JOANE CARDINAL-SCHUBERT, At the Centre of Her Circle

Joane Cardinal-Schubert is a story-teller. In conversation, in writing, in the way she approaches her work. Ask a question and you'll hear an anecdote. Mention an issue, and you'll hear about an experience. Questions about why are answered with what happened.

Joane's paintings and installations are visual stories of personal experiences layered on a backdrop of social and historical events. She weaves bold Aboriginal motifs into colourful statements about subjects that touch her.

Inspired by her open writing style, I invited Joane to collaborate on a progressive profile via email. Rather than relying on the usual formal interview, I suggested this format could be a kind of performance art for writing.

True to character, she was game to try, even though she was busy setting up an installation at the Art Gallery of Calgary as part of its 25th anniversary exhibition entitled 5° (Five Degrees). That's where we began.  

Subject: political art

To: editor@gallerieswest.ca 

From: joane cardinal-schubert

My installation is entitled 'Media'ate'. Two red walls....4 ft. wide b & w checkerboard floor, (the floor of oppression/power) strewn with ashes, rebar and burned computer discs. Red dove made out of modelling clay high on wall above two plinths (painted red). Text on wall "Post Modernism - 911".....original idea - chalk, but am now considering black oil. The left plinth has a brass hand bell. (Brit) ....poking out from under the bell is a small British flag and a Canadian flag.... on the other pedestal sits a world globe. The pedestals sit on an American flag, 10 ft long, in disarray. On the adjacent wall is a painting......soup can, 'Cardinal's condensed Feral Soup'... (wild horse)  ( smile). On the floor sits an ordinary wooden chair painted red.... I am trying to discourage myself from placing my black top hat pierced with a red arrow on the seat.....Do you think I am very wicked?

Subject: political art

To: joane cardinal-schubert 

From: editor@gallerieswest.ca

I think it's hard to say your work isn't political!

Subject: political art

To: editor@gallerieswest.ca 

From: joane cardinal-schubert

I started on this road to paint about my personal experiences: but because I'm Aboriginal, my work has been considered political. I don't think of it as political:  I think of it as personal. 

Subject: strategy

To: joane cardinal-schubert 

From: editor@gallerieswest.ca

But your art is triggered by political events and circumstances. And you have sought to make a difference in those circumstances through your art. You talk about a "strategy."

Subject: strategy

To: editor@gallerieswest.ca

From: joane cardinal-schubert

I am sick to death of articles re Aboriginal People..... and the negatives. That is why I became involved with the Calgary Aboriginal Arts Awareness Society over 14 years ago - to help celebrate the positives of Aboriginal People through art. That is really what my own life experience directed me to do... I wanted to discuss visually the very sophisticated Aboriginal culture - that was my strategy.

I told you about the dean who refused to let me in to the University of Alberta after I had presented a portfolio and was placed in 3rd year. I required the Dean's signature..... but when I met with him he enquired as to my name, pointed at me and said "You get out of here.... and don't you ever come back." All I could think of at the time was that Deans are not supposed to act this way. I painted, had two children and I waited five years until that Dean retired and went right to the University and registered. Part of my drive and stamina comes from experiences like these, and those I see happening to others.

I like turning over rocks to see what is under them..... moving carcases, turning them over, seeing what they are helping create. I am driven by not understanding how people have all this power. I pour in all those experiences, the good with the bad, and within the composition, their energies are transformed into beauty and a new truth. So you might say my art heals me. I was taught to believe that there is always something good to be found in bad.

I would say part of my art is triggered by political events as political events affect us and change our lives. Perhaps they have a more noticeable effect on an artist.

Subject: interpretations

To: joane cardinal-schubert 

From: editor@gallerieswest.ca

I see constant movement in your work. A continuous march of history, of events. I feel, at once, a sense of urgency and a sense of hope when I look at many of your paintings. But I'm never sure I'm getting it. You're speaking a language of your own.

Subject: interpretations

To: editor@gallerieswest.ca 

From: joane cardinal-schubert

It appears you are getting it - if you have an emotional response like this one. My painting exists on many levels. It has to be beautiful so as not to alienate, but I want to engage the intellect too. Allow the viewer room to make a choice. I am simply creating a mirror for them to look into. They see what they want to see and therefore they have a part in the process. I know that I really don't have any control over how they interpret my work.

I believe each artist develops a language of personal visual symbology. An artist's work is really composed of visual sentences or paragraphs or essays threaded together. The most interesting part of this for me is when I hear comments like yours, when I hear that the message is getting through, that I am communicating on that level.

