrier. The Americans were hiding under camouflage netting on the roof of the ruin while the Canadians shared tea with the Afghans. It was a guard post shared by these forces."

"It was very hot and dry upon landed in Kandahar when the Hercules doors opened...the middle image is of a woman soldier on the ground who was very much involved with providing direction for the off loading of the aircraft.

"The scene depicted has a theatrical point of view from within the belly of the Hercules with the doors like curtains parting and then suddenly you see the parched landscape and human drama you are going to enter into."

Sharon McKay was born in Montréal. She writes collections of stories for children, about children in war conditions. She interviews children and adults about difficult moments and gives Canadian children “real insight into the role of their Canadian Forces in the world.” She visited Afghanistan in March 2009.

Sharon McKay lives in Kilbride, ON. She has published 7 works of historical fiction for young adults. Two of them were short-listed for the Governor General’s Literary Award. She has also written 11 works of non-fiction, 7 for children and 4 for adults. She is frequently invited to schools to explain to young audiences the role of the military in the world.

Here are some reviews of Thunder over Kandahar.

What If? Canada’s Creative Teen Magazine, Winter 2010

“…a powerful read…McKay is able to bring this far-away, well-researched story right into your bedroom (or wherever you like to read.)"

Quill & Quire, December 2010

“…fast-paced action and appealing characters…bring young readers face to face with the realities of modern Afghanistan, both the dark and the light.”

Canadian Childrens Book News, Fall 2010

“…informative and inspiring…well-constructed and believable…this novel should become essential classroom reading for students in Grades 7 and 8.”

CM Magazine, December 3, 2010

“…provides a gripping, empathetic look at one of the most dangerous and misogynistic societies in existence today through the believable, inspiring characters of Yasmine and her friend Tamanna. Highly recommended.”

Karen Rigby forewordreviews.com

"...McKay, the first novelist for young adults to be designated as a Canadian War Artist, has drawn from her travel in Afghanistan to create Thunder Over Kandahar - a bracing, if at times providential, account of crossing borders, surviving bombing, and embracing adoption, among other topics."

Ramses Madina studied at Carleton University and has presented works across North America. These collections include his works:

• York University
• McGill University
• the City of Ottawa

Further reading on Ramses Madina:

• Canadian Forces Artists Program (CFAP) – Following the CAF in Canada and Around the World

Rhonda Weppler (born in Winnipeg) and Trevor Mahovsky (born in Calgary) have worked together since 2004. Both artists have MFA degrees from the University of British Columbia, where they met in 1996.

Their exhibitions include:

• LABoral (Gijon)
• loop-raum (Berlin)
• Tokyo Wonder Site
• Dlectricity (Detroit)
• Flux Night (Atlanta)
• Power Plant (Toronto)
• Vancouver Art Gallery
• Dos de Mayo (Madrid)
• Alter Space (San Francisco)
• the National Gallery of Canada

They completed a permanent commission for the Main Street Skytrain station, Vancouver. Recipients of the 2014 Glenfiddich Prize, their work is represented in public collections including the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal and the National Gallery of Canada.

In 2015, long-term artist collaborators Rhonda Weppler and Trevor Mahovsky visited the Royal Military College (RMC) in Kingston. RMC is the Canadian Forces military university.

The pair work in sculpture and photography. Much their art records repetitive daily chores like shopping or scrounging and hoarding. Here are 2 of the photographs from their time in the RMC’s museum collections. To create these storage photographs, Weppler and Mahovsky digitally stitched together many still images.

One result of this painstaking process is a line of varied military headgear, some seeming to appear more than once.

The other image presents an idiosyncratic collection of military souvenirs. For instance, we see:

• toy soldiers
• cruet-stands
• miniature cannons

Both photographs include the grey metal shelves on which these objects are stored. You view the displays as though experiencing them in reality; they are life-size. The Diefenbunker’s former bank vault once housed similar shelves intended to store Canada’s gold reserves. In these images, the artists allow us to consider how wealth is not always to be counted in gold bars but in an object’s history. Each of these curious items has a story to tell about Canada’s military past.

