Maria Anna Parolin

I am a material-based artist, researcher, and community connector whose work explores the intersection of art, nature, and science. My research focuses on studying local ecology and botanical materials to develop creative techniques and processes using sustainable, locally sourced plants.

As an active community member, I serve on several committees and am the co-president of the Burnaby Arts Council. I am also a proud member of the art/mama collective, which organizes exhibitions, publications, and public dialogues with artist mothers, both locally and internationally. Through our PLOT residency at Access Gallery, we facilitated a series of conversations that brought together diverse communities of creative, working, self-identified mothers and caregivers, culminating in the publication, art/mamas: Intermedial Conversations on Art, Motherhood, and Caregiving.

My work has been featured in publications such as Printmaking at the Edge – 45 Artists: 16 Countries: A New Perspective (UK) and Imaginary Economics – Contemporary Artists and the World of Big Money (Netherlands). I have participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Canada, Japan, Korea, Sweden, and Italy.

Past work sought to blur the boundaries between object and product, fine art and consumer market, by challenging difference and exclusivity on the one hand, and exposing the fraudulence of media and marketing strategies on the other. Currently, my studio is filled with jars of ink, pigment, and fiber derived from orphaned plants that I have rescued from properties slated for demolition in my neighborhood, as well as from a dye garden located on the ancestral, unceded lands of the hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ and Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Sníchim-speaking peoples. I am deeply grateful for the daily gifts that grow, transform, teach, and inspire joy and wonder.  

My labor-intensive creative practice involves growing, foraging, harvesting, processing, and manipulating materials to produce intricate drawings, prints, paintings, sculptures, and site-specific installations.