Over the last couple years, my art and I have been featured in various places on the internet. Instead of extending my CV , I thought that a post with some of the links might be helpful. This is a chart of links that I compiled tonight. It is by no means complete but it gives a good sense of my emerging art career.
This post is under construction and will be edited/added onto . For listed information, view Po’s CV . For Po’s About info/page.
At A Glance Bio
Portia Keely Chapman (“Po”), is a Canadian (born 1997, Belleville, Ontario) emerging, contemporary visual artist illustrator and drum maker reclaiming her Indigenous Ancestry. She created the Queen’s University Indigenous Illustration “Truth” which the University features each year on the annual National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. The “Truth” image is one of eleven groundbreaking Indigenous illustrations that were first commissioned in 2020 as digital web icons by the Queen’s University Office of Indigenous Studies. In 2022, a second set of icons was commissioned by the Faculty of Education for their Indigenous Initiatives. Since 2020, Queen’s has incorporated the icons through the University documents, including the “Truth” image which has been featured on Orange Shirt Day by multiple organizations across Canada.
Chapman’s first published cover artwork was “My Creation” in 2017 by the ASUS Journal of Indigenous Studies that also, in the body of the journal, featured 3 additional artworks created by Chapman. Her most recent cover artwork and chapter illustrations were commissioned by Broadview Press for the textbook: Ways of Being in the World, edited by Dr. Andrea Sullivan-Clarke. The contemporary, custom designed, Indigenous themed images depict the subject matter and key words from the book. They played a seamlessly integral role in the storytelling of the textbook as a whole.
Chapman is also known for her murals: “My Creation” in the Kingston Hall Reflection Room, and the Base31 public art “Warbler Watching” in the Aviator’s Garden, “Building a Bright Future” in the Lecture Hall, and “Exploring the Senses” in the Sensory Garden. The two Base31 circular murals utilize a circular composition with a delicate fish-eye lens distortion. Chapman developed the flow of the circular imagery, while creating the Queen’s icons. The images draw the viewer’s eyes around the composition while simultaneously creating depth with the use of colour. Because the murals use colour blocking rather than blending, Chapman creates shadow and highlights by clever placements of progressive tones rather than shades. Although the viewer may at first interpret the colour becoming darker, as if simply adding different amounts of black to the hues, Chapman mixes different hues. This sort of building dimension through hue variance closely replicates the organic aspect of nature. By pulling the colours apart, Chapman has innovated a fractured tinting method that is perceived by the viewer as wholeness. The 2 circular murals, commissioned by Base31, magnificently illustrate the effect because “Exploring the Senses” is 66” in diameter and is mounted about 12” above the ground. The viewer can interact with the painting because it can seem that the viewer is standing within the image. “Building a Bright Future” is 72” in diameter and has been constructed to appear as a very large drum with a 6” deep cedar frame.
Chapman’s drum exhibition premiered October 7, 2023 at the Parrott Art Gallery in Belleville, Ontario. It features hand painted hand drums that Chapman constructed. The images embody a circular compositional movement more similar to the Queen’s icons. Chapman wanted the images to move with the drum in any way that the drum is held. The translucent acrylic paint upon the translucent elk raw hide creates a flat illusion of depth because the exceptionally thin paint casts shadows through the rawhide resulting in an illusion of the image floating above the skin. Chapman prefers to paint upon stretched elk rawhide rather than canvas. Chapman’s drums, painted and ready to paint drums, will be featured in June 2024 at the Picton Gather in the County arts and crafts show, at which she will demonstrate her painting method so that other artisans can paint their own drums in their studios. Chapman views drum making as a meditative, spiritual art whereby the artist nurtures the drum into existence.
Background
Portia Keely Chapman, lived in Stockdale, Ontario up until she was 4 years old. She then moved to her newly built cottage in the woods along the south shore of Moira Lake, just west of Tweed, Ontario. Chapman’s family spent many years (2002-2017) invested in restoring the Land, upon which the Great Indigenous Battle of Chuncal Lake occurred in 17__. It was during this time, Po developed a very close relationship with the lake, the forest and the drumming pulse of Creation. Her characteristic art style and painted hand drum exhibition, “Drumming Sounds of Colour,” are inspired by her life experiences communing with woods and forest creatures. The bending images of her circular compositions are inspired by times when looking up at the sky amongst tall trees seeing them bend toward a focal point 80+ feet above her.
