
ARTIST IN RESIDENCE
Due to COVID, we are not currently running our Artist in Residence program. We will post on our website and social media if there are opportunities in the future.
2019
Joan Billey
Joan Billey was born in Fort St John, BC and moved to Terrace in 1992.
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Billey loves and is inspired by the people and landscapes of the west coast of BC. Spending time in the outdoors in this stunning area inspires her art and lifts her soul. She has not settled on one medium and experiments with acrylic, oil, watercolour, and coloured pencils. She also enjoys time in the pottery studio and knitting and sewing at home.
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When not participating in artistic endeavours, she enjoys hiking, biking, gardening, and kayaking.

Joan's painting of Lupine the grizzly bear in the Khutzeymateen estuary.
2018
Click here for Marie-Christine Claveau Artwork.
Since a young age, Marie-Christine has always painted. Born in La Baie, Québec, on the side of the beautiful Saguenay River in 1977, she moved west in 2001. From 2001-2004, Marie-Christine lived in a VW van travelling throughout North America with a base camp in Squamish near the Mamquam River. Her canvases were walls of different cafés and restaurants, friends' vans, guitar cases, wood, and rocks…in her van, she used to sleep with tubes of paint so that they would not freeze during cold nights. Her need for space, change, and growth brought her to Rossland, where she purchased her first home. This move allowed Marie-Christine to have her own working studio space where she could paint and develop her art practice. Her love of the ocean was seasonally satisfied by planting trees from a fishing boat along the BC coast for many years. In 2006, Marie-Christine moved to the Skeena Region with her husband, Michael and daughter, Lily. Together, they worked the raw land in the Nass valley of Rosswood to build a home on a small homestead. Finally, a few years ago, Marie settled herself into a sunlit studio in her family home, where she can now focus on her production of acrylic painting on canvas.
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Marie's paintings of Samuel & Alfie with Tsam Bay and Ensheshe Peak.
2017
Click here for Kelli Clifton's website.
Kelli Clifton was born and raised in Prince Rupert, BC. Her mother is of European ancestry and her father is Gitga’ata from the community of Hartley Bay. A graduate from the University of Victoria (Bachelor of Fine Arts), Clifton later worked as an Aboriginal Youth Intern for both the British Columbia Arts Council and the First Peoples’ Cultural Council. Clifton returned north to attend the Freda Diesing School of Northwest Coast Art (Terrace, BC) where she learned to carve wood and to further develop her design skills. While in school, Clifton received several awards including the YVR Art Youth Scholarship Award for both years she attended Freda Diesing. Since graduating, Kelli's career as an artist has continued to thrive, having successfully received grants from First Peoples' Cultural Council, the British Columbia Arts Council as well as the Canada Council for the Arts. Clifton has always been interested in using her artwork as a form of storytelling-especially in relation to her coastal upbringing and her experiences as a First Nations woman. She now lives in her home community of Prince Rupert where she works for the local school district teaching art and cultural practices to children of all ages.

Kelli's painting of Big Mum & her cub in the estuary.
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Click here for Stark Nature Designs.
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Jodi is a designer, beachcomber and woodworker. She finds incredible beauty hidden in old scrap wood and driftwood. She then repurposes, refines and shapes it into something new and modern, without losing the rustic and organic appeal of the original wood.
Working in the field of environmental communications, Jodi focuses on the role that nature plays in keeping us healthy and grounded. Her combination of wood (especially driftwood), living plants and steel come together to create unique and original pieces that will literally bring life and nature into your home.

Jodi Stark's wood sculpture.