Heather Passmore, Form Letters 2009 (2010), mixed media [The New Gallery, Calgary AB, Mar 18-Apr 23]

Heather Passmore, Form Letters 2002 (2010), mixed media [The New Gallery, Calgary AB, Mar 18-Apr 23]

Heather Passmore, Form Letters 2008 (2010), mixed media [The New Gallery, Calgary AB, Mar 18-Apr 23]

The most interesting thing about Vancouver artist Heather Passmore’s practice may be the rejection letters she has received in response to her applications to art galleries, granting agencies and artist residencies. Her Form Letters series is a body of work using rejection letters, literally, as the basis for drawing and painting.

Passmore has invited “patrons” of her work to sponsor a piece through a $50 donation. After drawing and painting around, between and beside the passages of text in each letter, she prints and distributes copies of the completed work. Many of the images are decorated with adorable animals, bucolic landscapes and imaginative weather conditions reminiscent of the light touch of the 19th-century French artist Honoré Daumier, or the children’s illustrators Beatrix Potter and Kate Greenaway. Other works – much less comforting and more in the spirit of feeling rejected – have a dark, urban realism.

Heather Passmore is actually an accomplished artist who combines painting, drawing and photography with used materials such as linoleum, mattresses, plywood, and T-shirts. For the past ten years she has exhibited extensively in solo and group exhibitions across Canada and internationally. She earned a BFA from the University of British Columbia in 2000 and an MFA in 2004. Despite her rejections, she has had nine solo shows and four two-person exhibits in the past six years, and has been the recipient of 16 awards, scholarships and grants. Following the Calgary exhibit, she will be in residence in Iceland during the month of May.

www.thenewgallery.org

Mia Johnson