Having attended St. Michael School and Nicholson Catholic College from 2010-2015 in Belleville, Ontario, in 2019 she moved to Belleville and established an art creation studio in her high rise apartment overlooking the Bay of Quinte. During the Covid19 pandemic, Chapman taught art based programming at the ALCDSB Remote Learning School, while after school hours she filled multiple art commissions, negotiated contracts, conducted art planning meetings by Zoom, and made hand drums. In the fall of 2022, Chapman expanded to a 3 room art studio in Kingston, Ontario. Upon moving to Kingston, Chapman began teaching, Secondary School Visual Art classes for the ALCDSB, and community art workshops for youth and families at the Agnes Etherington Art Centre. Between January 2022 and November 2023, Po completed 47 art pieces, 29 of which were commissioned works ranging from digital art and hand-painted murals to hand drums. In September 2023, Chapman began teaching Adult Education in Kingston and Picton, Ontario and in November, she joined Kingston’s TETT Centre as a volunteer in order to help out fellow artists and artisans.
Art Awards
Chapman received her first art award in 2011. At her grade 8 graduation, she was awarded the “Achievement Award in the Arts.” In 2013, Chapman won the ALCDSB logo design contest. The “Faith in Action,” logo was used by the school board for about 7 years. It was displayed at the entrance of every school as well as on their website and printed documents. At that time, Chapman had not yet taken a visual art course, privately or publicly. The award recognition prompted her to commence art education in grade 11. In the spring of 2015, Chapman was further recognized for her excellence as a young budding artist. At her grade 12 graduation, Chapman received the “Top Marks Award for “Exploring and Creating the Arts,” “Sisters of Providence Award for the Arts,” and the Quinte Arts Council Bursary. Post graduation, Chapman received the Queen’s University Excellence Scholarship to study Visual Art in the BFAH Studio Art program. At the BDIA Spring 2015 Student Art Contest, Chapman was awarded “Best in Show” for her 36”X48” Oil on Canvas, “Love Expressed.” Then at Chapman’s Queen’s BFAH Graduation she received the Queen’s Medal in Visual Art for having the highest overall GPA of all the BFAH graduates.
The following is a list of her local art awards:
2011 Achievement Award in the Arts
2013 Faith in Action Logo Contest Winner
2015 Top Marks Award for Exploring and Creating the Arts
2015 Sisters of Providence Award for the Arts
2015 Quinte Arts Council Bursary
2015 Queen’s University Excellence Award to study BFA Visual Arts
2015 BDIA Annual Student Art Competition Best in Show
2016 Tweed Agricultural Fair 1st in Open Class Special
2016 Tweed Agricultural Fair 1st in Wall Craft Home Decor
2019 Queen’s University Medal in Visual Art
We all have our own method and strategy to create our art pieces. For me, I start with 2 things:
1/ An idea notebook that I enter flashes of visions, ideas, concepts, and sketches of possible cool things to do in the future. I also include inspiration quotes and sometimes reflections about my experiences. I keep sheets of paper on my bedside table to record dreams too. When one idea doesn’t float at one point, it may in the future.
The following image was eventually painted in 2022 as a mural for Queen’s University’s Kingston Hall Reflection Room but I first created it in 2018 for my 3rd year BFAH class and it was rejected by the professor because the prof said that, “It looks like something you’d paint in your garage.” The thing is, it was the beginnings of my current art style and landed me several commissions when I finally finished it outside the course.
“My Creation” mural took 4 years before it was commissioned and mounted. It began with a simple sketch and grew for years. The mural was created because the ASUS executive adored the original digital image and had been awaiting the chance to have it painted. This is often how commissions work. The organic growth and development of art concepts can take many turns until it reaches its destination. I still find the journey amazing.
2/ The second thing I do for art creation is take photos or have photos of me in the environment. I like to catch a moment – the nuances of life that happen in a moment in time. The following digital image is a current idea that I am working on as I consider the painting medium and final expression. The piece is entitled, “My Drum and Me.”
Again as one can see, a beautiful moment in time captured by a photo and/or inspiration notes and drawings can lead to some really beautiful art pieces in the future. If anything, their journey materializes as life takes its own twists and turns. An art concept never gets old, it simply waits for its time to shine, but as it waits, the inspiration weaves itself through one’s career and the creation of other pieces. Art is not created in a vacuum – it lives and breathes through us as artists and art enthusiasts. Art is alive, even as it awaits its birth.
It is difficult to believe, but it is true. I had lost track. How funny is that!? As they say: “It never feels like work when you love what you do.” I guess, when not sleeping, I am creating. With that said, I often wake up suddenly with an art project idea and quickly sketch it down on a pad of paper that I keep on my bedside table. So, maybe I am working, even in my dreams.
