Richard
Austin
visual artist
Chelsea, Québec, Canada
La Fab Arts Centre 10th Anniversary Celebration 2021
Artist Dawn McArthur presents her recent La Fab sur Mill exhibition
Heather Crowe’s Legacy: An Ordinary Canadian's Extraordinary Gift
Heather Crowe (April 23, 1945, Yarmouth, Nova Scotia – May 22, 2006, Ottawa, Ontario) was a Mi’kmaq and a Canadian waitress who became the public face of Canada's anti-smoking campaign. Crowe was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2002.
Famously claiming to have "never smoked a day in her life", Crowe believed her cancer to be the result of regularly breathing second-hand smoke at her workplace, Moe's Newport Restaurant, for over forty years. In 2002, she submitted a successful claim related to second-hand smoke exposure in the workplace to the Ontario Workplace Safety & Insurance Board for lost earnings and health care benefits. Based on her $12,000 salary, WSIB awarded her $200 a week, $4,000 a year to help with medical expenses and a one-time payment of $40,000 for pain and suffering.
Shortly before Christmas, 2003, WSIB ordered the 59-year-old Crowe, still undergoing chemotherapy and radiation therapy, back to work. Following Crowe's lobbying campaign, the province of Ontario passed an anti-smoking bill which banned smoking in all indoor public spaces and near the entrances of government buildings. The law came into effect four days after Crowe's death in 2006. She was survived by her daughter, whom she raised alone.
Glen Foster
Glen Foster is a multi-disciplinary creator who hails from Montreal and has lived in the Gatineau Hills for 40 years. As a furniture maker/woodworker, photographer, musician and scientist, he has always delved in to understanding, exploring and appreciating the world around him.
Diane Lemire
Born in Val d’Or and now living in Chelsea (Quebec), Diane Lemire is a multidisciplinary artist inspired by her surroundings, nature and her life. Holder of a B.F.A and a B.Ed. from the University of Ottawa, she creates mixed media sculptures, textile art works, paintings and collages evoking the sense of time, place and hidden memories.
Nature Humaine du Groupe des 7 au feminin
This collective is made up of painters Linda Bergeron-Baril, Lynn Camiré, Marthe Laroche, Monique Patry, Suzanne Patry, Denise Pelletier and Nicole Pigeon.
Coming from diverse backgrounds and using various artistic processes, these seven friends exhibit colourful and vibrant paintings which delight the soul and evoke the arrival of warmer days.
Kevin Burke
Born in Ottawa, Kevin Burke grew up in a creative environment surrounded by craftsmen and hobbyists with a strong rural tradition. Kevin’s delightful whirligigs, whether they depict a bird, a fish, or a scene from everyday life, are whimsical works of folk art sure to put a smile on your face.
Valérie Blais
A native of Chelsea, Valérie Blais is a young ceramic artist based in Montreal. She discovered the complex world of ceramics during a trip to Newfoundland and subsequently undertook a training in ceramics. Valérie did an artist residency in Fogo and took classes at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts. She pursues further training and continues her research in a shared studio she opened in 2019 in Montreal.
Neal Ford Sundet
Experience, talent and charisma is what Neal Ford Sundet is all about. He also works at his recording studio called Meech Creek Studios. Located in Farm Point, Québec he provides local talent the opportunity to record professionally in a warm atmosphere. People as far as New York come to record at his studio.
Paul Hampsey
Paul Hampsey is a Wakefield, Québec singer/songwriter who has been performing solo and with various bands for years. His songs range from tales of giant houseplants to serious examinations on the state of the planet. He has recorded two solo albums and an album with his bandmates in Tractor. Paul's songs are crafted with a sincere desire to reach others.
Sister Hyde
Ted Axe, AKA Sister Hyde is a swaggering leather-clad figure, eyes hidden under a veil of black hair and a half-cocked top hat dances to the tune of a dirty Les Paul. Venting poison with a hail of feedback, Axe screams with a razor-tongued sneer that ignites the crowd!
Christiane Claude
With a Bachelor of Arts with a concentration in Theater from the University of Ottawa, Christiane Claude studied mime at the Naropa Institute in Colorado, at the National Mime School in Montreal and with Marcel Marceau. She performed with the Théâtre des Lutins and took part in the Manotick Fringe Festival, where she won the award for best children's artist. Christiane hosted a children's television series called Mimagination. She is also a guest artist at Algonquin College. Currently Christiane works as a guest artist with the culture program in Quebec government schools.
John McAlpine
John McAlpine writes and sings about life’s ups and downs and always pulls off a ripping show.