I never aspired to be a gallery or commercial artist – to making work to hang on a wall – although I have done that. My tendencies leaned towards making large-scale work, creating visual experiences in alternate environments. I make bodies of work then look for a place to exhibit. I get an idea and it consumes me until I get it out of my head and into the world making the vision visible –
The prevalence of theme based and curator driven exhibitions over the years left little room for my work within conventional cultural institutions. In 1995, in response to this trend I created an Open Studio event out of my Vancouver studio at 1000 Parker St along with other participants in the building. Each year we invited other artist studio buildings to join in. This event is now known as the Eastside Culture Crawl. It was a way to invite the public into our studios and our process, educating them about the importance of creative pursuits, maintaining control over what we exhibited and how, as well as keeping all the profits from work sold, increasing our income and our independence.
Louise Pagé
Okori
2022
University Education
Master of Fine Arts, painting University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC 1990
Bachelor of Fine Arts, painting University of Calgary, Calgary, AB 1980
Other
‘silence, awareness, existence’ artist residency Arteles Finland January 2019
BAiR artist residency Banff Center for Arts and Creativity Banff AB 2018
Painting / sculpture workshop George Ketterl Vancouver, BC 1996
Early childhood education degree Langara College, Vancouver, BC 1991
Emma Lake professional artist workshop Peter Bradley John Link 1986