Also, since my 25th birthday in April 2022, I have had a lot of life altering things happen. My family and I moved our home from Belleville to Kingston, and I received a couple new teaching positions. As both a treat and necessity, I even bought my first vehicle. Although the move had its challenging moments, it provided me with space for a small gallery, a bright meeting space and mural painting room, plus a rough space for wood working and drum building. I like to make most of my own hardwood stretchers and like to stretch my own canvas. This winter, I will be able to use a wood steamer that I built in the summer. I can’t wait to bend my drum frames and circular painting stretchers. As you can imagine, life as an artist is never boring.
As an emerging artist it is really exciting as my art is growing in popularity. While preparing competition documents for a current mural commission, I put together a snapshot of my most recent art and art-related projects. As strange as it may sound, I surprised myself. I knew that I had been busy, but when I compiled it in a list, I was like: “Wow, I guess I have done a lot.” The following is the rough list that I compiled. You can read more about these projects in my CV.
– 7 digital web icons – Queen’s University
– 1 painted drum – Queen’s
– 2 painted drums – Private Commission
– 2 exterior murals – Base31
– 1 interior mural – Base31
– 5 Sensory Garden signs – Base31
– 2 digital border templates – Base31
– 1 interior mural – Queen’s
– 1 book cover digital to print image – Broadview Press
– 5 title page digital to print images – Broadview Press
– 1 logo digital to web and print – Kingston School of Art
– 1 logo digital to web and print – WEYTK Communities Inc. (B.C.)
– 1 painting – QAC/Parrott Art Gallery
– 1 art print stone lithograph – PEC South Shore Joint Initiative (created 2018)
– 1 painting – PEC SSJI
– “Must We Wear Heals” sculpture / cast (created 2017) – Parrott Art Gallery
– “Emergence: Future Unknown” painting – QAC / Parrott Art Gallery
– “Drumming Sounds of Colour” 15 piece solo painted drum exhibit – Parrott Art Gallery
– 5 Sensory Garden signs – Base31
– 3 large painted drums – WEYTK
– Mural reveal presentation – Base31
– Drum exhibit art talk – Parrott Art Gallery
– Concurrent Education seminar leader – Queen’s
– Artist in Community presentation and workshop leader – Queen’s
– Nursing medical textbook cover
– Drum creation for spring show & sale
– Ongoing paintings
– Elementary online Itinerant Art Teacher – ALCDSB
– Grades 9 & 10 Visual Art PECI
– Grades 9 – 12 Visual Art – Regi & HC, ALCDSB
– 5 monthly Creation Stations – Agnes Etherington Art Centre
– 1 March Break Art & Sports Camp – Agnes
– 1 Summer Art & Sports Camp – Agnes
– 1 digital online video children’s story book – Youtube
– Teaching Gr 12 Media Art – University of Windsor
– Teaching International Baccalaureate Visual Art – University of Windsor
– Kingston in Focus
– QAC Umbrella (this winter 2024)
– QAC Member Spotlight
– County Arts Member Spotlight
Tett Centre for Creativity and Learning, Kingston – Training November 2023
My new studio is a place for me to create, have zoom meetings with clients and present my artworks. I do not have a walk-in store location at this time. Thank you for you understanding.
It dawned on me that I have not posted any photos of my new Kingston Art Studio. Although I do miss being down on Bagot Street (I adore downtown Kingston), the suburbs in the north end provide me with more creation space, easy access to building supply stores, Michaels, and the my much needed inspiration trips into the countryside north of HWY 401. The following photos are of my space where I create:
“Drumming Sounds of Colour” exhibition is being displayed by the Parrott Art Gallery in Belleville Ontario. The collection features 15 hand drums that Po made and hand painted. It is the first drum exhibit of its kind.
In a recent press release ( Intelligencer local paper ) it is written: “…an exhibition by local artist and drum maker Portia “Po” Chapman, called “Drumming Sounds of Colour” located in our corridor cabinets. This painted hand drum exhibit and sale, displays fifteen drums. Most of the drums feature elk raw hide stretched over white cedar forms and are painted in colourful acrylics with designs inspired by nature…”
Although it is true that the imagery is “inspired by nature,” it is truly inspired by Po’s experiences growing up with Nature. The 15 piece collection is inspired by Po’s personal relationship with Creation as she grew up in the woods west of Tweed, Ontario. Accompanying the drums are 6 poetic verses that Po and her family wrote together. They tell Po’s story – the story depicted in both the painted images and the size progression of the drums. As such, the exhibit delves into the life and mind of a girl, reclaiming her Indigenous heritage, growing into womanhood as she is guided by Creation. It is a story of the preservation of innocence as revealed in Nature.
