Tears

Bernadette Mertens-McAllister
Salt Spring Island, BC

Size

36" x 36"

Medium

Multi-media on canvas & duralar

“Tears” pays homage to the indigenous women who went missing on Highway 16, BC.
The painting (canvas covered with a loose sheet of duralar) combines both a narrative and metaphorical perspective. The red dresses are symbols of the cherished, lost women, and the white dresses reveal their innocence and spirit lingering above the ‘cross’ road. I’m inviting you, the viewer, to remember their dignity, to know that their lives matter, and to hold a space in your thoughts for their family and friends so deeply affected.

I’m so grateful because I, too, hitch-hiked that road in 1972.

Tears

Bernadette Mertens-McAllister
Salt Spring Island, BC

About the artist
About the artist

Bernadette Mertens-McAllister
Salt Spring Island, BC

Bernadette Mertens-McAllister has two loves: art and nature. She obtained a Diploma of Applied-Art in Fine Art Photography in Brussels. Her first experience in Canada, when she arrived in 1970, was to travel in the High Arctic using her camera to capture the beauty of the country and its people.

Bernadette has now expanded her work, creating composite photos and multimedia pieces using her photos and acrylic paint. Her techniques strive to make artwork unique where she can express a reality more profound and personal than she could depict with the camera alone.

Her work has been exhibited in Canada, the US, and Mexico.

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