Sandra Meigs
Sandra Meigs (born 1953) is a Canadian visual artist. She is based in British Columbia, Canada. Her paintings have been exhibited in Canada and internationally and she is a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. Biography. Sandra Meigs was born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1953. She was a ceramics major at the Rhode Island School of Design from 1971 to 1973 and obtained her Bachelor of Fine Arts at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, in Halifax in 1975. She completed her Master of Arts in Philosophy at Dalhousie University in 1980. She began  her career as a painter in Toronto, and in 1993 moved to Victoria, British Columbia where she was a Professor in Visual Arts at the University of Victoria for 24 years. She retired in July 2017 after 24 years with their Visual Arts Department. She taught painting 101, as well as theory to all levels of students, both graduate and undergraduate. Meigs’ paintings have been widely exhibited in Canada and internationally. She is a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. Art practice. Meigs is known for her vivid, enigmatic paintings that combine dense narratives with comic elements. Her  paintings are often provocative, providing layers of meaning that are gradually revealed. Her work typically explores psychological spaces and philosophical ideas, and, as John Bentley Mays notes in a National Post article,“[Meigs’] topics are those of the cave-painters of the Stone Age and artists ever since: the body, light and darkness, storytelling.” Her works usually contain an element of paradox that encourages viewers to look for multiple meanings. As David Jager writes in NOW Magazine, “Meigs’ textured surfaces and silhouette shapes seem casually naive at first glance, but they are actually carefully planned. Layering the canvas with gesso, she  produces smooth raised lines and surfaces whose negative spaces hold as many surprises as her blobby and colourful shapes." Meigs works in various media and often experiments with new techniques and unusual combinations of materials. Her 2010 body of work entitled "The Fold Heads", for example, straddles the line between painting and sculpture. Teaching experience. During her Master of Philosophy studies, Meigs worked as a teaching assistant at Dalhousie from 1977 to 1979. From 1983 onwards she taught art techniques in Banff; she was the Chief Administrative Assistant to the head of the Visual Art Department at the Banff School  of Fine Arts. From 1984 to 1985 she worked as an art instructor at York University. She eventually moved on to be a guest Thesis Counsellor in the Graduate Division of York University. She taught introduction to painting at the University of Toronto between 1990 to 1993 and then moved on to work at the University of Victoria. She became an associate professor teaching in their department of Visual Arts. She eventually retired in 2017 after 24 years of teaching. Her teaching practise focused on a hands-on learning rather than straight theory. Selected works. Returning to visit the same  terrain, Meigs’ gouache studies and acrylic paintings refer to McIntyre Ranch: a 55,000 acre ranch established in 1898 and in operation today. Meigs was included in two iterations of the McIntyre Ranch Project in 1991 and 2004, wherein the Thrall family hosted a research project between the artists, curators and biologists at the ranch. Each residency resulted in an exhibition of new works at the Southern Alberta Art Gallery in 1992 and 2005 respectively. Meigs continued her research there from 2017 through 2019, creating representations of the distinctive rough fescue, flora, wildlife and fowl of the region, rendered in her  enigmatic and vivid style. Meigs depicts the landscape as alive, using neon colours and the symbol of the vortex to contend with mortality. Meigs describes her experience in residencies in Southern Alberta and its impact upon her work as follows: "One day I was observing a far-off eagle nest with my binoculars. The nest was on the side of the cliff, built into the clinging remnant of a tree that had tried to grow there. During this drawing session the sky darkened and it became very windy. A rainstorm began. Under my rain jacket I watched the eagle and  her chicks, the mother gliding high in the dark sky, swooping low and hunting prey for her babies, then dropping the food in the nest. It was one of the most profound experiences I remember ever having in nature." Meigs wrote a book of poems that was published in 1983. Many of her visual works include poetry as a supplementary part of the exhibition – but she also publishes her poetry as stand-alone material. Her book of poems, Heavens to Betsy was initially part of her instillation at the Art Gallery of Lethbridge but was later published as a separate  work. Awards. In 2015 she was awarded the Gershon Iskowitz Prize which came with a $50,000 cash prize. Additionally, another $10,000 was rewarded to Meigs to continue her publication. Winning the Gershon Iskowitz prize entitles the recipient to a solo show at the Art Gallery of Ontario the next year. However, her display Room for Mystics was unveiled in 2017 instead of 2016 due to the sheer volume of work she had to complete. She was unable to assemble her 30 paintings in time for 2016. In 2015, she was one of eight recipients of the Governor General 's Award in Visual and Media Arts. Winning this award came with the honour of having her work featured in the National Gallery of Canada. Meigs has also been named a fellow at the Royal Society of Canada. She was also named a Canadian Council Laureate, having a film made in honour of her win.