TRAFFIC CONTROL BOX ART & ARTISTS 

Phyllis Poitras-Jarrett I am a Métis artist living in Regina, Saskatchewan and a farm girl at heart.

As I reflect on my art, I contemplate the many value connections that my Métis family and the Métis people have with animals, plants and nature. One example is how my Kokum’s creativity and determination inspired my art. She lived in a two room house on Jackrabbit Street on the road allowance in Lebret, Saskatchewan. There she brought up 11 children with her husband Grégoire Poitras. During the winter months she lived with us, as her home lacked amenities. Lovingly we would string beads for her gorgeous necklaces. For our efforts she gave us a nickel per string, which would go full circle in an evening game of rummy. The sales of necklaces provided her with extra income for living expenses. The elders in my youth were positive role models and always encouraged my creative nature.

I sign my art P. Poitras-Jarrett honouring both my Métis mother (Cree-Ojib, French) and my Scottish-English father. I will always promote pride and positivity through art in the community and in Indigenous people.

Website: www.metisspiritart.ca

www.instagram.com/metisspiritart

www.etsy.com/ca/shop/metisspiritart

Presently I’m working on a Métis Spirit Animal series of over 28 mixed media acrylic paintings each 36”x40” in size. This series is highly textured and designed with my animal motifs and Métis beadwork art designs created with modelling paste. Beadwork designs are extremely diverse even within Indigenous cultures and my art captures the colorful intricate symmetrical designs of the Métis beaders. Each of my paintings are embellished with a unique Métis beadwork design. Some floral designs are traditional and others are abstract creations. Hidden with each painting is a real Spirit Bead. My art embraces nature and inspires people to be mindful of the importance of keeping it clean for all living things and future generations

The descriptions for the animals are partly derived from the animal’s natural behaviours and ways of being within their habitats. The titles for each Spirit Animal painting acknowledges the basic human values that we all possess within us. Balance is essential throughout our lifetimes and symbolized in my artwork. Coming together and recognizing our connections regardless of our backgrounds will help us learn to live in harmony on Mother Earth.

Historically Métis people have been known as the “Flower Beadwork People”. Our ancestor’s gorgeous symmetrical designs are still present today, crafted on clothing, pouches, covers and jewelry. Métis floral beadwork adornment is our way of giving thanks to the plant world that continues to provide us with an abundance of food, medicine and joy.

When viewing my art, individuals may feel some connections as they reflect on their own personal characteristics and qualities within themselves and their circles. They may have an emotional reaction to the art that reminds them of the strength of a loved one, the wisdom of a community leader or the lightheartedness of a colleague. If you can find a little piece of yourself within my art, it has fulfilled its purpose.

Karli Jessup is a Regina based artist and printmaker. Jessup graduated from the University of Regina in 2011 receiving a BFA in Print Media. After graduation, they co-founded Articulate Ink, Regina’s only publicly accessible printmaking studio, along with other graduates Em Ironstar, Caitlin Mullan and Amber Hanover.

Jessup has exhibited works in galleries across Saskatchewan including the Art Gallery of Regina, The Hague Gallery, The Woods Art Space, The Saskatchewan Craft Council and various other Galleries through the OSAC travelling exhibitions program.

Currently, Jessup owns and operates an online shop called Jessup’s General Store where they sell clothing, accessories and prints. You can also find these products in various witchcraft themed shops across Canada.

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This art piece portrays the crow as a messenger, picking little notes off of the trees and delivering them to whoever needs to hear them.  At a point in time when people are not able to connect like they once could, the power of communication and sharing positive messages is really important.  The full moon is at the height of its power and placed in the nest as an act of protecting and nurturing the power that we all hold in us: the power to overcome, the power to adapt and the power to lift others up when they need us.

Nic Wilson (he/they) is an artist and writer who was born in the Wolastoqiyik territory now known as Fredericton, NB in 1988. He graduated with a BFA from Mount Allison University, Mi’kmaq territory, in 2012, and an MFA from the University of Regina, Treaty Four Territory, in 2019 where he was a SSHRC graduate fellow. In 2021 they were long listed for the Sobey Art Award as a representative of the Prairies and the North. Their work often engages time, queer lineage, decay, and the distance between art practice and literature. Their writing has appeared in publications such as BlackFlash Magazine, Peripheral Review, and Public.

