CURRENT WORKS > The Upwellings

A Large-format Cyanotype Series & Digital Critique- Phase Two in 2026: production underway

Summary: The Upwellings redirects generative AI to challenge the systemic ageist and gender biases embedded in modern algorithms. By reclaiming the authenticity of women’s stories, this project intercepts the digital erasure of aging and diversity and renders the female form permanent, tactile, and digitally untouchable through handprinted cyanotypes.

Conceptual Framework: In oceanography, an upwelling occurs when wind and rotation displace surface waters, allowing deep, nutrient-rich currents to rise. This enriched water provides the essential nutrients that allow an entire ecosystem to thrive.

In our social context, The Upwellings asserts that the accumulated knowledge of women functions as a similar stabilizing nutrient. It is the perspective and long-term memory held in the depths of lived experience that provide socio-cultural resilience. When we edit out the markers of a woman’s life through the biased algorithms of commercial AI, we starve the social ecosystem of the data needed to navigate our complex future. We do not need algorithmic refinement; we need our unfiltered histories, our diverse complexities, and the raw truth of our stories to map the way forward.

Urgency

A digital revolution is rising around us regardless of whether we embrace, reject or fear it. Working with AI through The Upwellings explores how creators and institutions can continue to shape the narrative and drive their own vision.

History repeats when technology evolves. When photography emerged in the 19th century, painters feared it would replace the canvas. Instead, it redefined visual art. We can no longer simply reject AI—it is here to stay—and if we choose to use it in our practice, we can work to understand, collaborate with and steward the machine so it doesn’t run amok.

Discovery & Conceptual Proofs (Phase One)

The initial conceptual proofs displayed here above, represent a two-year period of research, development, and community consultation, testing the tension between hand-crafted analog mediums and artificially developed digital components.

Provocation & Necessity

The urgency of this work was validated by my unsettling encounters with AI and social media. An image generator automatically corrected portrait, stripping away pounds and decades of lived experience without instruction. This unsolicited digital erasure reinforced a systemic reality recently documented by researchers at Stanford and Berkeley (2025): AI systematically portrays women as younger, thinner, and less authoritative than men. Studies published in Nature confirm that algorithms actively amplify age-gender bias, treating the physical markers of a woman’s life as "noise" or "errors" to be deleted.

The Upwellings uses AI technology to expose its own biases, providing a useful entry point for discourse around gender equity and technological ethics.

A subsequent social media experiment confirmed the cultural divide. When the AI-altered, youthful portraits were posted online, they garnered public praise from men, but drew private concern and critique from women of a similar demographic. It affirmed the critical necessity of creating a deliberate visual counter-narrative.

Above: Commercial AI vs. Reality. The first five images were generated by an AI app instructed to create professional headshots from the five authentic photographs below them. Without instruction, the algorithm deleted decades of life and physical form to conform to an idealized, ageist standard. These proofs document the exact systemic bias The Upwellings seeks to dismantle.

Technical Development

By merging the 19th-century craft of the cyanotype with contemporary AI workflows, The Upwellings explores the social relevance of time across both human life and technological evolution.

The slow, primal craft of the historical cyanotype process—which relies on fundamental forces like sunlight, chemistry, and water—grounds the work in elemental truth. Conversely, by actively inserting the diversity of the mature female form back into the datasphere, the project forces a confrontation with the very technology threatening to erase it. The use of AI is a deliberate conceptual choice: it acts as a critical mirror showing how ageism is currently being codified into future technologies.

The Upwellings is rooted in courage, not fear: aging represents the full realization of lived experience and an authority that transcends trend, and new technology in art must be engaged because it is the arena where the future of visual culture is currently being decided. Both are evolutionary forces that demand active, informed participation and dialogue, inviting us to move beyond binary reactions and develop policies and practices that protect authentic representation and agency in the tools we use to create our art.

The Activation of Phase Two (2026)

Phase Two is coming to life through the participation of nearly 40 women—mentors, leaders and constants who have shaped our social fabric (and fundamentally inspired my journey).

• Ethical Portraiture: Each portrait is a collaborative narrative. I have invited women with established public profiles alongside those whose vital labor as mothers and caregivers has anchored our communities. This series also honours those denied formal education by an era of male-preference, elevating domestic stewardship to its rightful status.

• Technical Tension as Critique: The work will build on original portraits and continue to fuse cyanotypes with modern AI treatment.

• Mastery & Global Discourse: The series will be finalized and printed as monumental 24" x 24" prints during a residency at Aviário Studio in Portugal (October 2026). This international exchange will culminate in the project’s first public exhibition and artist talk there. The Canadian solo debut opens in February 2027 at the MacMillan Gallery in Parksville, Canada. Early discussions and planning for touring the work is already underway.

What is a Cyanotype?

A cyanotype is an early photographic printing process, dating back to the 1840s, famous for its striking monochromatic Prussian blue colour. It is a highly elemental technique: materials (like paper or fabric) are first coated with light-sensitive iron salts and then exposed directly to sunlight to create the image, which is fixed using only water.

Far from a mechanical print, each of my cyanotype images is a unique, handcrafted result that fuses the old and the new.

The process begins in the darkroom, where I personally mix the light-sensitive chemicals and apply them to the surface which can take a few days. I then create analog negatives—printed onto large transparency film—from digitized pure or altered images. Because cyanotype is a contact print process, the final image on the paper is always the same size as the negative laid directly upon it. This deliberate choice connects the image-making to the passage of time and place.

