Anishinaabe artist brightens up Sunset Park in Art Panel Project
By Kelly Anne Smith
NORTH BAY— A business professional by day, Jennilee Peplinskie is Program Officer in the Labour Market Development Department at the Anishinabek Nation. During her spare time, Jennilee is an artist and her work is now on public display at Sunset Park in North Bay, Ont., as part of the city’s Art Panel Project.
North Bay is Jennilee’s hometown, where she graduated from Nipissing University in business administration with a major in marketing, and is a member of the Kebaowek First Nation.
“The Algonquin part of my roots is my mom’s side of the family. So that’s the North Bay-Mattawa area. Kebaowek is past Témiscaming, on the other side of the Ottawa River. That’s my Dad’s linage there.”
A new medium for Jennilee’s artwork has her immersed in creating images.
“Over the last year, I started working on my artwork a little more seriously. I’ve always dabbled in artwork throughout my life, but this past year, I bought myself a drawing tablet, an iPad, to draw with. It mostly became just for fun.”
Jennilee answered the call out for the new Art Panel Project after a friend pointed out the ad.
“The City of North Bay has been doing a lot of showcasing of more local artists and artwork. They do vinyl panelling on electrical boxes at city lights around town. I saw it and figured, ‘Oh, I have art to send’. So, I spruced up my work a little and then sent it in and then I heard back from them a couple of weeks later.”
“So, the three pieces that ended up at Sunset I had made before and altered them to fit the criteria of the Panel Art Project. With all of them, I drew inspiration with the natural world around us. I always love drawing animals and then within all three of the pictures, there are photographs in the backgrounds. I also do a bit of photography just for fun as well. I combined both my passion for artwork and photography and submitted them,” she explains. “It’s really fun… I do photography just for fun and never had an outlet for that. I’ve done it in the past like that but the criteria specifically said to try to have a busier background to your artwork to avoid graffiti. I figured I’d throw all my photos in the background for all three of them. The bear and the wolf originally had photographs in the background and the heron was just on its own. I kinda like it better with the background.”
Explaining the Big Dipper stars in her Spirit Mukwa Bear print, Jennilee notes the Greeks and Indigenous cultures often depict the Big Dipper with an image of a bear.
“I found that to be quite inspiring. It’s very interesting that two cultures completely across the globe from each other both saw this constellation and thought it looked like a bear. I drew the bear and feel like that connection with the stars super interesting. The moon is in there, too. The connection with the night sky. And then I always have plants. I feel like I always have plants in a lot of my drawings too. It’s just sorta that everything is connected in a way. That one is kind of an homage to the night sky. Then in the background of that one is an image taken at Kinsmen beach in North Bay. I tried to keep local photographs in the background.”
“Ma’iingan is Anishinaabe for wolf. This one more symbolizes our connection to everything. I really like that everything is so connected in our world and I like showing that through art. In this one, the wolf is not only connected to the moon, but the earth and plants around us and our families, and our inner selves as well. The wolf shows the symbolism of all of those key areas that are important to me. That one, the background is an image I took of the sunset over a lake in Algonquin Park. And my family has some roots in Algonquin Park, so that one kinda brings it back to my family and that connection as well.”
The artist’s great blue heron at sunset further beautifies the natural setting.
“So that one doesn’t have much deeper meaning other than I just really love blue herons. I just think they’re an awkwardly graceful flyer. They are very attention-grabbing and you typically find them when you’re sitting by the lake. It’s usually very serene so I associate them with calmness. And the background is an image of Lake Nipissing along the waterfront and a sunset.”
Jennilee had time to devote to her artwork when a major injury in 2016 took her off her feet for months.
“I had so much time to spend to sit and draw. It turns out, it has become a big passion of mine. It was more of a hobby and people started to take interest so I started to take it a little more seriously. Any time I have a spare moment, whether it’s on my breaks or in the evening, I’ll be drawing away or taking photographs.”
On her website, Jennilee Peplinski says the natural world is her happy place. Visit jankypeps.com where Jennilee sells art prints, stickers, and greeting cards.
Other artists selected for art panels at Sunset Park are: Kristen Lebel, Alexander Dumochelle, and Trevor Fournier. View art by Cody Houle, Will Fountain, Bonnie Humber, and Kim Rainville at Champlain Park.