Ice Bear

Chris signs his art 'IceBear' to separate himself as an individual from the Creator's artistic gift. To those who ask, he would say that to take credit for the visions he paints would not be honest; that he cannot take credit for the Creator's assignments as to do so would jeopardize the gift he has been given. IceBear’s paintings and sculpture explore the relationship of mankind to his world, and his spiritual connection to it. In the tradition of most Woodlands peoples, and many other aboriginal people of the world, the Creator and Spirit are not entities separate from us, but exist within us and every living thing, animate and inanimate. Their traditional teachings tell us that only by Acknowledging the Creator, and the Spirit that dwells in all things, can we truly understand and respect not only ourselves, but our world, our Mother Earth.

IceBear's fine art has evolved over the past 20 years, with early work having a graphic style that combined the forms and shapes of traditional Ojibway art. Exploration and experimentation are crucial to him- to be an artist, he says, one must never stop learning and growing, expanding abilities and horizons. Today, his creations have a free flowing technique which present in richly toned paintings that have the illusion of colour change and varying depth with the movement of sunlight and passage of day into night. His many years as art director and muralist has fueled his interest in technique: how paint 'works', colour, brush strokes and layering, with some paintings having upwards of 20 layers of paint and medium. His work has great depth of field and dimension which comes from his other passion - sculpture.