The final image quality is never entirely predictable and is a direct collaboration with nature. No two images are alike, as the final color density and detail are determined by variables like the location and intensity of the sun, the precise timing of the exposure (sometimes lasting 10-20 minutes per image), and the density and spread of the chemical solution on the paper. This deliberate embrace of chance and elemental forces ensures that every print carries the unmistakable mark of its creation.

PAST WORKS > Inventory of Public Record, Exhibtions & Installations

2026

• Sept 10–13 | Chromascope: Illuminated Reportage of TSLOC (On-Site Project Commission): Serving as creative documentarian for the upcoming Guelph Jazz Festival and Colloquium. Utilizing my Illuminated Reportage to translate the sonic wavelengths of François Houle’s headline suite into a fine-art visual archive, capturing the intuitive stage dynamics, physical scores, and backstage ecosystem of the performance. (Guelph, Ontario)

2024

• May 30 | The Errors Tour (Group Exhibition): Unveiled a potent cyanotype on fabric confronting personal loss and physical transformation (replacement of my hip joint) within a collaborative evening of visual art, poetry, and storytelling focused on navigating grief and loss. (99ten open space, Edmonton).

2023

• September 10 | Coastal Cyan (Solo/Series Exhibition): Installed a seminal series of original cyanotypes on cotton rag paper exploring the slow, restorative unravelling of pressure, healing, and reclamation achieved through immersion in the Northwest Pacific Coast. (Studio 2H, Tsawout First Nation).

2021–Present

• April 2021 | The Wistful Bite (Photographic Series): Developed and continue to exhibit a photographic series that moves beyond "foodie culture" to examine the deeper intersection of nourishment, memory, cultural anthropology, and migration theory.

2006–Present

• Photochat (Collaborative Blog & Book Series): Co-authored and maintained this long-running photographic dialogue with artist Jay Proctor, establishing the concept of photographs as a conversational language that transcends linguistic barriers.

2022

• November | The Secret Lives of Colour (Short Film): Produced an evocative photographic/visual montage documenting the intimate creative process of musical composer François Houle for the Modulus Festival (Vancouver), used extensively for promotion.

2021

• September | The Secret Lives of Colour (Commissioned Short Film): Conceptualized, produced, and directed this visual short film, a prestigious commission by the Pierre Boulez Saal (Berlin), documenting composer François Houle’s artistic journey toward his world premiere.

2013

• September | Knowledge to Action Forum (Curatorial Project): Designed and curated a major multimedia exhibition, synthesizing three years of archival content from a national program spanning seven major Canadian cities, for United Nations Association in Canada. (Toronto).

2010

• Spring | Italy in Blue (Group Exhibition): Featured handcrafted cyanotype contact prints depicting lyrical scenes from Northern Italy, exhibited as part of a collective show of Ortona studio arts residents. (Ortona Gallery, Edmonton).

2004

• Autumn | Tajikistan, An Introduction (Solo Exhibition): Presented a rich multimedia installation—combining photography, literature, regional textiles, music, and a 16mm film piece—to introduce viewers to the culture of Tajikistan. (Ortona Gallery, Edmonton; Athabasca University).

2003

• July | Art For Venue (Group Exhibition): Contributed C-prints of travel documentary images from Western Europe to this curated mixed-media collection, founded on the premise that quality art belongs to the masses outside formal gallery spaces. (Edmonton).

2002

• June | Looking Back (International Curatorial Project): Conceptualized, promoted, and curated this expansive international photo exhibition, successfully recruiting 28 photographers from 10+ global cities for a self-portrait collection. (De Melkfabriek Artspace, s’-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands).

2001

• July | Impure II, the Second Coming (Juried Group Show): Installed the evocative photographic installation “The Blue Cycle,” featuring underwater and Grecian imagery mounted within custom-designed spherical MDF frames (Shaun McNaughton). (Citadel Theatre, Edmonton).

• April | M: the Dance (Solo Installation & Fundraiser): Conceptualized, produced, and promoted this first solo photo-based installation, which successfully raised approximately $20,000 in private sector funds and in-kind support. (Ortona Gallery, Edmonton).

• January- present | Identisketch: This is an ongoing, autobiographical photographic series documented in black and white film, creating a visual archive of the artist's life across numerous residences and changing geographies. The project explores the stability of the self amidst continuous displacement by featuring the artist holding a hand-drawn self-portrait sketch over their face in every location; this sketch functions as the fixed symbol of an unwavering core identity that persists regardless of external, physical change.

2000

• June–July | fetish object (Juried Group Show): Selected for the Edmonton Works festival, featuring photographic-based digital imagery printed directly onto fabric. (SNAP Gallery, Edmonton).

• July | Impure (Juried Group Show): Jury selected for this collective show, exhibiting two distinct collections: digital compilations transferred to silver leaf, and silver prints copper-toned and mounted on wood/copper piping. (Citadel Theatre, Edmonton).

• May–July | Metamorphic (Duo Exhibition): Duo exhibition with Marlena Wyman; my work featured digital compilations of human and insect images theatrically pinned in glass cases likened to an entomologist’s collection to explore contemporary fears surrounding genetic modification. (Bohemia Cyber Café, Edmonton).

• Jan & Feb | Still life (Group Exhibition): Presented a collection of 25 meticulously photographed and hand-printed silver/fibre prints. (124th St. Annual Gallery Walk, Edmonton).

1999

• November | Artopia (Group Exhibition & Joint Curatorial): Participated in and jointly curated a large, multidisciplinary group show of 23 artists, exhibiting silver prints. (Phillips Building Arts Collective, Edmonton).

• September | Neurotica (Solo Exhibition): Exhibited a solo show utilizing oil paint and mixed media applied directly to glass windows, complemented by silver prints set in original repurposed wooden framing. (Café La Gare, Edmonton).