Artist Statement

My masks are life-like depictions of my face and are constructed from papier-mâché and photographic collages. I am drawing from the history of masks, typically used in ritual and in theatre, as a metaphor for identity, self image and archetypes.

I dissect, distort and reconstruct my own image in an attempt to transform and examine myself from an outside perspective. By keeping my image a constant, I am able to experiment with many variations of the mask. I am attempting to separate myself from my physical appearance, which is often how we define others and ourselves. 

I am interested in the space in between defined margins; where one cultural race becomes another, where beauty turns into the grotesque, where the outside persona turns inward and vice versa

Biography

Miya Turnbull is a multi-disciplinary artist, working in a variety of mediums including mask making, painting, printmaking, felting and animation. She grew up on a third generation family farm in Alberta and has lived in Halifax since 2002. She completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts at the University of Lethbridge in 1999 and lived in Montreal for 2 years before finally settling down in Nova Scotia. She has exhibited her artwork in solo and group exhibits here in Halifax and also across Canada. She has facilitated youth oriented visual art workshops through schools and arts organizations in Nova Scotia since 2003. She is very grateful for the support she has received from Arts Nova Scotia.