Tamara Bond’s studio practice involves storytelling with many mediums including collage, painting, mixed media and drawing. She attempts to draw what catches her mind, then combines it all to create a narrative. Her current contemplations include: her own psyche, her mad identity, nature, animals, her chickens, motherhood, menopause, dreams, and the principles and elements of design.
Tamara was born in Prince George BC. She lives with her husband and their two daughters on the edge of a Garry Oak Meadow on the unceded lands of Lekwungen and Coast Salish peoples, including Esquimalt and Songhees First Nations.
Tamara received her BFA from Emily Carr University in 1999. She is represented by Madrona Gallery in Victoria and Masters Gallery in Calgary. She has exhibited her drawings and paintings in Canadian Artist-run centres, public galleries, as well as commercially. Bond is Guest Faculty at The Vancouver Island School of Art where she teaches Design and Drawing.
Tamara Bond’s exhibition Forest Setting is the culmination of 10 years of planning. With the ideas already in place, everything finally came together in 2022 when a government grant enabled her to rent a larger studio and explore the ideas that had been growing for years. Using large 6’ x 6’ canvases, Bond has built on narratives and visual storytelling in an entirely new way. The themes in her work are deeply personal and address questions of identity, living with mental illness, the environment, and love of colour. For Bond, this was a liberating experience, and she found a deep sense of joy in the act of painting. What she has produced is spontaneous and unedited, highlighting her ability to create narratives that allow viewers to share in her understanding of a world which is both deeply uncertain and beautiful.
Bond’s connection to the natural world plays an important role in this collection. Each painting builds on her love of animals and nature. Much of the preparatory work for this exhibition came from a trip that Bond took in 2022 to her hometown of Prince George, B.C. For Bond, growing up in the interior amongst nature provided endless inspiration and would become a central theme in her work over the years. During this trip, Bond drove on forestry roads, finding inspiration in the life cycles of nature, including the devastation of the pine beetle throughout the hills and mountains. Amidst a patch of new growth pines, Bond created charcoal drawings of the trees and caught sight of a bear walking through the tall grass. This experience was instrumental in creating this series of paintings. Back in her studio, Bond took the sketches from the trip and collaged them onto the canvases. Images of the forests and the bear, along with some of Bond’s other favourite animals, are weaved throughout the series, piecing together bits of narrative that unite the collection.
Colour is a fundamental feature of Bond’s work. Having taught drawing and design as a guest lecturer at the Vancouver Island School of Art, Bond has a deep understanding of colour theory and composition. These elements allow for the creation of vibrant, joyful paintings that work to piece together complex narratives. Colour adds to the transformative power of Bond’s art and its ability to heal the artist and viewer. The bold palette carries through the paintings and serves to balance the work.