Subject: artistic process

To: joane cardinal-schubert 

From: editor@gallerieswest.ca

You talk of being a visual interpretor who cannot, as an artist, turn a blind eye. When do you make the decision to commit to the canvas?  

Subject: artistic process

To: editor@gallerieswest.ca  

From: joane cardinal-schubert

Sometimes I create a series of works that have as their final impetus a fallen leaf, the colour of the sky, a raindrop hitting my face, the sound of snow underfoot or a laugh... that stimulates or triggers a collected memory and serves to produce a conceptual image on my retina. At these points I am eager to get to the studio and see if I can create it as I visualize it.

I always have some idea of my goal, but at some point the process takes over and I am directed by it. This makes my passion even more intense to go on the journey of discovery. 

Subject: visual stories

To: joane cardinal-schubert  

From: editor@gallerieswest.ca

Have the stories that you tell changed with time? Something you said about existing within a circle suggests you don't see your career as a linear progression.

Subject: visual stories

To: editor@gallerieswest.ca 

From: joane cardinal-schubert

Most stories are very linear, with a beginning, a mid-point and an end. Storytelling was introduced to me as a parallel example of problem solving. Stories were not directives but provided a space for personal resolve. This is similar to what an art work achieves.

What I said was that I exist at the center of a big circle. My "stories" are circular, the end and the beginning linked, referenced ...and I can cross over the circle and spin off into little circles rediscovering aspects I have missed or that remained undeveloped in previous works. Sometimes I cross that circle as a challenge to rediscover, to find out what I missed at first glance.

Right now my work is all about family and the world we live in - obviously a response to the times.

Subject: being categorized

To: joane cardinal-schubert 

From: editor@gallerieswest.ca

You've always resisted being categorized. Early on, you said no to doing what was expected of you... doing "Native" art, or "political" art...

Subject: being categorized

To: editor@gallerieswest.ca 

From: joane cardinal-schubert

Early on - at 19 - I began to see that I was expected to do a certain kind of thing - I supposed I was to do Native art.

I had a difficult time realizing I was categorized by my personal expressions. The categorization of Native Art was attached to my work and others' works by non-Native curators. Even though I had written the same exams in University and fulfilled all the requirements of a degree..... when I got out of school my content which was largely about myself, who I was, my responses to the world etc....was labelled as Native Art and then political art - they seemed to go together.

Later when Native Curators came on the scene, and called the work Native art - that was different. We were declaring who we were, not being told by others. The political was not separate - there was no label.

Subject: free thinking

To: joane cardinal-schubert 

From: editor@gallerieswest.ca

Your parents were living examples to you and your siblings of not fearing change, of going beyond barriers. They encouraged "free thinking." That has been a huge part of who you are as an artist.

Subject: free thinking

To: editor@gallerieswest.ca 

From: joane cardinal-schubert

Yes my parents were amazing. One could call it 'free thinking', but for us, it was the way we were - We loved to laugh, to have fun, to discuss, and debate. Our voices were important, our curiousities were encouraged.

My parents taught us to look at each day as a new beginning. That tomorrow is a new day - I hold this belief close - it has served me well. No recriminations, just belief that things change, things get better and I have a part to play in that - I take the responsibility seriously.

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Artist's Biography

Joane Cardinal-Schubert lives and works in Calgary. She attended the Alberta College of Art & Design and the University of Alberta, and graduated from the University of Calgary with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1977. She is a painter, a printmaker and an installationist whose work has been shown across the country and internationally. Cardinal-Schubert is a former curator at the Nickle Arts Museum, has written for art magazines, catalogues and books, and is currently the Alberta editor for FUSE magazine. She is ex-officio president of the Calgary Aboriginal Awareness Society; provincial representative for SCANA; and the visual arts representative on the Canada Council Aboriginal Secretariat.

In addition to many scholarships, grants and awards, in 1985 she was inducted into the Royal Canadian Academy (RCA); in 1993 she received the Commemorative Medal of Canada; and in November 2002 she was awarded the Queen's Jubilee Medal.

Cardinal-Schubert was born in 1942 in Red Deer. A 20-year retrospective of her work travelled across Canada for three years, opening in Calgary in 1997. Selected public collections include: National Gallery of Canada; Glenbow Museum; The Indian Arts Centre Collection and The Canadian Museum of Civilization in Hull; Canadian embassies; The Collection of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II; Shell Canada Ltd.; Bank of Montreal; Bank of America; Esso Resources and Northern Telecom.

Masters Gallery in Calgary is exhibiting recent works by Cardinal-Schubert in April 2003; her work is also carried by Bearclaw in Edmonton, Spirit Wrestler in Vancouver, Hollander York in Toronto, Fran Willis in Victoria and Gallery Vincent in Ottawa.