The simplistic images, in Po’s characteristic style, are of creatures in relationship with each other and the human experience of that relationship. In this case, creatures seen and unseen. The exhibition also includes 3 drums focusing on virtues: “Love” features a mother and child beneath the watchful , loving protection of a Bald Eagle; “Knowledge” features two people sharing stories around a sacred fire beneath the wing of a Ravine knowledge keeper; “Truth” features two people standing on Turtle Island as Creator lifts the turtle above the turbulent sea.
The poetry features a telling of the drumming pulse of Creation and how it awakens us when we notice it throbbing through our individual and collective pulse. Here is an example:
The drum exhibit is an amazing feat, as it is the first of its kind, at least locally. As a mixed media visual story teller, Po created the exhibit with two things in mind, to share the beauty of her Creation experience and to inspire viewers to tell their stories and share what they see. The exhibit is an amazing experience to take time and to take in.
The exhibition runs until December 1, 2023. If you would like one of the drums for your personal collection, some of them are available for purchase. You can contact gallery staff and they will assist you.
Po, a graduate of the Queen’s University BFAH (2019) program and BEd Concurrent Education (2020) program, moved her studio from Belleville, Ontario in the fall of 2022. During the pandemic, Po created her artworks in her high rise apartment. Her painting room overlooked the picturesque Bay of Quinte. The move was a difficult one to make but three factors necessitated the move.
Having been born in Belleville, Po grew up in the woods at her family’s cottage west of Tweed Ontario. From Tweed, she bussed into Belleville from grade 7 to grade 12. It was during these years that Po became part of the Bay of Quinte visual art scene. During her final B.Ed. year, she moved with her family to Belleville Ontario while retaining her Kingston, Bagot St, apartment. When the first lockdown happened in Ontario, Po and her family were separated, some in Belleville and some in Kingston. In fact, the day before the Pandemic announcement shut things down, Po was being trained to work at the Agnes Etherington Art Centre. As part of her required alternative B.Ed. placement, Po was going to work on some programing initiatives. Since this opportunity was interrupted, Po was unable to work at the Agnes. In 2022, Po was contacted by the Agnes and invited to teach / lead some art courses. Since then, Po has lead mostly youth oriented art workshops.
The pandemic resulted in Po working at her Belleville studio full time. The week after her B.Ed. graduation in August 2020, Po was hired by the Algonquin Catholic District School Board to teach in the Online Remote School. So, in the apartment, Po created a sound proof room in which to teach for the year and another room for her art studio. Working from home meant that she was able to teach, create art, and take additional qualifications courses. Although the pandemic was really difficult for so many people, Po made the best of her situation.
Between March of 2020 and August 2023, Po’s art business and popularity flourished and because she could take additional University courses to expand the breadth of her teaching qualifications, Po secured herself a full-time contract with the ALCDSB. It is worthy to note that the Principal who hired her for the Remote Online School hired her for her current contract teaching position. Po teaches in both Kingston and Picton, Ontario.
The third reason to move to Kingston was to be close to her father’s physicians. Her father’s health condition necessitated the move. If you are not familiar with the geographical area, Belleville, Picton, Kingston all triangulate / flank the Bay of Quinte. They are about 40-70 minutes apart and access many of the same medical services. Kingston being the largest of the 3 medical centres. As well, the ALCDSB and the collective art scene serve Prince Edward County, Bay of Quinte, Kingston and the communities between them.
It was a busy 3 years for Po, as it was for many other people. Life changed and dictated the requirement to be versatile. That meant that Po needed to embrace the changes and move her studio to Kingston.
Portia “Po” Chapman Becomes Agnes Etherington Art Centre Art Educator
In September 2022, I was thrilled to receive an email from the Program Coordinator, Charlotte Gagnier, at the Agnes Etherington Art Centre (commonly called Agnes), inquiring if I would be interested in leading a couple of the gallery’s Creation Stations. Creation Stations at Agnes, are free family (with children ages 2+) arts days that occur once a month. Being a very family oriented artist, who views parents/guardians fostering and encouraging arts experimentation among their children from a young age, this was an opportunity that I was excited to be a part of. At first I was signed on for 3 Creation Station sessions in October, November, and December of 2022, and have now been signed on as Art Educator for more at Agnes. I just completed leading the art segment of Agnes’ Art and Sports March Break camp (in partnership with Queen’s ARC) and the March 2023 Creation Station, and I am signed on to lead the April 2023 Creation Station as well. I could not be more thrilled about working with Agnes!
