Marlena Wyman
I am an artist residing in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. My art focus is early prairie settler women, whose stories are under-represented in mainstream history.
Message
I grew up on my parents' and grandparents' family farm near the town of Rockyford in southern Alberta, Canada. I have a BEd in Visual Art and History, and I attended the University of Calgary and the University of Alberta. I have been an exhibiting artist for over 30 years.
I am co-founder and administrator for Urban Sketchers Edmonton, I am a recipient of the Edmonton Historical Board’s Recognition Award in archives and visual arts, I served as Secretary and Archives Chair on the board of the Women’s Art Museum Society of Canada, and I was Edmonton’s 5th Historian Laureate, a position that I interpreted through my art practice. I am presently on the board of the Ortona Artists' Reach Society in Edmonton as Director at Large (Advocacy), and I serve on the editorial team for the art legacy magazine "Prairie Art" https://prairieart.ca/ I worked at the Provincial Archives of Alberta for many years, and was responsible for the historic photograph, film, and sound collections.
I am represented by Bugera Lamb Gallery (previously Bugera Matheson Gallery) in Edmonton: https://bugeralambart.ca/ Please contact the gallery for works that are for sale: Phone: 780.482.2854. Email: [email protected]. My art blog can be accessed here: https://theprairieline.wordpress.com/ and I am on Instagram @theprairieline
Statement
My art practice incorporates the concepts of history, memory, and storytelling, and in particular my focus is on women’s history and the domestic realm. I highlight the work and stories of the first immigrant settler women who came to the prairies, which is also my heritage. Inspiration is provided through original letters, diaries, and photographs in archival collections. In my former work as an archivist I found that one of the significant gaps in archival collections is the documentation of women’s lives and the voice of early prairie women is largely excluded from mainstream history.
By integrating the words and images of these early prairie women, a haunting photograph or a handwritten passage from the diary or a letter of a long dead stranger can create a profound personal connection with a viewer and bring about understanding and empathy with issues that bridge our past and present lives.
Through my art, I honour these women’s considerable contributions, advocate for their rightful place in history, and encourage women to deposit their own and their foremothers’ records in archives.