This piece incorporates various prairie histories through objects from daily life like teacups, rocks, tchotchkes, flowers, and wedding memorabilia. This piece is a deconstructed still life composition representing the various fractured histories that intersect in Regina. Many of these objects represent multiple colonial histories that zigzag the globe from Chinese porcelain to South African flowers and Caribbean sugar. By isolating each component in a single image, many of which overlap, I am highlighting the colonial histories that sit conspicuously fractured just below the surface of settler presence on the Prairies. These images think about the way that goods and land have been transformed into products and commodities under the settler gaze. They also reimagine the history of still life images in the form of product photography.

All images on this traffic control box were found in the City of Regina Archives (https://www.regina.ca/about-regina/regina-history-facts/archives/index.html). Archival record ID numbers are included in the descriptions below, so you can check them out yourself in the City of Regina Virtual Archives!

Front (west side): two views of First Baptist Church; top: ca. 1920s (CORA-A-0504) and bottom: 1917 (CORA-RPL-C-0077)

North side: looking south on Lorne St., cyclone damage, June 30, 1912 (CORA-RPL-B-0103)

Back (east side): top: J. Balfour residence at 2315 Victoria Ave., ca. 1915 (CORA-RPL-A-0869, cropped); bottom: Balfour Apartments, ca. 1977 (CORA-S-0831, cropped)

South side: looking north at cyclone damage to Knox Presbyterian & YMCA on 12th Avenue between Lorne and Cornwall Streets, June 30, 1912 (CORA-RPL-A-0417)

All images on this traffic control box were found in the City of Regina Archives (https://www.regina.ca/about-regina/regina-history-facts/archives/index.html). Archival record ID numbers are included in the descriptions below, so you can check them out for yourself in the City of Regina Virtual Archives!

Front (South side) – top: Vic Ave and Cornwall. L-R is Knox Pres & Y.M.C.A. ca. 1927 (CORA-RPL-A-0426); bottom: early 1900s. Overview of Cornwall St. and Victoria Park (CORA-B-0734)

West side: Traffic on Victoria Ave at Cornwall St. ca. 1978 (CORA-A-1018, cropped)

Back (north side) and east side – top: Land Titles Building on south side of Victoria Ave. at Cornwall St., ca. 1969. Built 1909. (CORA-RPL-B-0508); bottom: Looking south on Cornwall Street from Victoria Park with Land Titles Building on right and a residential home on left where Saskatchewan Hotel is to be built. c. 1910. (CORA-RPL-B-0177)

All images on this traffic control box were found in the City of Regina Archives (https://www.regina.ca/about-regina/regina-history-facts/archives/index.html). Archival record ID numbers are included in the descriptions below, so you can check them out yourself in the City of Regina Virtual Archives!

Front (south side): Birdseye view north on Scarth Street from Hotel Saskatchewan, 1962 (CORA-E-5.202)

West side – top: Dominion Lands Office on the corner of Scarth Street and Victoria Avenue (CORA-E-5.008; page 32 of album, File Folder 4); bottom: Victoria and Scarth pointing south, 1965 (CORA-B-0219)

Back (north side) – top: Hotel Saskatchewan – southwest corner of Victoria and Scarth. From Victoria Park looking south, c.1930 (CORA-RPL-A-0827); bottom: Looking south down Scarth Street at Gratton School and St. Mary s Roman Catholic Church, from Victoria Avenue (CORA-RPL-B-0193)

East side –  top:  Looking southwest from Victoria & Cornwall, ca. 1930. Built 1909, now Sask Sports Hall of Fame. (CORA-RPL-A-0752); bottom: from Victoria and Scarth pointing south, 1965 (CORA-B-0219)

Pepito Escanlar was born in Guimbal, Iloilo, Philippines and immigrated to Canada in 1975 after completing his degree in Architecture from the University of Santo Tomas. His early works, mainly in watercolours, have been included in annual juried art exhibitions such as the Arts Saskatchewan at the MacKenzie Art Gallery, Regina; and the Saskatchewan Open at the Mendel Art Gallery, Saskatoon. His entries consistently won awards at the annual SaskArt Exhibits in Regina.

His exhibitions included “Pepito Escanlar / Gerald Jessop: Acrylics & Watercolours” (1984) and “Pepito Escanlar / Beth Gaffney: Regina Scenes” (1989) at the Rosemont Gallery (now the Art Gallery of Regina); and “Pepito Escanlar/ Ronald Davis Provincial Touring Exhibition” (1985-87), sponsored by the Organization of Saskatchewan Arts Council. He was a recipient of a Saskatchewan Arts Board grant in 1987. Escanlar’s works were featured in several annual SGI Canada Art Calendars.