Funny thing is, a full circle scenario has taken place to get to this point! In my final year of the Concurrent Bachelor of Education program at Queen’s University, I was scheduled to complete a 3-week long practicum placement in the programming department at Agnes during March 2020. I was super excited for this opportunity and was in the placement for 1 day, until… just think about the timing for a second… the next day the Covid-19 pandemic was officially declared, and I was not able to return to the placement.
During this placement, I was going to help run the March Break camp, but of course this did not happen. I thought for about 3 years that I lost this opportunity and my time at Agnes was not going to come. Fast forward to March 2023, and I have now lead the 2023 March Break Camp! It was always meant to be, but just not at that time. I live my life putting full trust into the Creator, never looking back, and THIS is what happens.
Keep reading below to learn more about my Art Educator experience at the Agnes Etherington Art Centre, in Kingston, Ontario.
For Each Creation Station I have lead thus far, I have designed activities that use various art making skills that are attainable by 2 year olds up to adults, depending on how far the participant is able to or willing to take the possibilities. For each session, I prepare 3 different activities often involving making objects out of recycled cardboard, decoupage/collage, painting, printing, paper folding/quilling and other hands on crafty projects. Some activities have included using recycled cardboard to make small treasure boxes and decorative homes, collage scenery pictures, block printing using foam, and paper folded snowflakes to name a few of the activities and are often based on a theme such as the season during which the Creation Station takes place.
The March 2023 Creation Station took place on March 19, and was inspired by Springtime. Participants enjoyed making flower wreaths by cutting out and folding paper to make leaves and flowers, paper quilled trees, and spring themed still life paintings (based on a still life scene I set up).
For the 2023 Art segment of the Agnes March Break camp, I designed a week long project; Mixed Media Diorama making. The goal for this project, was that each camper would explore a wide variety of mediums and techniques throughout the piece by making small elements each day using a different medium or technique that come together at the end of the week to make a completed and cohesive diorama.
Throughout the week, campers learned new art terminology, used the creative process by creating a detailed plan with theme before beginning “the making” of their artwork, and explored diorama construction, watercolour techniques, paper mâché, paper quilling, clay sculpting, block printing, acrylic painting, scratchboard creation, and a 3D tissue paper craft. Campers enjoyed using a variety of mediums and techniques and leaving at the end of the week with completed dioramas.
On the last day of camp, most campers proudly stood in front of the group to present their completed dioramas, each with their own storyline and theme.
This was such a fun, memorable, and enjoyable program to lead!
Portia Po Chapman Reveals New Hand Drum Materials – Thanks Bill Worb Furs!
For my new collection of hand painted hand drums, I have been called to use sacred white cedar tree wood and elk rawhide. My supplier for these materials is Bill Worb Furs from Winnipeg, Manitoba. I hope this gives an idea of the size of the drums and the raw materials being used. The drum frames are 14″ in diameter.
I will post more information soon.
Belleville, Ontario, Canada
portia@loveartbypo.ca
613-779-7975
Papercraft Arts and Crafts Gift Chest by Portia Po Chapman
Have you ever tried to find a gift chest in which to put little things like hostess gifts?
Well, I have. I thought getting a nice little box to put special things I’d buy or pick up through the year would be more special than chucking them under my bed with my shoes and failed art project trials.
Truly, I just could not do it any more. I JUST COULD NOT DO IT!
I had reached my point of desperation. I went to every store locally, including thrift shops – and you know I love thrift shopping for lost treasures and things that I will never use. I looked on local market apps, you name it. As you can imagine, I support local artisans and businesses first. But the closest thing I could find was at a big box store – crafting supplies store. It was waaaaay over priced and far too small.
I was about to give up this idea of getting a chest and just leave the special items tumbled amid the dust bunnies that magically seem to appear in the nether regions of forgotten things. But then it hit me!
All you artists out there know how that lightbulb in your creative cortex suddenly comes on like a spotlight in the night. I could swear that I even heard the idea bell go: “DING!”
What hit me was: I had all kinds of cardboard left over after moving. I knew what I’d do. So I grabbed some medium sized boxes, Exacto-knife, my glue gun, and started to build the chest.
It took me about a week off and on to build and then cover with semi-metallic special paper. It was soooo FUN. Now I have my own special chest that matches my space – and of course it is primarily PINK!
You should try it too. In the photos, you can see the gift box I made. It is about 1’ deep x 2’ wide x 1.5’ high. The curved top was constructed in a similar fashion as a roll top desk. I hope you feel inspired to create your own chest too.
The best thing is, now those little hostess gifts have a nice, clean, dust free special place to be stored.
Have fun creating,
Po
Belleville, Ontario, Canada
portia@loveartbypo.ca
613-779-7975
Love Art by Po 
