Joyce Lindemulder never expected a single fine arts course could change her life so dramatically.
At 45, she took a fine arts course to inspire her and 10 years later is making a living creating, exhibiting and teaching at NIC’s Comox Valley campus. Her latest show, Girls, is now on display as part of a larger exhibit on printmaking, communication design and painting now showing at NIC’s School of Fine Art & Design’s satellite exhibition space at the City of Courtenay’s Lewis Centre.
Lindemulder was working at an administrative job in Ottawa when a friend encouraged her to take an evening course at the Ottawa College of Art. One course led to the next and, when her partner was posted to the Comox Valley in 2006, she submitted her portfolio to NIC’s Fine Arts diploma, which provides guaranteed admission and block transfer to multiple degrees at Emily Carr, UVic and VIU.
“At first, I thought of it as a way of keeping me sane at a job I didn’t like – not a career change,” Lindemulder said. “But everyone was so supportive, I kept going. When I applied to NIC, I dropped in to see then department chair Alan Burgess and he was very encouraging. There were a few older students in my classes and it worked out well. I even qualified for scholarships.”
Two years later, Lindemulder graduated and immediately enrolled in Emily Carr’s Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at NIC. She then went on to Emily Carr’s low-residency Master of Applied Art degree, becoming the first person in her family to achieve a master’s degree.
She teaches two courses at NIC’s Comox Valley campus this year.
Lindemulder’s work has appeared in Vancouver, Campbell River and the Comox Valley. She regularly participates in speaking engagements in the Comox Valley, where she lives and works today. Her practice explores difference and gender in the context of life as a white female.
Girls is a series of life-size portraits of preteen girls, as they start to realize they are being looked at.
“Some of the girls are quite innocent and girlish, while others are more aware of being watched,” Lindemulder said, of the third-year undergraduate project that is still in her repertoire seven years later. “I don’t know when that happens – but it interests me.”
The exhibit also includes works by student Matthew Boucher and samples of NIC’s 25-year-old printmaking archives. Megan Wilson, an instructor in the Fine Arts and Interactive Media Department, curated the exhibit.
Born and raised on Vancouver Island, Boucher spent nearly a decade in masonry before pursuing a career in graphic design. He has completed his first year of the communication design diploma at NIC, where he received the Deans Honour Notation of Academic Excellence. He has one year left of school before immersing himself in the busy world of freelance design.
For more information on Joyce Lindemulder or university transferable fine art and design programs and courses at NIC visit www.joycelindemulder.com or visit www.nic.bc.ca/finearts.