Karole Marois was born in Ottawa, where she now lives. She graduated from Toronto's Ontario College of Art and Design in 1979. She continued her studies at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence, Italy. The art of the Renaissance continues to be an important source of inspiration for her painting and mural work.

Marois paints murals for both the public and private sectors. Her clients include the National Museums of Canada and Parks Canada. Producing large works allows her to create environments that engage the viewer’s interest and elicit an emotional connection. While her inspiration is rooted in the human form and psyche, her subject matter is diverse.

Since she began her artistic career, Karole has travelled and exhibited extensively, and her work can be found in private and public collections across Canada and abroad.

As part of the Canadian Forces Artist Program (CFAP), she went to the Netherlands in 2005. She viewed the celebrations of the 60th anniversary of the Liberation of Holland. One of her large painting installations, The Parade, is based on this experience. It is part of a touring exhibition by the Canadian War Museum. This exhibition, “A Brush with War: Military Art from Korea to Afghanistan”, went across Canada from 2009 to 2012.

Karole Marois visited Sherbrooke in December 2003 and the Netherlands from April 25 to May 12, 2005. Here is how she describes a work that came from those visits:

“The Parade is an installation of 13 canvases measuring each 1 ft wide by 4 ft high. Number 13 is a significant number. It can either be happy or sad. I purposely chose this shape of canvas so that when installed together side by side, the complete artwork would look like a row of soldiers, or a row of gravestones. Life and death together side by side. Two of the canvases are actually painted as gravestones of real Canadian soldiers who have died during the Second World War and are buried in cemeteries in the Netherlands.

"The Parade includes the 3 services (Army, Air Force and Navy). I emphasized the grey rainy weather to make the parade look more like an illusion, a feeling. The parade becomes a reflection moving across a row of gravestones. Like a memory of 60 years ago. You can see Dutch houses, an old windmill and a bicycle path. A Dutch child hugs a Canadian veteran, and flags of Canada and the Netherlands stand out joyfully against the grey background.”

Michael Markowsky is a visual artist and writer who lives in Vancouver. He mainly makes semi-abstract drawings and oil paintings inspired by the landscape. Michael was born and raised in Calgary, Alberta, where he graduated with honors from the Alberta College of Art. Michael also studied at Cooper Union in New York City and the Royal College of Art in London, UK. He then earned his MFA at Art Center in Los Angeles in 2002.

His artwork has been exhibited alongside artists such as:

• Ed Ruscha (twice)
• Robert Rauschenberg
• William S. Burroughs

He has exhibited in galleries and museums in:

• Montréal
• New York
• Vancouver
• Los Angeles
• San Francisco

Michael’s artwork is often featured on television and in print media, including:

• CBC
• CTV
• NBC
• City TV
• Shaw TV
• Global TV
• Globe and Mail
• Calgary Herald
• ArtUS Magazine
• FFWD Magazine
• Pasadena Weekly
• Pasadena Star-News
• Beat Route Magazine

Born in Québec City, Ivan Murphy studied at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design.

Most of his acrylic paintings reference landscape to frame his narratives. The places may not exist as painted. But they represent slivers of memories or impressions from dream sequences, providing authenticity to the image.

Ivan Murphy has received awards from the Nova Scotia Department of Culture. His works are held in numerous public and private collections, including:

• Global Affairs Canada
• TD Bank, Nova Scotia
• U.S. Consulate General
• Accelerator Inc, Nova Scotia
• McInnes Cooper, Nova Scotia
• St. Lawrence College, Quebec
• Ocean Entertainment, Nova Scotia
• Spectacle Design Inc., Nova Scotia
• Butterfield Fund Services, Nova Scotia
• Nova Scotia Art Bank (2006 and 2012)

Further reading on Ivan Murphy:

• Canadian Forces Artists Program (CFAP) – Following the CAF in Canada and Around the World

Kathryn Mussallem earned her BFA (Photo) and a Master of Applied Arts in Visual Arts from Emily Carr University of Art and Design in Vancouver. She then earned a Master of Professional Studies in Digital Photography from the School of Visual Arts in New York NY.

