Arts and Entertainment
FEATURE ARTIST
JOLENE MINER Creative pursuits have always been a part of my life. One of my earliest memories is of making paper - moving the heavy screen around in the thick slurry, hands cool and wet, soggy fibers coalescing as the fledgling paper starts to take shape. The teacher had mixed orange zest into the water, and it coloured the finished sheet a soft peach and left it with a bright citrus scent. I was utterly enchanted. This is probably why I’m a PAPER NUT (yes, ALL CAPS). I don’t love paper. I’m
NUTS about it. And anyone who is nuts about paper can tell you it verges on obsession, the intensity of which can’t really be explained — except to say that its origins are probably rooted in a sparkling moment of childhood which means the love of it will be profound and enduring. And this brings me to present day. I am a proud Fernie resident and member of the Fernie Visual Arts Guild, although this is still a relatively new thing I get to
say. I had lived in Saskatchewan my entire life until fate brought me and my husband to this incredible mountain town the summer of 2019. While I completed my BFA at the University of Saskatchewan many, many years earlier, I had kept my art practice private, and it wasn’t until I came to Fernie and was welcomed into its art community that I felt compelled to bring my work into the public eye. The public eye took a number of forms over the last two and a half years. Several
