This summer, we launched the inaugural Fluevog Artist Grant, a $10,000 fund designed to support the creative growth and development of up-and-coming talent within our community of Fluevogers. For this first round, we called on emerging artists in Canada to submit their unique proposals for the chance to be awarded the grant and waited with bated breath for the submissions to come in.
All we can say now is…boy did you blow us away! Hundreds applied, many were shortlisted, and we’re finally ready to announce and introduce you to our debut Artist Grant winner…
Anna Williams is an artist and sculptor based in Ottawa, Ontario. Having been raised in an arts-positive family, Anna grew up working in her mother’s pottery studio. When her creative ambitions began to move beyond things that were suited to clay, Anna seeked further learning at Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick, where she specialized in sculpture and print making and spent time honing her metal-casting skills in the schools’ foundry.
Her practice examines the construction and manipulation of identity in contemporary society. Her work often explores a link between human beings and the natural world where the result is not an inherent abjection, or abasement, but a means of escape from the constraints of Western society in search of our most grounded and potent selves.
With her Fluevog Artist Grant winnings, Anna will be working on an extremely personal project that aims to shine a light on the dualities surrounding mental illness. Heap is a proposed sculpture consisting of 750 individually cast bronze leaves collected from the towering oak tree of her family home. A piece that investigates the dualities of childhood happiness and pain through the juxtaposition of material and content, it is a sculptural exploration of a family’s struggles with mental illness.
We will be checking in with Anna throughout the next few months as she progresses with her project. Stay tuned for more updates to come!
