Among our community engagement programs, we maintain the Seedling for Change Artist in Residence program, which is open to anyone of any age or location wishing to embrace the spirit of Seedling for Change in any artistic form and medium.
Our (very first!) Artist in Residence for January-April 2016 is Julia Rose Simone, who created an alternate map of Canada using the shapes and borders of the countries of Latin America in place of Canada’s provincial borders, inspiring thought about nationality, geography, land usage, visual perception, and global unity. As of September 2016, this map serves as the header image for our website! Julia’s contribution also inspired us to create the Julia Rose Simone Prize (click the link to find out more)!
See Julia’s map below and read more about Julia’s work and process in her own words:
My name is Julia Simone, I am 11 years old and I am Laura[-Lee Burey]’s daughter. I’ve […] put together a map of Canada using the countries in Latin America. I have also designed a logo for the upcoming website intended for the Latin American and Niagara project.
First of all, I drew the outline of Canada. Secondly, I visualized where the Latin American countries should be placed. Then I bagan drawing the larger countries first then I added the smaller countries around them. The reason I took these steps was because I felt it would be more difficult to fit in the larger countries after the smaller countries were placed. I placed Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Mexico based on the outline of Canada. It looked as though it fit in. All the empty spaces in white represent the areas in Canada that would not be occupied by a country. Since I used my visual sense to place the countries, I did not use an actual scale. I perhaps could have drawn the countries a bit bigger to fill in the area of Canada. This composite was my visual interpretation.
I wish to thank everyone for giving me the opportunity to take part in this project. I found that the map was very challenging as this is not something I am used to producing.
— Julia Rose’s vision for Think Latin America Canada, Think Canada Latin America. (Canada: 9.985 million square km / Latin America: 19.197 million square km)
What do you think of Julia’s work? Are you inspired by what she has created? Would you be interested in being our next Artist in Residence? Send us your feedback!