Kathryn Mussallem became an exhibiting photographer, printmaker and illustrator. Her work has appeared in group exhibitions in:

• New York
• Vancouver
• Minneapolis
• London, UK
• Leiden, Netherlands
• Saint Remy de Provence France

She won the Canadian National Prize at the 2016 Sony World Photography Awards. Some solo exhibitions include:

• Santa Barbara Maritime Museum (2016)
• the Maritime Museum San Diego (2014)
• the Los Angeles Maritime Museum (2015)
• It's a Sailors Life for Me at the Maritime Museum San Diego (2017)
• Tattoos & Scrimshaw: the Art of the Sailor at the Vancouver Maritime Museum (2013)

Midi Onodera is an award-winning Canadian filmmaker who has been directing, producing and writing films for over 20 years. She has over 25 independent short films to her credit, as well as a theatrical feature film and several video shorts. Her recent works feature a collage of formats and mediums. They range from 16mm film to Hi8 video to digital video and “low end” digital toy formats such as:

• the Tyco video camera
• the Trendmasters video camera
• the Intel Mattel computer microscope
• a modified Nintendo Game Boy Camera

Louie Palu is a documentary photographer and filmmaker whose work has examined social political issues such as human rights, poverty and war for 26 years. He is a Guggenheim Foundation Fellow and Harry Ransom Center Research Fellow at the University of Texas at Austin. He has been awarded 2 separate Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting Grants for projects, which include the Mexican drug war and organized crime.

Louie Palu has covered conflict in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Mexico and Ukraine. His work is held in numerous collections including:

• National Gallery of Art
• Museum of Fine Arts Boston
• Museum of Fine Arts Houston

His work has been featured by:

• BBC
• El Pais
• Der Spiegel
• La Republica
• The New York Times

His photographs and films have been exhibited in numerous museums and festivals internationally, including at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery and Munich Documentary Film Festival. He has published numerous books, including his most recent Front Towards Enemy (2017 Yoffy Press).

He is working on a long-term project on the future of the changing Arctic with National Geographic Magazine.

Sylvia Pecota, award-winning photographer and artist, was born in Toronto. She was the first Canadian woman to hold an exhibition in the former Soviet Union. She also exhibited in:

• Italy
• Canada
• Australia
• Germany

During her 2006 assignment in Kandahar, Sylvia Pecota exhibited her Canadian prints at Canada House on Kandahar Air Base.

Silvia Pecota visited Sherbrooke in 2003, Haiti in 2004 and Afghanistan from 2006 to 2007. This is one of the images from those trips.

Timootee Pitsiulak was born in Kimmirut, Nunavut. He passed away in 2016.

Talia Pura studied theatre at the University of Winnipeg and the University of Manitoba. She has taught drama in public schools. Since 1987, she has been an adjudicator in Speech Arts and Drama Festivals in Manitoba and Northwestern Ontario. She has published 4 plays and the work of non-fiction Stages: Creative Ideas for Teaching Drama.

She lives in Manitoba and teaches drama at the University of Winnipeg.

Leslie Reid's work has long explored the perceptual and psychological sensations evoked by the experience of a particular place. Her paintings bring together the sensory effects of light and space with the lived history of that place. This is often through references to family. Her works touch on feelings of danger, refuge and survival that reside there.

Her work was exhibited in Builders: Canadian Biennial 2012 at the National Gallery of Canada. In 2011, the Carleton University Art Gallery held the retrospective Leslie Reid: A Darkening Vision. The exhibition was curated by former Director Diana Nemiroff. It featured paintings from 1975 to 2011, as well as new ventures in video.

Leslie Reid travelled in the Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut with CF Op Nanook, as a participant with the Canadian Forces Artists Program.

Leslie Reid is Professor Emerita in the Department of Visual Arts, University of Ottawa.

Zeqirja Rexhepi was born in Perlepnice, Gjilan, Kosovo. He studied at the art college of Scopia, Macedonia and the Academy of Art at the University of Prishtina. He worked as a professional artist for 25 years, known for creating monumental frescoes for churches and mosques. He has exhibited in several countries of Europe and in Canada. But he is best known for his painting in the Church of Binqa in Kosova.

