The Creative Code in Chaos

Written By Kelly Putter | Featuring Artist Briar Emond

Messy, tactile finger painting with wee ones may have informed the next career step of Burlington artist Briar Emond, but her semi-abstract renderings of trees, water and other natural scenes are the result of a strong left-right brain balance. “I never thought about painting before I was 40,” says the 55-year-old mother of two teens. “I was finger painting with my kids one day and realized how special it was. I’m not a person who has hobbies. I never painted when the kids painted. But when I did, I figured out that play is not useless.”

What she learned about painting is how to explore ideas and emotions and that what’s important in the creative process is not perfection but the feelings called to mind by a work of art. “What’s great about art is how it’s interpreted,” she says. “I love if people see things in my work that I didn't intend. That tells me about the observer. I create space on a canvas for people that allows them to think and find different things on different days. I’m not interested in doing things that have been done; I don’t want to be influenced by other people’s work.”

Her lead-up to the art world could be described as circuitous. Born and raised in Mississauga, Emond earned a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Guelph University. She worked as an account manager in banking for eight years before doing a complete about-face, which eventually immersed her into the world of film and television production. But by her mid-thirties, the prospect of motherhood beckoned so she decided to make raising her children her livelihood.

Today, Emond works from a studio in her Burlington basement, where her unusual painting technique sees her pouring acrylic paint onto typically large canvasses that are laid out horizontally on the floor. Once she gets an image she likes, her canvasses are placed vertically for her to fine-tune.

Emond liquefies her paint with water, often using a spray bottle so she can play with the consistencies of her paints. She sprays water where she wants the paint to go and the result is often exploratory though not completely out of left field. “I work with the paint to explore repetitive patterns that occur naturally in nature,” she says. “I love to see the paint lead the way in regards to creating leaves or water tributaries -- the natural patterns we see in nature. Then I see what the paint does and then I play with the paint. Usually, I’ll see a leaf in it or a lot of trees, a flower or a body of water. I let the paint lead the way. It’s way more interesting that way.”

The left side of Emond's brain recognizes nature’s patterns and how they’re forged in mathematical classifications. Citing the Fibonacci sequence, a well-known math formula in which each number in the sequence is the sum of the two numbers that precede it, she is still awed by its unassuming splendour. Its design pattern is often used to create art, architecture and graphic design. “That’s how a sunflower grows, how 99 percent of everything grows,” she says. “That’s the language of our physical reality. It’s not just a ‘woo-hoo’ thing. There’s a reason why this equation explains things so well. What appears to be chaos is quite logical and beautiful in its simplicity. That’s where the math comes in.”

Given her background as a banker and as the daughter of an accountant, Emond’s passion for mathematical patterns provides fierce inspiration. It adds up. Before she started painting, she viewed math as a utilitarian device meant for calculation. Today, she describes it as “our only truth. I explore visualizing the math of our nature in my work,” she told UNICEF. “I figure if everyone could see and feel how mathematically awesome our physical reality is, we would treat it with more care. If we could all see how physically interconnected we are, we would treat each other with more respect.”

At the end of January, Emond will have work on display at Sakai Japanese and Korean Restaurant on Fairview Street in Burlington. In the meantime, her artwork is available for sale or rental at the Art Gallery
of Burlington Shop. Her latest series is based on the Niagara Escarpment and Lake Ontario.

Emond spent the remainder of 2023 completing artwork that was commissioned as holiday gifts. But whether it’s the pressure of meeting artistic deadlines or just painting for pure joy, it’s obvious Emond
has found her purpose for being. “I love painting, she says. “I like the tactile feeling of applying paint to a canvas and the emotional feeling of creating something. I paint whatever interests me at the time. My work is intended to highlight the things we cannot see but can feel; be it the wind, gravity or the seemingly magical code to the chaos: math. Whether we understand the math or just feel its simplistic power, it is there, guiding our universe all the way from the microbial level to the big picture of space. The recurring shapes and formations that can be seen at all levels fascinate and excite me.”

Follow for more: @BriarEmondArtist