printmaking

*A bee rests on a Dandelion surrounded by Lupins, a native species, in the Yukon, 2025.* That’s a bit ironic. Find out why.

In my latest project, I explore how the Common Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) – an introduced species and non-human settler from Euro-Asia – is both a proxy and a marker of human settler dispersal in the land now known as Canada.

Even a very small child will recognize a Dandelion and joyfully blow its puffball into the air. The popular nature platform iNaturalist shows 8,700 participants list over 21,000 observations of the plant across Canada. Yet does this plant — both maligned and cultivated — actually belong here? And may this settler plant present itself as a symbol of human settlers’ complex and layered relationship to the land itself?

I’m working with a European woodcut dated 1597. (I have been working for a few years with the early plant images that appear in herbals, among the very first printed books in Europe.) Other materials I’m using include municipal maps, Google maps, herbarium samples (i.e. dried Dandelions preserved by scientists), iNaturalist data, field notes and photos.

My project intends to build a national, visual language of this settler plant. So far I’ve worked in the far North, on the Prairies and in BC. Next, I plan to work in locations on the East coast, and in at the most southern point of mainland Canada at Point Pelee, ON.

*Pulling Dandelions from the native grass plots during artist’s residency at the Coutts Centre for Western Canadian Heritage near Nanton, AB*

I plan to provide updates on this project here and on Instagram @nandyheule.

The Dandelion’s pallid Tube/Astonishes the Grass – And Winter instantly becomes/An Infinite Alas – The Tube uplifts a signal Bud/And then a shouting Flower – The proclamation of the Suns/That sepulture is o’er. – Emily Dickinson, American poet, 1881

Toronto and Ottawa, Ontario

(Artist statement: Windows I and II)

The etchings below are a series of simple domestic images that capture a fleeting moment in time. They invite the viewer to enter the scene and expect an encounter. Images are Images on 7.5×9.5″ Somerset paper. Series are 22×15″ on Somerset paper.

Late 2022 I needed a subject matter to build technical skills in etching processes. I reached back to when I first encountered Albrecht Dürer’s pillow sketches (1493 AD) which prompted me a few years ago to try to draw some pillows myself. It’s not easy! Soon my subject matter emerged as representational images of my own living space. I feel the intimacy of the etching process aligns well with these quiet images. They intend to capture a fleeting moment in time, asking the viewer to enter the scene.