Bed And Breakfast Ottawa

Alvin Starkman, MA, LL.B.

The comic, self-portraits, a young Canadian, and photos of violent deaths in Mexican daily newspaper, make strange bedfellows. But they are an important part of the driving force for the creative energies of the artist Fiona Dunnett, a resident of Oaxaca, Mexico.

Originally from Ottawa, Dunnett lived in Oaxaca since 2005. As with so many artists who are currently living in this city in southern Mexico, his arrival was rather tortuous. And like many others, his artistic talent was influenced virtually every stop along the road. At age five, she left Canada for Bangladesh with his mother Canadian diplomat and the rest of his family. After three years he was back in Ottawa and then a period of three years in Zimbabwe.

"When I left Zimbabwe I felt close to South Africa. I took a course in stone carving all over there, so yes, I suppose living in Zimbabwe has had little influence on what I'm doing now, "she guesses. But it was his university education at tertiary level, first at the Canterbury School of Arts and the University of British Columbia, Victoria, from which she received a Hons. BA in Fine Arts, which exposed him to characters who have influenced his creativity the most.

"I had a keen interest in the work of Gustav Klimt [1862 - 1918]," reveals Dunnett. The Austrian symbolist painter was one of the most prominent members of Vienna Art Nouveau movement, still a controversial figure in his time, criticized for his too sensual and erotic works. It continues: "But Lichtenstein around art, I made more of a conscious effort to respect and to put forward, print it with a little of my own personality and life experiences. "

Roy Fox Lichtenstein [1923 - 1997] was a prominent American pop artist whose work was heavily influenced by advertising and popular comic book style. This clearly shines through the most recent works of Dunnett and in a previous work, which adorns a wall of his house in the neighborhood of Xochimilco Oaxaca she shares with her boyfriend and three other "This one is based on a dream I had, albeit with clear images of comics, especially the dream there was a Calenda (parade), with bodies being dragged through the streets. I once made a series based on my dreams. I dyed the sky red part of the background of this canvas with cochineal [insect minute carminic acid occurs naturally and has been an important export industry for Oaxaca in the colonial period]. "

Dunnett's far too modest. Since his arrival in Oaxaca there is no doubt that she puts her own mark on the comic book style, with its desire not intimidating to learn and innovate. The geographical, cultural and political context in which it lives its offer various possibilities for artistic inspiration. She attended a workshop to learn more about using natural dyes such as flowers, plants and mealybug course, research and educational institution known as the Center for Dissemination of Grana Tlapanochestli cochineal ". For some time I think about using natural dyes in my work, but it took a few years I realized that here in Oaxaca [actually a few kilometers from the city, Santa Maria Coyotepec ] I had the opportunity to learn about their use of an expert, Manuel Fernaˇndez Loera, the chemist Tlapanochestli. There are just as artistic stimulation in Oaxaca it is hard not to enjoy everything exists. "

Dunnett also participated in more traditional hands-on seminars at the famous Institute of Graphic Arts.