Chipewyan McCrimmon
Visual Artist
ARTIST
BIOGRAPHY
My name is Chipewyan (pronounced: Chip-We-Yawn) McCrimmon but I go by Chip. My traditional name is Nunï, which means "Wolf" in the Chipewyan language. I am Dené and a member of Deninu Kųę́ First Nation, located in Treaty 8 Territory in the Northwest Territories. I was born at Women's College Hospital in Toronto, raised throughout Saskatchewan (Regina, Prince Albert, and Meadow Lake specifically), and went to Bloomington, Indiana (USA) to play high school lacrosse. I then moved to St. Catharines, Ontario where I completed my Bachelor’s degree in Political Science and played for the Men's Lacrosse team at Brock University.
I have recently moved to Halifax, Nova Scotia after completing the Master's of Management, Innovation & Entrepreneurship program from the Smith School of Business at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. In the program, I co-founded HeroHub which is a charitable ecosystem that creates a greater social impact by connecting individuals to charities, non-profits, and their opportunities. The mission & vision of HeroHub was to innovate the non-profit industry by providing everyone with tools to help make a difference in their local communities and across the world.
This past September, I completed NEXT Canada's NEXT 36 program - which is comprised of the 36 most promising entrepreneurial undergraduate & graduate students, as well as recent grads from across Canada; who they believe have what it takes to build Canada’s next billion-dollar company. As a part of the program I founded Falc0n-X, a CleanTech startup for small to medium sized landfills to reduce pollution by providing add-on technology to capture, separate, and purify greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) - for the production of renewable natural gas, renewable ethanol, and carbon offset credits for sale to major emitters of GHGs to counteract their impact on the environment.
In January, I was promoted as an adjunct lecturer for the Undergraduate Certificate in Entrepreneurship at the Dan School of Music & Drama at Queen's University. I am currently teaching ENIN 240 - Explorations in Creativity, which consists of 500+ students who examine four aspects of creativity: the creative person, process, product, and press. The overarching goal of the class is to increase the degree to which the students can recognize and nurture their own creative potential - and to implement this skill into their personal and professional lives. The course content is supported by interdisciplinary research and theory where students will assess the increasing importance of creativity skills in the 21st century.
Although I have recently completed two degrees - my traditional teachings have come from hunting, fishing, and trapping in the bush of northern Saskatchewan where I was raised in a Woodland Cree culture household. I am very proud of my Indigenous heritage and I strive to be a great representative of my family and my people.
The overall theme of my art is to create awareness about climate change and its impact. More specifically my artistic influence stems from my Indigenous culture as I tend to focus on the earth and everything that it encompasses. I have been very influenced by this in creating my art as I really want to portray the beauty of our environment and all the animals that we coincide with. Furthermore, a pillar of my culture is realizing what humans are on the planet for - and that is to be the caretakers of Mother Earth and all that live in it. We were put on this planet to help take care of it, not to destroy it. I share this overarching theme through my work to better educate the mainstream Canadian & American cultures. With the ultimate goal of stimulating the viewer's own critical thinking with respect to their current livelihood, our society, and humans' relationship with the planet.
As my art is made from wood, I have made it a priority and focus to help give back to Mother Earth as she has provided me with the ability to make my art through the use of trees. Since 2019, I have begun donating towards the planting of 10 trees for every piece of art purchased. I currently support Replant.ca Environmental and their tree planting initiatives across Canada. I have also made an effort to acquire my materials from reclaimed sources such as furniture put out for garbage or trees that have collapsed onto the road - and I have even upcycled my old broken bed frame for a few works of art! Don't ask how the bed broke.
Ever since I was a kid I loved to create art. I enjoyed trying and learning different mediums such as drawing, sculpting, painting, pottery, and most recently wood-burning (or otherwise known as pyrography). In late 2015, I attended a monthly art workshop hosted by Aboriginal Student Services at Brock University and tried my hand at wood burning. I instantly fell in love with the medium and caught on to it very quickly - I am proud to say I am self-taught! In the summer of 2016, I made the leap from a hobbyist to an amateur artist when I started creating one-of-a-kind pieces for sale and started taking part in art showcases and galleries in the Niagara region of Ontario. In 2019, I made the leap from an amateur to a semi-professional artist when I was commissioned by the City of Kingston to create the physical awards for the Mayor’s Arts Awards. Since then, I have completed the 2020 awards and I am currently working on completing the 2021 awards as well.
I currently reside in Halifax, Nova Scotia with my two rescue dogs from Texas, Willy & Lulu.
Feel free to stay up to date with me, my work, and current projects by following @intricateburns on Instagram.
Best regards,
Chipewyan “Chip” McCrimmon (nunï)