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Isla Burns Gives Shape to Memory On the patience and determination to bend steel WORDS BY JOE GURBA PHOTOGRAPHY BY ED ELLIS
From the tension and heft of steel, Isla Burns has forged a sculptural legacy in Alberta over the last half century. Being born in India, raised in Scotland, and ultimately enrolling in fine arts in Calgary in the early 70’s, Burns’ life was already the stuff of biopics the day she saw the newly built welding school neighboring her arts campus. From that first scent of steel yielding to the leaping lightning of a MIG welder, Burns became one of the first women to enroll in the welding program. In these early heydays of the Albertan oil industry, she entered welding confident she could work in the trade while transferring her new skills to her first love: sculpture. ▶
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