Zeqirja Rexhepi lives in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, where he has produced several murals throughout the city.

Zeqirja Rexhepi attended commemoration ceremonies in Ottawa, Nov. 2004. He gave this message with this painting: "To remember those who have sacrificed their lives for Canada's better future."

Zeqirja Rexhepi gave this message with this painting: "Sending out our forces to countries in conflict to bring peace to them."

Zeqirja Rexhepi gave this message with this painting: "Traumatized and hoping for help."

Mark Richfield was born in British Columbia. He has participated in several exhibitions at the Pitt Gallery in Vancouver. He lives in Pitt Meadows, British Columbia.

Mark Richfield attended ceremonies in Cold Lake, Alberta, from March 28 to April 2, 2005. These are two works from that visit.

Erin Riley was born in Toronto. She studied at the University of Western Ontario and Loyalist College.

Her works focus on specific individuals and details in their surroundings. Through these, she expresses universal themes and characteristics. She uses a combination of audio interviews, photography and texts. With these, she creates portraits of personnel on duty to help find the universal in the specific. She visited the Canadian North in April 2009.

Erin Riley lives in Toronto. She has exhibited works across Canada, and worked for several publications, including:

• Chill
• Toronto Sun
• National Post
• ROB Magazine

Erin Riley describes her experience with the Canadian Forces Artists Program (CFAP):

"We left Yellowknife in the middle of the night under complete darkness. Disembarking from the Hercules in Eureka I was immediately hit with the cold air, which snapped me awake. I was then struck by just how bright it was. Everything was so white and the sky twinkled with the sun refracting off particles in the air. It felt like we had landed on the moon."

Here are a few of the images she captured in 2008 to 2009:

Here are 2 images she captured in 2014 to 2015:

Olivia Rozema’s work is driven by her obsessive interests that she approaches with the methodical precision of a scientist. She reframes the subjects of her obsessions as large scale formal ceramic sculptures by magnifying them in size and transforming the surface. Mimicking the aesthetic of fossils, her subjects are made strange in both form and texture in order to increase the length of perception. She sees perception is an end in itself, and must be prolonged.

Olivia Rozema’s sculptures embody a type of self-knowledge. Their forms suggest something we feel we should recognize but cannot place. These forms, removed from their natural context and enlarged, live in the space between the familiar and the unfamiliar. They dramatize the often anxious relationship between inside and outside, and our general disassociation from the parts that make up wholes.

Olivia Rozema received a BaH in Visual Art and Classics from McMaster University in 2014. She then earned an MFA in sculpture from the University of Regina in 2016. She has facilitated workshops and arts based programming throughout Canada. She participated in a long-term artist-in-residency at Medalta in "Historic Clay District International Artist in Residence". Her work has been exhibited in galleries across Canada.

Olivia Rozema lives in Grimsby, Ontario.

Andreas Rutkauskas investigates the effect of various technologies on the perception and development of landscapes through the use of photography and video. His recent projects look at the impact of internet-based research on wilderness recreation, cycles of industrialization and deindustrialization in Canada’s oil patch, and the subtle technologies used to survey the Canada/U.S. border.

Rutkauskas’ work has been exhibited in galleries and festivals including:

• El Museo de la Cancilleria, Mexico City (2017)
• Ryerson Image Centre, Toronto (2016)
• Le Mois de la Photo à Montréal (2015)
• Gallery 400, Chicago (2014)

His work has been featured in:

• Wired
• Artpress
• Canadian Art
• CBC News World

Charles Stankievech creates ‘fieldworks’ engaging in art, architecture and music. His work has been exhibited internationally in a variety of settings from museums and galleries to festivals and concert halls. His writings have been included in journals published by MIT Press and Princeton Architectural Press. His work has been translated into French, Italian and German.

Stankievech holds an MFA in Open Media and an honours BA in Philosophy and Literature. He is a founding faculty member of the Yukon School of Visual Arts in Dawson City, Yukon Territory.

Stankievech splits his time between the Arctic and other landscapes.

