Kristy North Peigan is a Piikani/Peigan First Nation member and a freelance artist and designer in Calgary, AB. She is an Alberta University of the Arts graduate with a Bachelor of Visual Communications Design in Illustration. Kristy is an artist with a surreal and futuristic style that juxtaposes digital painting with oils on canvas for her works. She uses Indigenous teachings and subject matter to portray a modern view of Indigenous voices in portraits and surreal spaces. A 6 piece collection with the TREX Exhibition titled “Nitssaakita’paispinnaan: We Are Still In Control” has completed its 2-year tour across Alberta as of 2022.
This collection reflects Kristy’s artistic vision and skills and has brought her many exciting work contracts during its tour. Along with this experience, she has worked on various design projects and logos, aiding in uplifting Indigenous businesses, organizations, and community projects. She was also the Indigenous Artist in Residence at the Calgary Public Library in 2023. Her work on these projects and spaces adds a layer of reciprocity to these movements and organizations in having another layer of contemporary indigenous representation. Kristy continues her work as a freelance artist and designer and as a props maker, education facilitator, youth facilitator, and costume maker. She hopes to continue adding new professional endeavours and experiences to her artistic practice.
Art Descriptions
Screen Ghosting
Digital art printed on canvas and painted over with Oil Paint
Slow response effect of an LCD screen responding, where the human eye perceives an image from a previous frame. A visual mirage/blurring effect. A visual statement of the miraging of the standard image of an Indigenous figure, but holding a modern smartphone device to juxtapose the significance of identity and historical timeline.
Ghosting: Culture
Cyber android that is indigenous and inspired with a glowing braid plug (female). The teaching is that long hair is traditional and a sacred extension of the spirit/spinal cord. Appropriating sci-fi imagery for a cultural parallel. Cutting off the wires/being unplugged is a metaphor for cutting hair for indigenous individuals.
This mural was created through three community engagement meetings that brought together Indigenous Elders and Artists of Treaty 7 with FilipinX Community Leaders and Artists of Mohkinstsis/Calgary. The sessions took place at Arts Commons during the spring and summer of 2022. Our two communities discussed the themes of Empathy, Equality, Equity and the Environment. We also discussed commonalities we share in our respective cultures and some facts about our histories. Each session began with teachings from both community elders, with our conversation accompanied by Philippine and Indigenous cuisines.
The mural was designed by Kristy North Peigan and Gladzy Kei and was shared with our Indigenous Elders and FilipinX Community Leaders who added their feedback and final suggestions.
The mural was painted in July & August of 2023, with the Augmented Reality added in October 2023.
Truth & Reconciliation
“Hope & Healing” 2023
Digital work
This design was created to encompass the spirit of hope and healing to honour the children for Orange Shirt Day. The eagle is the main focal point where the eagle is flying up to the sky, directing the flow of the smudge smoke up to Creator. Within the smudge smoke, are small figures that represent the spirits of the children holding hands connecting with the wing of the Eagle. The smudge bowl sits as an anchor in front of the hills, mountains and tipis as this is our home and land, and our medicine comes from the earth. The large white dots in the top left corner and along the side are the Little Dipper and the Big Dipper constellations, which tie into many of our stories as well as a design feature on Blackfoot style tipis. The pictograph symbols on the right are the 5 nations of Treaty 7, also anchored by the symbols of the First Nations of Canada, the Metis, Inuit, and First Nations respectively below these. The feather on the left as well as the sweetgrass braids on the bottom are a way to depict honesty and integrity to the design, as these are symbols of our traditional medicine and cultural values. The shape of the frame is designed to emulate a Blackfoot-style tipi layout, where the bottom shows designs of the land/region, the middle is the story, and the top is the sky.
Work included t-shirts, 2 city buses wrapped in the design, and 1 fire truck.
