It never fails to amaze me how many Canadians make all or part of their living in the arts. We write, we paint, we sculpt, photograph and choreograph, compose and create, sing and act. We can’t seem to help ourselves. By day we may earn our bread and shelter by serving the retail sector, tallying numbers, upholding justice and caring for the infirm. We may labour in the cold on construction sites, submit ourselves to the repetitive world of the production line. We work in office towers and educational facilities.

But when the requirements of survival are met we find ourselves in the garage or shed, loft or stairwell, pursuing a creative vision that often brings little reward but that of the satisfaction of having made something unique, something truly our own.

We’ve become very European in our endeavours, in that when queried about what we do, we answer not what provides us with the ability to survive, but rather what it is we create. I’m an artisan blacksmith. I’m a theatre costumer. I’m a glassblower.

Or in the case of Laurie-Lynn Percy, I’m a painter.

By day Laurie is a librarian, serving the small community libraries of Ayton and Neustadt, Ontario. She’s passionate about her work, about the people she meets, about the collections she husbands.

She’s also very passionate about the subjects she paints, about creating form and a dialogue from the visions she captures on canvas.

Laurie says, “My work is a reflection of the natural world and predominantly I focus on the relationship between earth, water and sky, allowing the mixture of elements in their raw form to overlap each other creating a dimension that we can take for granted.”

Use of colour is very important to her work, enhancing her vision of the environment, as well as mirroring mood.

Inspiration for these pieces are largely based on the physical interaction she has with nature, and the profound feelings created by an ever moving, fantastical shift in the power between solid, liquid and gas.

Laurie explains, “Although Surrealism had initially influenced my artistic and emotional view of painting, my evolution into Abstract Impressionism has allowed a symbiosis between my painting and nature, freeing up my style to allow the emotion of my portrayal of nature.”

Her current study Simple Harmonic Motion, involves the influences of environmental rhythm and movement.

“My passion for capturing the simple beauty of nature has evolved into a study of natural waves, their rhythm and the forces that create them,” she says. “These unique patterns created in sand, snow, water or rock can sometimes go unnoticed or taken for granted.”

Laurie-Lynn Percy’s work can be viewed at: www.artistsincanada.com/percy/