Suzanne Steele was born in Vancouver. She records the Canadian soldier’s experience (relationships with colleagues, environment, equipment, people encountered, internal journey) through her poetry. She reflects “the challenges, the humour and the realities of the contemporary Canadian soldier.”

Suzanne Steele lives in Victoria. She has studied in Scotland, in Banff, at the University of British Columbia and at the University of Western Ontario. She has shared her works through many publications and public readings.

Here is a poem she wrote as part of the Canadian Forces Artists Program:

I watch you infantryman
so gucci in the Suffield dust
your body turned by a year of sweat
duress, Carl G sleeplessness,
like liquid glass blown gaudy
in the white-hot war furnace
into something steely, fragile, precious.
Your bed, the inside of your head
nodding into your frag vest,
mother LAV humming hot then cold,
while Cpl. Zee on sentry blows
cigarillo halos at emerald worlds
of infra-red, thermals,
watching watching arcs right
then left, ghosty glows
coyotes creeping tall prairie grass.
You, zenith of man at 26,
face sooted green with live-fire,
two-tour-old-guy-eyes in young man’s skin,
I’ll think of you when you go over again, your pencil, your pen,
your sketchpad falling from your sleeping hand;
I’ll think of you, the bitching brothers,
sleeping upright in the belly of the LAV
shoulder-to-shoulder, knee-to-knee crammed,
doing time in cell-phone-Bible-land,
I’ll think of you, all of you,
‘til the Herc lands
and most of you
come marching home again.

On November 28, 2009, Patrick White of The Globe and Mail had this to say about her in his article "Penning lyrical images of the broken beautiful men":

"One imprecise line of poetry brought Suzanne Steele from the fat rains of Victoria, B.C., to the searing moondust of Kandahar. Three years ago, the poet read about the death of Corporal Anthony Boneca, a Thunder Bay reservist killed in 2006 near Kandahar city, and felt compelled to write an elegy. 'I had been away in the U.K. for a few years and, until then, didn't realize how involved Canada was in the war,' she said. 'As a poet, I just had to respond.' But her efforts stalled on the line 'in fields of grape vines and hot white dust.' Nestled on the west coast of Canada, the poet didn't have a clue what the colour of dust was in Afghanistan. So she picked up the phone and called National Defence in Ottawa. that call would lead her down a path to becoming [a CFAP artist]. 'Accuracy in imagery is very important,' she said. 'I had to get the colour right'."

Adrian Stimson is a member of the Siksika (Blackfoot) Nation in Southern Alberta and an interdisciplinary artist. He earned a BFA with distinction from the Alberta College of Art + Design. He got his MFA from the University of Saskatchewan. And he completed the artist in residence program "Living Artfully" at the Mendel Art Gallery, Saskatoon.

His work explores ideas of punishment, identity and the re-signification of post-colonial history. Select exhibitions include:

• Face the Nation (2008), Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton
• Marisa Portolese: Adrian Stimson (2008), IPS Gallery, Montréal
• Putting the Wild Back into the West (2008), La Centrale, Montréal
• Honouring Tradition: Re-framing Native Art (2008), Glenbow Museum, Calgary
• Tracing History: Presenting the Unpresentable (2008), Glenbow Museum, Calgary

Adrian has worked as an associate curator at the Mendel Art Gallery, and as a sessional instructor at the University of Saskatchewan. His curatorial projects include:

• Articulations (2007)
• Emotional Geographies (2007)
• The Easy Magic Machine: Barrett Russell (2007)
• LIVE/LIVE (2006)
• ArtsUp (2006)
• SNAG (2003)
• An Aboriginal Affair (2002)

He has also contributed to Blackflash and numerous other publications.

Ho Tam studied at McMaster University and the Banff Centre for the Arts. He also participated in programs at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York and the MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire. In addition to his contributions in over 30 group exhibitions across the continent, he has had over 20 solo exhibits.

Ho Tam lives in Toronto.

Ho Tam travelled with HMCS Calgary from Pearl Harbor to Esquimalt in February 2005.

