Artist's Statement
Growing up, I was enchanted by the surroundings of my hometown in northeastern Ontario. I was influenced by the community and the ambiguities of my Franco-Ontarian culture. My perceptions are often conditioned by these first impressions. I became conscious of the impact of our actions on the environment and of our fragile and ephemeral state of being, survival and belonging.
The honesty of drawing lends itself to the exploration and the sensitivity of these themes; markings on paper cannot be easily masked and are vulnerable by nature. Photography continues to serve and inform me. The mediated image actualizes the subject while marking the past. The narrative text suggests culture, history, the need to tell one’s story. In the virtual world, our sensual experience is limited to what we see and hear. Touch, which is essential to the development of one’s sense of self from birth, may seem available but is unsatisfied. By nature, a book is handled and provides a greater level of intimacy with its content. I started creating artists’ books, where text, images and structure are bound to explore a related theme, vulnerability.
Biography
Roxanne Lafleur lives and works in Ottawa, Canada. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Ottawa, where she specialized in drawing, printmaking and photography. Upon graduation, she took the position of Assistant Slide Curator at the University of Ottawa Library. In her new role as Digital Humanities Support Specialist, her years of experience in metadata creation, digitization and imaging are now used to help library users create and manage their own research projects. She also served as Assistant Picture Editor in Publications at the National Gallery of Canada; coordinator for a series of conferences on art and science at the University of Ottawa; studio and research assistant to several artists.
While pursuing a career as a library specialist, Roxanne Lafleur continued her work as an artist. Forced to abandon darkroom photography for health reasons, she reconnected with the practice of drawing and began writing and making artist books. Her artwork reveals a deep interest in the human condition through themes such as survival, belonging and vulnerability.
