Fire Followers

Fire Followers by Megan Majewski and Sharon Roberts
January 30 – October 24, 2021, and online

Artist Megan Majewski and writer Sharon Roberts give voice to forests impacted by the BC wildfires.

Artist Statement:

As humans, we have a complicated but necessary relationship with the forests that surround us but how we manage that relationship isn’t always straightforward. With the increase in frequency of large, uncontrollable, interface fires, addressing how to manage this relationship is at the forefront of many British Columbians minds. Born out of witnessing the impact of wildfire firsthand, the artists’ launched the Fire Followers project to both contribute to this dialogue but also to provide a forum for this discussion to take place.

Painter Megan Majewski and writer Sharon Roberts started collaborating on the Fire Followers project after discussing the impact that forest fires have had in their own lives. This gave way to the idea of creating an exhibit that can show both the destruction but also the great beauty that comes from wildfire. By providing a forum for those who have witnessed this cycle but also to give a voice to the forests themselves, the artists aim is to bring greater awareness of the necessity of wildfire in building a healthy forest.

The Artists’ greatest hopes for the project are to help shape the public perception of what a healthy forest looks like, why it can be helpful to let fires burn when there is no immediate risk to a community, and how individuals can contribute to decreasing wildfire risk.

“We view this exhibit as a living and breathing thing, just as the forests are – it’s just a sapling now, it’s soil freshly tilled. With the care and nurturing by all who contribute it will take on a life of its own and grow into something beautiful that we can’t yet imagine. Something as rich and diverse as the forests themselves.”

~Sharon and Megan

Artist Biographies:

Sharon Roberts

Part project manager, part creative, and full of curiosity, Sharon Roberts is a project manager, educator and writer living and working in Vancouver, B.C. Driven by a deep desire to enhance human understanding through creative fiction and non-fiction storytelling, Sharon strives to see the human element in everything. She takes immense pleasure from people watching and trying to interpret the underlying drives and desires that motivate action.

Her background includes an undergraduate degree in Communication at Simon Fraser University where she spent her time studying the ways that mediated communication shapes how humans interact with one another and the world around us. Complimented by 10 years as a project manager in Visual Effects for feature films, her unique skill set brings a fresh perspective to both the theory and application of artistic story-telling and how it can be used to enhance human understanding.

Megan Majewski

Megan Majewski is an established pop-surreal artist whose narrative work tells stories from her dreams, experiences and memories. She focuses on capturing the shadows in her unconscious and bringing them to life through symbolism and the haunting figures in her paintings.  Her recent work explores the fragile beauty of life and death while fixated by symbolism from cryptological communication through the use of flowers.  Over the last couple of years, she has started experimenting with new materials while documenting her fascination with nature.  Collecting charcoal and ashes from the wildfire areas near where she grew up.  Creating paintings that immortalize the destroyed forests, celebrate the wildflowers that thrive off the destruction and show the beauty in the darkness.

She has had her art featured all over the world and has been a GOLDEN Artist Educator since 2016 and a Silver Brush Educator since 2019. Her art installation “Tales From The Forest“ was commissioned by the Vancouver Opera Company and displayed during their 2019 spring season.  Megan’s love for storytelling through her art is what keeps her experimenting with different mediums and creative visions.  With a background in animation, working on movies and TV shows, she now creates art full time from her art studio in Vancouver Canada.

Exhibition Contributors:

Curators
Yukiko Stranger-Galey and Derek Tan

Scientific Curator
Linda Jennings

Exhibitions Assistant
Rachel Roy

Designer
Evan Craig

Fabricator
Lesha Koop

Education Advisor
Vincent Sayson