Katherine Taylor grew up in Toronto and graduated from the Ontario College of Art. After marrying a soldier posted to Germany, she developed an interest and expertise in military subjects. In the late 1980s, she co-founded the magazine Esprit de Corps to celebrate and document the Canadian Forces and their work throughout the world. She has been commissioned for a variety of military studies by:

• museums
• regiments
• air shows
• individuals
• corporations

Katherine Taylor lives in Ottawa.

In this detailed montage, an AETE pilot prepares for flight.

In this detailed montage, the aircraft maintenance procedures and safety measures are performed on the tarmac before a flight.

Here is what Katherine Taylor has to say about her experience:

"I was not able to take a flight in the T-33 because of the specific requirements and security limitations so I decided to create a story told from a pilot and his ground crew’s points of view. I wanted to illustrate the preparations that the pilot would make, and the care that the technicians and crew make in preparing and securing a safe flight before take off.

"It seemed to me that Cold Lake base is truly a world unto itself. Without the influences of any major city in proximity, it was a fascinating look into the world of the Canadian air force in terms of the structure and command, AETE’s purpose, the discipline, the cleanliness, the austerity, the comradery, attention to fitness, and the fact that this T-33 aircraft’s time was coming to an end. This gave the ceremonies a somber and reflective tone."

Katherine Taylor attended ceremonies in Cold Lake, Alberta from March 28 to April 2, 2005.

Althea Thauberger was born in Saskatoon. Through photography, murals, film and other media, she explores “self expression and difficulties of communication; relationships between the individual and social/political structures; and nature.” She visited Afghanistan in March 2009.

Althea Thauberger studied at Concordia and completed a MFA at the University of Victoria. She has had 12 solo exhibitions:

• in Berlin
• in Utrecht
• in New York
• in Nottingham
• throughout Canada

Althea Thauberger lives in Vancouver. She teaches at Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design.

Here is what Althea Thauberger has to say about her experience:

“We arrived in the wee hours at the KAF. I did not see much, but it was very surreal, very apocalyptical feeling. Dust, vehicles, tents, makeshift roads, overwhelming smell of sewage ...I knew before I left that I was interested primarily in women in uniform who were deployed in Afghanistan. It is the first time Canadian women were deployed in such numbers, and especially since this is Canada's first active combat operation since the Korean War.... For the most part we (myself and writer Sharon McKay who traveled with me) were treated with incredible respect, good humour and helpfulness. The visits officers at KAF were outstanding and really amazing, knowledgeable and professional.”

Mark Thompson was born in Ottawa in 1958 and graduated from the Ontario College of Art (now OCADU) in 1985. He has been self-employed as a glass-based visual artist since 1991. He has exhibited extensively, including a solo show at the Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery in 2003. His art form is glass-based paintings and sculpture. He also occasionally works as a stained glass conservator, including completing a 2-year project on the glasswork in the House of Commons.

Mark Thompson built and maintains a fully equipped glass studio near Westport Ontario.

Eric Walker is originally from Halifax. He has a Canadian Forces background. His grandfather was a Chief Petty Officer in the Canadian Army Service Corp. His father was a Royal Canadian Navy veteran of the Second World War. Eric studied media and visual art at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in Halifax from 1976 to 1984. His work, spanning a quarter of a century, is widely collected.

Eric Walker is a Métis acadien and a member of the Eastern Woodland Métis Nation of Nova Scotia.

In this detailed montage, the aircraft maintenance procedures and safety measures are performed on the tarmac before a flight.

Ian Wall grew up in Brampton and studied art at Sheridan College in the early 1990s. Prior to that he spent 8 years with Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry. He recorded some of his experiences as a soldier in art.

Ian Wall lives in Kincardine, Ontario, where he helped establish the Victoria Park Art Gallery and has participated in several exhibitions.

Ian Wall attended commemoration ceremonies in Normandy, June 2 to 11, 2004. Here is a work that came from that visit.

Scott Waters received a visual art degree from the University of Victoria and an MFA from York University. He is a former soldier with the PPCLI.

