*ABOUT - Birte Hella*
Biography
Born: Flensburg, Schleswig/Holstein, Germany. Resides: Ontario, Canada.
Academics
BFA'93, Queen's University, Kingston, Canada, Studio Majors: Painting/Sculpture; Summer '88 "Painting the Landscape", Ontario College of Art & Design, (OCAD), Toronto, Canada; and, BA (hons)'71, (Humanities: English/History) University of New Brunswick, (UNB), Fredericton, Canada. Con't Ed. UfT Toronto, Creative Writing.
Background
As a member of the Danish minority in Flensburg, I was raised and educated in both Danish and German customs and traditions until I, along with my family, immigrated to Canada to begin homesteading on a patch of land in Northern, Ontario, Canada, in my tweens.
Art Fundamentals
Inspired by nature and the uniqueness of the Canadian landscape, I began painting in oils in the mid sixties, emulating members of the Group of Seven and other Canadian landscape artists such as Emily Carr (1871-1945) and Tom Thomson (1877-1917). With formal art studies, turning my attention to the European Masters, I was influenced by Expressionism and Neo-Expressionism, which is evident in much of my work.
Approach
I have worked in drawing, painting, and contemporary digital media; however, over the years the majority of my work has been composed of oil based paintings, wherein I ‘express myself' through an ongoing visual dialogue on issues both conceptual and concrete, in singles, segments, and series.
Increasingly my creative expression embraces image creation, manipulation and writings, incorporating both traditional drawings, paintings, printing (landscape, figurative, abstract on any surface and support - real and/or virtual), mixing these via photography and digital image manipulations to produce unique digital artworks to be viewed on screens and/or prints, which when paired with narrative in poetic and prose form in their entirety complete my intent.
Intent: Marking Time while addressing the Destruction of Earth - Global Warming/Climate Change - a move through Awareness through Art pushes me to continue to 'make art' --- with the least footprint possible while doing so.