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![\"Mike](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/4005407_web1_DeeBarsyWhatsonmyWall_MikeSudoma_February182026-2.jpg\")
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Mike Sudoma\/Free Press<\/p>\n
Winnipeg artist Dee Barsy and her daughter Emmylou hold a drawing of Emmylou done by Richard Daniels, with lettering by Bram Adey, a local tattoo artist.<\/p>\n
\u201cI make contemporary fine art, so why would I want to collect it?\u201d<\/p>\n
There are preserved tarantulas, scorpions and a bat, furs and animal skulls.<\/p>\n
Smashing Pumpkin and Joy Division posters in her living room attest to decades listening to alt rock, though these days it\u2019s country \u2014 often Emmylou Harris, her eight-month-year old daughter\u2019s namesake \u2014 that plays most on her speakers.<\/p>\n
Upon closer inspection, the throughlines between what she paints and what she hangs seem clear. These days, her work is filled with animals, often inspired by her Indigenous roots.<\/p>\n
\u201cI guess one of my things that I\u2019m curious about: what\u2019s inside (the skulls), what\u2019s behind the fur, what are the different layers? So much, like the way I paint in layers, taking things apart and putting them back together.\u201d<\/p>\n
Barsy\u2019s work \u2014 which has hung in UN buildings, Premier Wab Kinew\u2019s office, art galleries in Korea and across Canada \u2014 first started drawing eyes about 15 years ago.<\/p>\n
In an era of high-theory multi-disciplinarity, Barsy struck a more traditionalist stance: she liked painting and she liked her old Russians, specifically the abstract Soviet modernists of a century ago \u2014 Kandinsky and Malevich \u2014 and 19th-century Russian authors.<\/p>\n
Over time, birds, butterflies and other critters started popping up in the Anishinaabe-Ojibwa artist\u2019s work.<\/p>\n
Her paintings took on characteristics of the Woodland style with their clean, two-dimensional blend of modernism and traditional Indigenous imagery.<\/p>\n
For instance, her 2017 painting My Four Grandmothers \u2014 an allusion to the four grandmothers she has as a \u201960s Scoop adoptee \u2014 drew inspiration from Woodland masters Daphne Odjig and Norval Morrisseau, although there\u2019s little mistaking her work for others, with her signature Barsy blue background and other elegant quirks.<\/p>\n
Last fall, Toronto\u2019s downtown Union Station was awash with her aqua blue as dozens of her paintings greeted the station\u2019s 30,000 daily visitors.<\/p>\n
The exhibition, Westerly Winds, explored the connections between trains, birds and people in transit. It was also a serendipitous nod to the Toronto Blue Jays, in the midst of their electric World Series run when the exhibition was up.<\/p>\n
Currently, Barsy\u2019s prepping a few murals she is painting in March along Graham Avenue, supported by Downtown Biz, in connection with Wehwehneh Bahgahkinahgohn\u2019s transformation of the Bay building.<\/p>\n
Mock-up sketches of the project are pasted on her wall below photos of Barsy and her partner Ryan with their daughter Emmylou.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I\u2019m trying to do with my new artwork is honour the past of its main company, but also bring new life in a less colonial way. So, for that project, I\u2019m focusing on the canoe,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t Mike Sudoma\/Free Press<\/p>\n Dee Barsy picked up a polar bear skull during her travels.<\/p>\n \u2018The canoe is traditionally made of birch and I\u2019m trying to think about the birch tree and the environment it creates for birds and flowers. Essentially, it\u2019s kind of a collaborative effort between all the different animals, flora and fauna that coexist with the birch tree. And I\u2019m thinking about the canoe as a symbol for trade and business.\u201d<\/p>\n Barsy scoots over to point out details in the sketches; the artist \u2014 who, when she had more time, was an avid runner and weightlifter \u2014 is using an orthopedic knee walker.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve always done things like BMXing, skateboarding. We all come to a point in our growth and our maturing where we push our body too far,\u201d she says with a laugh, going on to explain that she has a friend who does mixed martial arts.<\/p>\n \u201cI said, \u2018Show me a leg lock.\u2019 And I tried to get out. I don\u2019t think you\u2019re supposed to try to get out.\u201d<\/p>\n In the sudden struggle, she felt something snap. Her first encounter with a new sport had ended with a broken leg.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s the moment I realized I\u2019m 39.\u201d<\/p>\n One piece of art with a local connection on Barsy\u2019s wall is a ballpoint-pen sketch of her daughter\u2019s face by Richard Daniels, with lettering of Emmylou\u2019s name by Bram Adey, a Winnipeg tattoo artist.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t really have any interest in buying paintings because I\u2019m a painter. I want things that I can\u2019t do. I\u2019ve never been able to draw a human face,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n But more importantly, the drawing is of Emmylou, the creation that the once footloose freelancer is thinking the most about these days.<\/p>\n \u201cI always want to be with Emmy,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have the studio set up so that Emmy can be comfy there, putting her in her chair when I paint. We can all be there together. It\u2019s really nice.\u201d<\/p>\n winnipegfreepress.com\/conradsweatman<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t Conrad Sweatman Conrad Sweatman is an arts reporter and feature writer. Before joining the Free Press full-time in 2024, he worked in the U.K. and Canadian cultural sectors, freelanced for\u00a0outlets including The Walrus, VICE and Prairie Fire. Read more about Conrad.<\/a><\/p>\n
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