His time for artworks was reduced in the 1990s and 2000s as priorities shifted to family responsibilities and his full-time job. He retired in 2016 after 41 years in the architectural field to pursue his passion for painting. He shifted from watercolours to acrylics and from realism to semi-abstraction.

In 2019, he participated in Artists Talk organized by the Dunlop Gallery. His paintings were featured in “Pamana: Sights and Sounds of Philippine Heritage” at the Philippine Embassy in Ottawa. His artworks were among those chosen for the 2019, 2020, and 2021 Urban Canvas Public Art in Downtown Regina.

Escanlar’s commissions included artworks for the Government House Historical Society and SGI Canada; Stations of the Cross for the Resurrection Church in Regina that he also designed; a mural project at the main lobby of the All Saints School (Swift Current); and “Saskatchewan Heritage” mural commissioned in commemoration of Canada 150.

The image depicts the distorted, abstract reflections of a downtown parkade and the surrounding old brick buildings on the glass walls of the adjacent modern downtown office building. Applying the image on the traffic control box transforms it from a nondescript object into a colourful piece that would bring vibrancy to the downtown pedestrian space. The traffic control box becomes a miniature “glass building”. Its top part is left as is to serve as the cap of the “building”.

Elizabeth DeCoste is a queer, settler, artist majoring in a cross-disciplinary fine art program, Life Studies, at the Ontario College of Art and Design University (OCADU) in Toronto. Informed by object-oriented ontology, thing-power materialism, and de-colonial theory, their work approaches ideas of political ecology, taxonomical practices, and phenomenology. Working primarily in printmaking, collage, and multi-media installation, their research-based practice is also influenced by their interest in collection and salvage practices. DeCoste grew up in Treaty 4 Territory in Regina, Saskatchewan, the traditional territories of the Nêhiyawak, the Anihšināpēk, the Dakota, Lakota, and Nakota nations, and the homeland of the Métis Nation.

Inspired by my collection of natural specimens, this collage piece presents species of plants and animals found in Saskatchewan. Focusing on the presentation of these artifacts through the altering and repetition of collage, I aim to consider the ontologies of these objects as signifiers of the ecosystems that make up Saskatchewan: the prairies, the boreal plains, and the boreal shield. Included in this collage are all artifacts found and photographed in Saskatchewan, including raccoon vertebrae, prairie grouse feathers, silver sagebrush, a mule deer antler, stinging nettle, freshwater clam shells, pigeon feathers, a prairie gopher skull, a raccoon skull, a cow’s tooth, a walleye jaw bone, prairie lilies, and quartz.

  I grew up on a small Saskatchewan farm overlooking Last Mountain Lake. There I discovered my love of art. Our small house was busy with six siblings and often a few cousins that my caring parents took under their wings.  My peaceful creating space was upstairs by a window that was often covered in an inch of frost during the winter. Frosty winter months meant less work, with only the cows to feed and milk. This gave me plenty of extra time to pencil sketch for hours and hours. Being a self taught artist in the digital era is beneficial and numerous online tutorials provided me with a wealth of knowledge. I have made it a point to self-teach myself in several different mediums. Presently my focus is mixed media collage and illustrated watercolours. I have designed several Metis beadwork graphics with photoshop to incorporate into my artwork. My recent purchase of a professional camera will fulfill my photography interests and I love it! Yes I am a bit of an art fanatic and thoroughly love creating!  I had a very rewarding career as a teacher for 28 years in Regina. I am fortunate that I can now focus my time creating art and enjoying more moments with my family. I have two amazing sons, Neal (a former Saskatchewan Roughrider, two time Grey Cup winner) and Steven, both compassionate human beings. I’m a proud grandma of three beautiful grandchildren, Callie, Logan and Mearah, who also have a flare for art.  My Kokum’s creativity and determination inspired my art. She lived in a two room house on Jackrabbit Street on the road allowance in Lebret, Saskatchewan. During the winter months she lived with us as her home lacked electricity, heat and running water. Lovingly we would string beads for the gorgeous necklaces she would create. For our efforts we received a nickel per string. Later that evening we would play rummy for a nickel. The nickel would often go full circle. The sales of her necklaces in the community provided her with extra income for living expenses. The elders in my youth were positive role models and always encouraged my creative nature. It’s my way to show the pride I have for Indigenous cultures.  I was fortunate to have the Saskatchewan Arts Board recently award me with a grant to create a 108”x48” triptych with mixed media techniques and my floral artwork.  I have always celebrated life through art and in the past years created several backdrops for musicals and community events. I was proud to donate art for silent auctions, one recently for the Early Learning Centre of a turtle. During my career I helped organize and co-presented several workshops to integrate children’s Indigenous stories with art. I have endless ideas and plans to continue my growth and drive to create art throughout my life. I sign my art with P. Poitras-Jarrett honouring both my Metis mother and my Scottish-English Father. I will always promote pride and positivity through art in the community and in Indigenous people.  I have chosen the social media name and web site name “Feliss” which means “lucky, fortunate, happy”. It’s also a shorter version of my name “Phyllis” for online search purposes.

