Faces to remember: Innu artist opens new exhibition with paintings of her culture and family

In the paintings of Mary Ann Penashue, there are many faces.

Faces full of lines from aging and expressions, people holding pipes in their mouths. Other facesare younger, people embracing someone they love, and in other pictures arethe caribou, which the Innu artist from Sheshatshiu, Labrador, says is sacred to her and her culture.

Penashue'snew art collection, called Ninan Nitassinan Innu-aimun for "Our Land" is being exhibited at the Christina Parker Gallery in St. John's until the end of November, and the artist says the pictures she used are from her personal photographs.

"It is to preserve my culture and also my family," said Penashue.

The paintings, made with acrylic, she says, depict real people from her life. One of them is of an elderly woman holding a small child. That's Penashue's mother and her granddaughter in an embrace.

"At that time, my mom was not well, and whenever I brought the children to her, she was always pleasant and felt happy. I would take my granddaughter with me whenever I could."

WATCH | Mary Anne Penashue describes her latest work:

Painting the positive: Innu artist Mary Anne Penashue launches exhibit

11 months ago

Duration 3:24

In her evocative canvases, artist Mary Anne Penashue tells a positive story of Innu life in Labrador. A show of Penashues work is on display this month at the Christina Parker Gallery in St. John's. Thats where the CBCs Anthony Germain caught up with her.

Two other people who inspired Penashue's art, she says,are her grandparents. They were artistic in their own ways, Penashue says, and she remembers helping her grandparents build canoes im her childhood.

They died before they could see the artist she turned out to be, she says.

"When I started painting people, they were the two individuals that I began painting after faces because I wanted to show my respect. I miss them."

Not only does Penashue paint to remember her family and the people she loves, but she says she also touches on cultural significance in her artwork. For example, she often portrays the caribou.

On one canvas, with layers of white and grey depicting snow, there are tracks of a wandering caribou, its spirit following another set of footprints those of a hunter.

"Caribou is a special spiritual animal, so we respect the caribou and the spirit that controls it," Penashue said.

In her culture, she says, hunters carry certain items, like beads, to attract the spirit of a caribou.

And that is depicted in the painting, with a pipe and beads among the tracks, as if the hunter dropped them in the snow. This painting also comes from a memory, she says. One of her grandfathers carried beads and a pipe with him in hopes of a successful hunt.

Penashua says her paintings are her way to keep those memories of her family and her culture alive, to show them to her grandchildren and to "keep the tradition alive."

"It's very important to me and for my kids as well."

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