His art practice investigates:

• how the military society (especially the infantry) operates as a social unit, both in isolation and in relation to civilian society
• how fraternity and mythology informs these societies
• how the external viewer perceives them

Born in northern England, Scott Waters grew up in British Columbia. He now lives in Toronto.

Scott Waters had this to say about "Sleeping in a LAV":

"A primary investigation in my CFAP project is the depiction, in equal parts, of heroism and banality in combat soldiering. In this case, two soldiers from India Coy. of 2 RCR are shown sleeping in the back of a Light Armoured Vehicle during an exercise prior to their deployment to Afghanistan.

"While this piece emphasizes the long periods of boredom that accompany soldiering, it concurrently insists upon assumed heroism via the soldier’s clothing and equipment as well as the viewer’s knowledge of Canada’s current Afghan mission. As a former infantry soldier I am also interested in how this image, if painted 10 years ago, would be read much differently, would lack the mortal associations now colouring our perceptions of soldiering for Canada."

Jessica Lynn Wiebe is from Brandon, Manitoba. She graduated with her BFA from NSCAD University in 2015, and with her BEd from Acadia University in 2016.

A former artillery soldier in the Canadian military, her artwork investigates the mechanisms of war, including the complex politics around gender, economy, architecture of war and the human condition. She employs storytelling and performance in a multi-disciplinary practice. Her work creates dialogue by engaging and challenging deeply held beliefs and emotions about the military and war.

Jessica Lynn Wiebe lives and works in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

David Wityk is a Winnipeg based photo-artist who uses photomontage to address industrial history and urban geography. Always searching, his work has assumed a global perspective. His present bodies of work focus on industrial de-evolution and subway transit systems.

David Wityk has a BFA in photography from the University of Manitoba’s School of Fine Art. He has received grants from:

• Manitoba Arts Council
• Winnipeg Arts Council
• Canada Council for the Arts

Andrew Wright's work is described as multi-tiered inquiries into the nature of perception, photographic structures and technologies. It has also been described as the ways we relate to an essentially mediated and primarily visual world. His use of photography links to practices as diverse as Alfred Stieglitz and Iain & Baxter (with whom Wright worked in the 90s). It is non–conventional, as it eschews lyricism and traditional pictorial aims. His practice is where traditional and conceptual forms of artmaking meet.

He has exhibited widely, both nationally and internationally, with exhibitions at:

• Photo Miami
• ARCO '05 (Madrid)
• Oakville Galleries
• Peak Gallery, Toronto
• The Art Gallery of Calgary
• Presentation House, Vancouver
• Roam Contemporary (New York)
• University of California, Berkeley

He has also participated in residencies, including the Banff Centre and Braziers Workshop (U.K.). He is the founding Artistic Director for Contemporary Art Forum Kitchener and Area (CAFKA).

Wright is the recipient of numerous awards. In 2010, he was awarded a grant from the Canada Foundation for Innovation for high resolution digital capture. In 2001, he was the winner of the Ernst & Young Great Canadian Printmaking Competition, and has received grants from:

• Ontario Arts Council
• Canada Council for the Arts
• Waterloo Regional Arts Fund

He has received critical acclaim for his work in publications such as:

• Canadian Art
• Border Crossings
• The Globe & Mail

He has been nominated 6 times for the Sobey Art Award and in 2007 he was named a semi-finalist for the award. He was also nominated for the prestigious Karsh Award in Photography in 2010 and 2012. In 2011, he won the inaugural BMW Exhibition Award at Contact Photography Festival in Toronto.

Andrew Wright is represented by Patrick Mikhail Gallery in Ottawa. He is an Associate Professor of Visual Art and Acting Chair of the Department of Visual Arts at the University of Ottawa.

Andrew Wright lives in Waterloo, Ontario.

He had this to say about his experience with the Canadian Forces Artists Program:

“My experience aboard HMCS Toronto in 2005 offered me uncommon insight into the daily operations of the Navy and into the lives of those who serve. I spent my time taking and offering photographic portraits to the crew in addition to gathering imagery that led to further work and explorations--some of which continue to this day”

Born in Montréal, Edward Zuber is a veteran of the Korean Conflict.