[Note: Phyllis has since changed her social media and website to:

Website: www.metisspiritart.ca

www.instagram.com/metisspiritart

www.etsy.com/ca/shop/metisspiritart

Nicole Chen’s work is concerned with the unique experience of what it means to embody both Asian and Western Cultures in one’s identity. She is fascinated with Chinese history and her parents (born in China during the Cultural Revolution) probably hate her for asking so many questions about it.

This art is composed of a series of peonies, the national flower of China and western red lilies, the floral emblem of Saskatchewan. Together, they symbolize harmony between two communities with different pasts. To learn more about Nicole Chen, visit her at: @wingfred

Cyril Chen is a story artist & writer, working with animation, illustration, comics, sculpture, robotics, programming, and installation. They are based in the Treaty 3 (Hamilton ON) and Treaty 4 (Regina SK) Territories. Find there art here: https://cyril.art/

Cyril’s design celebrates Regina’s annual Mosaic Festival – the weekend long event that unifies our city’s diversity.

Phyllis is a self-taught artist whose creations come from the heart. “I sign my art as P. Poitras-Jarrett to honour both my Metis mother and my Scottish-English father.” Her Metis ancestry has provided her with a rich history and inspired many of her art ideas. Metis people were known as the “Flower Beadwork People” and her Kokum was indeed a flower. The pride and appreciation that she has of their ancestral floral designs is evident in this graphic art. The beads were graphically drawn and the floral design was slowly created bead by bead. To learn more about Phyllis Poitras-Jarrett visit her at: 

Website: www.metisspiritart.ca

www.instagram.com/metisspiritart

www.etsy.com/ca/shop/metisspiritart

Jamie Slawson has been interested in art from a young age and he has worked mainly on portraits. Jamie paints emotionally resonant images that are meant to establish a connection between subject and viewer.

The juxtaposition of the watercolor’s painted impression and the hand drawn look of the futurism of space create a compelling image for the viewer to look and pause. To learn more about Jamie Slawson, visit him at: jamieslawson.tumblr.com 

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Heavily inspired by the Aboriginal Grass Dance, I wanted to capture both the movement of the fringes on the Pow-wow regalia and the image of the meadowlark, a classic, priairie summer soundscape. It’s a bright and cheerful song and dance in one image, juxtaposed on a bright, blue summer sky. To me, this image embodies life, and the very heartbeat of Saskatchewan, much like downtown Regina. To learn more about Kayla Hanson, visit her at: https://www.facebook.com/KH.32Flavours/

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Built in 1929, the Travellers Building (Storey and Van Egmond) had been in disuse and disrepair for many years until boarded up and long since abandoned over to its new pigeon-tenants, it burned down in 2017. Travellers Building Revisited proposes a reminder of the rich gathering place of both leisure and business that historically, the Travellers Building provided to its human users.      

As a contemporary artist in Regina, Saskatchewan, I focus on ideas including motherhood, femininity, injustice, our natural environment, and the cultural histories of women. While I feel deep angst and sadness towards the vast inequalities that thrive in our society, I still hold much hope for the future. I come from a long line of flower gardeners and have always included roses in my work. But presently, I want to do more than paint flowers; I aim to break down inequalities in our society through my art, inequalities that I see and feel every day.

This piece, titled “To consider and pursue”, includes a large Queen Elizabeth Rose layered with the words LOVE and EQUAL RIGHTS. I hope that these words might encourage, enlighten, and/or draw attention to breaking down inequalities and will perhaps inspire less hate, and more love. I wish for each member of our community who passes by, to consider these words, and pursue through thoughts, discussions, and actions that could lead to a better world and a more kind, just, and peaceful world.

As a contemporary artist in Regina, Saskatchewan, I focus on ideas including motherhood, femininity, injustice, our natural environment, and the cultural histories of women. While I feel deep angst and sadness towards the vast inequalities that thrive in our society, I still hold much hope for the future. I come from a long line of flower gardeners and have always included roses in my work. But presently, I want to do more than paint flowers; I aim to break down inequalities in our society through my art, inequalities that I see and feel every day.

