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Something Fishy displays a school of fish, one of Christine Misak's favourite muses, in a curious pose. - photo courtesy of Christine Misak

By Daron Letts
Northern News Services
Published Friday, January 9, 2009

Artist and educator Christine Misak learned something from her students. The St. Pat's art teacher is creating new work this winter as she prepares for her second exhibition of paintings at the Snow Castle in March.

"A huge part of teaching is giving advice," she said. "That process got things rolling in me to start producing my own images. I realized through teaching and being immersed in the creative process that I had the inner drive and skill to produce art."

Christine Misak works on a figurative painting in her classroom at St. Pat's. - Daron Letts/NNSL photo

Misak returned to painting during the last four years she has spent teaching at the school. Prior to that she put down her brushes for a few years to focus on teaching literacy skills for Abe Miller Centre, and before that, teaching English in Taiwan and South Korea, where she focused on photography.

From student to teacher

Misak grew up in an artistic family in Lethbridge, Ab, and pursued her passion at her hometown university, earning degrees in fine arts and education.

"In my first year I took psychology, philosophy, anthropology – then I took my first painting class and it was like home for me," she said, crediting her instructor for her courage to pursue art seriously. "It just takes a little encouragement to light someone's spirit. I'm very grateful for this outlet."

Misak works in oils and acrylics and also experiments with mixed media collage.

Some of her work is playful, such as her colourful and fanciful fish portraits and the paddle decorated with a poodle she donated to an Ecology North fundraiser. Other works explore themes of youth, gender issues, nature and political conflict.

One of her recent large-scale paintings contrasts a stylized image of a 1950s film actress peering from the window of a car. The young woman is painted in greys and the rest of the scene is coloured in bright shades of orange and blue. The woman holds a couple of sparrows in front of a background filled with stars.

Her symbolism, which plays with themes of objectification and alienation, speaks to the disconnect between people and between people and nature, she explained.

"Ultimately we all want to be in touch with others, with nature and the infinite," she said.

Misak has prints of a painting showing a husky's glassy-blue stare available for sale this week at Down to Earth Gallery in Old Town.