Artist Bio
Patricia Lortie was born in Quebec. She studied industrial design and business administration. In 1995, she moved to Calgary where she studied at the University of Alberta Arts. Her practice includes painting, sculpture, installation, public art and art education.
Raised by nature-loving parents who encouraged a great deal of freedom, Lortie was able to explore at will and enter into communion with the natural world. Her family’s childhood cottage, located on the shore of a tributary of Lake St. Pierre, provided intimate and sustained encounters with water and forest. There she developed the foundations of her visual, sensory, emotional and intellectual universe.
Today, she continues to rely on her encounters with the natural world to fuel her artistic explorations.
Artist Statement
My spirit floats in the wind, my body drinks the water that carries me along. I belong to this planet; all that I am is borrowed from the ground on which I walk.
– Patricia Lortie
The experience of the natural world reaches the core of Patricia’s being. It opens the connection to the mystique of being human and reminds her that she is part of an inexplicable and unbroken system.
Simple and profound experiences of connection with the earth shape Patricia’s artistic endeavours: the thick veil of clouds that unexpectedly parts to reveal a magnificent view of the surrounding peaks; a quiet paddle on the surface of a mirror-like lake; floating gently in the river chasing warm currents. All are moments where existing in the world feels both simple and extraordinary.
In Patricia’s work, she chases this feeling, rekindling through creation our connection to the world we live in.
Patricia’s work, whether it is painting, sculpture, installation or community project, aims to affirm the awareness of our symbiotic relationship with nature. Each project offers the experience of feeling the invisible links that make our existence possible; the unbreakable and undeniable bonds in which we are all born.