Hailey Weber
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Canada
Artist Statement
As an artist, my work encapsulates both experience and impressions originating from my own life and the lives of the people I know, meet, or observe from a distance. As current time becomes memory, my lens develops, and my work chronicles what I have come to see and to know. Through my work I incorporate all that is around me and continually challenge new ways of expressing the knowledge that I gain about people and place. Incorperating ever evolving colour palettes, movement, and symbolism often through an abstracted lens, my process acts as a reinvestigation of the natural world where I believe we are all rooted. My work sits somewhere between representational and partially recognizable, straddling the physical world and not-so-physical space that we hold inside. The aim is not towards representation or naturalism. My work is symbolic to embody the poetry of a moment. Furthermore, a catalyst to bring the viewer to a place of wonder where they can turn inward to build their own connections and deepen their relationship with themselves. I paint from a moment in time, from a feeling, from a truth that I have come to know. Life experiences persist through the tapestry of my work, and I seek to bring the viewer into the moment with me with the hope that one might reconnect with their own memory, sense of belonging, or newfound understanding of their intrinsic place in the world.
Biography
Calling Saskatoon home her whole life, Hailey Weber (b.2000) has spent much of her time developing roots in her community through high level sport playing soccer with the University of Saskatchewan, developing bilingualism, diverse volunteerism, and many lived experiences within the community she calls home. Beyond that, Hailey has had the opportunity to travel throughout nearly all of the provinces in Canada, numerous locations in America, Australia, Italy, Mexico, Paris, and beyond in the early years of her life. Through interaction with new cultures, histories, flora and fauna it has allowed her to understand her place more fully. Through her lived experience, she has come into contact with an incredibly diverse variety of individuals widening her perspective on how others experience life. This investigation of people, place, and culture is central to her practice.
Hailey has been the recipient of a variety of scholarships including the Misanchuk memorial travel scholarship for undergraduate research, an Honours Scholarship from the college of Arts and Science, a book prize for receiving the highest academic average in senior level French, five scholarships from Sasksport, the Anna Bychinski Award for excellence in the fine arts, and support through the Prince Edwards Scholarship from SK Arts.
Hailey is a gentle and observant person that thinks a lot more than she speaks however she has a more gutsy side that comes out though bold mark making that gets vivid and physical next to the softer and elegant strokes that often define her work. This duality is very representative of her personality and outlook on life.