“Helping you create arts and environmental education |
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PAINTING PEACE BACKGROUND STORYRosemary Hanna, B.A., M.A., Vancouver BC artist/ecologist 
Rosemary is an innovative BC watercolor artist and designer whose vibrant artworks are collected
internationally. Her endeavors include integrated creative arts for environmental and cultural workshops, and
watershed ecology education. Highlights of solo invitational exhibits: United Nations Oceans Days venues; Canada
Day – Canada Place; Vancouver Ports Marine Events; and Children’s Marine Arts for Vancouver Aquarium. “My family’s history intentionally embraces peace-making initiatives - our story illustrates possibilities for creative pathways to peace. The Painting Peace Web site/gallery project is a small step to initiate my vision for building peace-making arts, with caring connections between nature, humans and communities! My passion – sharing artistry with community members - helping you and your family create artistic connections.”
“As professional Artist-in-Residence ~ many projects encompass Planning, Research, Design, ongoing Support and Leadership of Art with Environmental and Cultural themes ~ in collaboration with communities, for multi-cultural, international and ESL students, with media resources for exciting interactive workshops.”
M.A. Simon Fraser University (2006) Thesis “Hidden Champions of the BC Forest Industry” Case studies - BC coastal and interior forest products export companies/contemporary innovation capacity; economic/environmental, human resource/community - cultural linkages, tech development (World Forests, Environment Economy and Development) B.A. (S.F.U) World Fisheries, Natural Resources, Regional Ecosystems, Biogeography Education Professional Development SFU/Arts & Environmental Science Development Practice SFU Arts/Ecology Fieldwork Education Community Circle Program Design/Instructional Semester GR 3-5 ‘Wetlands and Salmon Institute’ Undergraduate Studies - Emily Carr University; University of Manitoba Capilano University (Associate Arts); Open Learning University/Studio Arts-Sculpture, Design, Sociology Architecture, Climatology, Environmental Geography, Environmental Ethics, Bioethics BC Gulf Islands Informal Education: Our family (prairie immigrants) began hands-on ecology study as residents of three stunningly beautiful arbutus and fir-clad islands! Lesson 1 - Liquid highways connecting islands to everywhere command deep respect: ‘weather eyes’ must interpret hazards of slick silver seas, rolling swells, red sky, mackerel clouds over Trincomali Channel; wind shifts, waterspouts, SUBMERGED ROCKS! Lesson 2 - Infinity (and finite) ecology lessons from forests and watersheds. Fresh water Lesson 3 – ‘The glue’ - Communicating within human and natural systems - incorporating fun and creativity for health and happiness – sharing resources and knowledge! Rosemary’s Art - Supporting Communities and Organizations $100-$2000 contributed to each organization – art sales, auctions, in-kind donations
Advocacy, Mentoring and Memberships
Painting Peace and Childhood Creativity “My childhood bridges nature, art and friendship - from backyards to inter-tidal zones, frogs to dogs – laughter and creative arts! Imagine an artistic child endlessly fascinated by ‘the environment’ – amazed at the unfolding of each magical layer, noticing early that humans are small actors! My little friends and I loved watching and/or catching fish, worms, wild roses, Saskatoon berries, crayfish. Rivers, trees and northern lights, mountains, gophers, sunsets and DIRT formed a stunning panorama for hands-on exploring of tiny and big mysteries - punctuated by bites and sunburns. Patient encouragement of proud parents, grandparents & HUGE, wonderful extended family, ‘animal whisperers’ like me, enabled knowledge and imaginative arts mixtures that helped to express what we saw. Research scientist/plant pathologist/geneticist dad loved animals, plants and humans; mum was pursued by little hands full of insects, worms and snakes. Yet, my small friends and I cared only for sunny days running wild by cottonwood lined riverbanks, through the soft dry gold of foothill grasses and forests of our imagination – ALWAYS attracted to watery edges. Fixing a robin’s broken wing fostered my early love of caring for wild animals and people, while nursing and later setting her free (though she hung around all summer). Catching crayfish with bacon-bait-on-a-string led to even bigger mysteries – how did those crafty critters disappear without a trace by morning? ... perhaps scuttling silently dozens of meters from a muddy pond to rejoin their relatives in rivery homes? My memory’s eraser never lost the saddest ecology-life lesson – human impacts: one hot dusty July afternoon, on a pin-straight Saskatchewan back road, dad braked our car - to silently, tearfully, put a writhing car-struck gopher we’d discovered out of its misery. Later, Canada’s scientific research stations from Vancouver Island to PEI became the biggest backyards ever. Playing with local farm kids, we’d discover common interests and share slang, dialects (swearing), games, and yummy foods in villages like beautiful Sainte-Anne-de-la Pocatiere Quebec. Out west, Uncle Frank taught us patience, standing stone-still inside tree-shadows of Vancouver Island’s best salmon streams. Summertimes, Uncle Wilfred from Johns Hopkins University drove us far north with Aunt Norma to test his kid-doctoring skills during extended wilderness fish camps beneath purple-green northern lights. Hooking my toes was as common as catching perch! Thank goodness - I hated harming any creatures. Later, Auntie C and physician-surgeon Uncle Joe lovingly brought us strong doses of economic reality from China, where their entire adult lives, after leaving Scotland, were dedicated to operating an impoverished rural hospital. In western Canada, Day and Jamie taught us climbing and wilderness camping. Ironical today, that as an eight-year old my favourite evening treat pastime was a bear-viewing trip to Banff’s garbage dump! Inspired by dragonflies, ducks, small mammals, (imagined) underwater beaver dams, man-in-the-moon, familiar stars and huge skies – creativity integrated family-friends-wild animals, imagination and mud pies, with art, writing and discovery - amassing boldly painted and scribbled works expressing love of animals and their real or created habitats. Inside - peace, environmental and social justice coexisted comfortably in our kitchen, where family and baby images shared wall space with photos of Schweitzer, Gandhi, Einstein and Nehru. Tolerance came into play naturally within our diverse international and Canadian family members. Super-strong, the fabrics of our family origins (Nova Scotia, Canadian prairies, Scotland and North Africa) withstood my parents’ heated human rights debates with international friends who gravitated towards our dining room from all compass points. Gandhian non-violence permeated our family long before my birth – so it seemed that from peaceful, loving and creative attitudes, all kinds of wonderful environmental and human possibilities for peace scenarios could be imagined, and realized! A child’s creativity remains...” "I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world." Albert Einstein | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Graduate/Undergraduate
Scholarship
quality meant keeping squirrels and mosquitoes OUT of rain collectors.
Quantity – critical! Innovative collection, retention, monitoring water uses, disposal and recycling methods
were fascinating yet mandatory science projects. Natural phenomena – orcas breeching, eagles plucking surf
scoters mid-flock, and returning cycles for loons - gave us powerful insights and visual images. Fragile
interdependencies became obvious!