Rob Bos is an artist living and working in Regina, Saskatchewan. Bos received his BFA and MFA from the University of Regina, and the School of Art Institute of Chicago respectively.

This city traffic box is Stan’s first digital artwork and features his favourite characters, the Happy Little Beaver, Robot Duck, and the ‘unhappy’ rabbit.

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“Unum Under The Moon” is my submission for the Regina Traffic Control Box Call, it is influenced by modern art, indigenous imagery and contemporary commercial art.

Unum is the gender neutral equivalent for “one” in Latin, which refers to my own idealized concept of unity. This piece is inspired by the painterly of technique of Van Gogh, specifically “Starry Night” and Matisse’s “Dance.” By combining the two artists I’m making a nod to the history of modern art. Nodding to modern art is important because it was the beginning to a large cultural change towards consumerism. The four figures reference the four corners Medicine Wheel as well as cultural diversity and the braids along the sides and the hands holding onto one another tie into the notion of unity and interdependency.

Having created this piece in a digital format highlights a newer graphical medium to support the progressive idea of my work and connect me to the commercialism of contemporary art. To keep the art piece culturally relevant in the age of social media I depicted each dancer in a different body type to promote not only cultural diversity but diversity in body shapes and genders. It is imperative to contemporary art to investigate intersectionality and how our differences contribute to our differing experiences that shape who we are.

I also believe I am shaped by our cultural history. I have indigenous ancestry as well as ancestry belonging to that of Romanian immigrants; I am the product of colonization but also that of cultures coming together in harmony. I want this art piece to leave the viewer with a feeling resolved conflict; a conflict between the old and the new, the us and the “other.” Most importantly I want the view to be left with a sense of appreciation for where they came from and the things that make them different and to appreciate those same differences in others. I believe we have many societal problems in contemporary culture and that resolution can be found in embracing our differences and find unity and balance.

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The urban garden has been a source of inspiration for many of my recent paintings. In Regina, many small spaces in backyards, vacant lots and on porches, patios and balconies are transformed into a Natural Refuge for plants, birds and insects. This sustainable practise in environmentally- friendly settings enriches our neighbourhoods and quality of city living. In my painting, I present the splendour of the summer garden, appealing to all the senses. The painting presents the urban garden in its ideal meeting moment of Natural Splendour.

Working in-between the digital, print and adhesive realms, Chris Morin creates visually-striking illustrations that are boldly whimsical yet offer sly nods to the environment surrounding them. These images are presented as something out of the ordinary juxtaposed with something familiar, such as a place to get pizza, where we walk our pets, where to people watch, consume culture, endure the weather, and where we meet and sweep each other off our feet. To learn more about Chris Morin, visit him at: https://www.instagram.com/chrixmorix/

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Chad Geran provides fun, thoughtful illustrations for print materials, branding and visual identities. His style combines a light-hearted approach with sophisticated intelligence which delivers simple, approachable illustrations with unmistakable depth. Chad has created images that relate to traffic and these illustrations juxtaposed with other simple illustrations that are inspired by downtown has created a composition which reflects Regina’s downtown. To learn more about Chad Geran, visit him at: www.geran.ca

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Allan Dotson is a Regina-based arts, educator and self-publisher. Allan has self-published a fantasy graphic novel, an ongoing webcomic and several storytelling game books. Allan loves how close he feels to the native prairie, native animals and people while out walking or biking. This is reflected in his interpretation that traffic control boxes help us share space by warning us to slow down, to stop and allow space for others. He gives us an opportunity to imagine a future after cars when the prairies are reclaimed by the animals. To learn more about Allan Dotson, visit him at: sites.google.com/site/maycontainmonkeys/

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Michelle Lynn Harazny likes to dabble in ceramics, drawing, graphic and facilitate paper craft workshops. She grew up in Regina, lived in Montreal for 8 years and recently moved back to her hometown in 2017. In Regina, the growing number of beekeepers reflects a global movement of urban beekeeping in backyards and on rooftops and balconies. This is reflected by bringing more visuals of nature to our cityscape and reminding us that we need bees in our rural and urban environments. To learn more about Michelle Harazny, visit her at: https://mlharazny.wordpress.com/

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Sandra Knoss was raised on the family farm at Glentworth and now resides at Rockglen where she runs a grain farm and cattle ranch with husband Calvin and their children Brett and Hayley. Sandra’s interpretation of a prairie sunset, provides the viewer with brilliant colors that depict “Land of Living Skies”. To learn more about Sandra Knoss, visit her at: facebook.com/SandraLKnoss www.voidgallery.ca

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