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Japan tsunami shakes up painter

Maegan Elise remembers reading the media coverage of last year's tsunami and earthquakes in Japan and feeling compassion. And awe.

Maegan Elise remembers reading the media coverage of last year's tsunami and earthquakes in Japan and feeling compassion.

And awe.

The photographs of broken families, demolished homes and nuclear power plant meltdowns compelled her to interpret the images on paper about a week after havoc wreaked on the Asian island country.

"When I started, I didn't know where it was going to go," she said of her art pieces. "I didn't really have an exhibition in mind. The work was very experimental."

Rather than copying the horrific pictures, the then 27-year-old artist presented an outsider's perspective "because I felt that there was no way I could really quantify the magnitude of the disaster," she said. "I wanted to reflect my appreciation and celebration for the sheer force of Mother Nature and how it humbled me and, I'm sure, the people of Japan afterwards."

Elise's finished collection, called Goodnight Goodluck, which will be shown at the Port Moody Arts Centre starting tomorrow (Thursday), is comprised of six framed paintings in watercolours, ink, graphite and charcoal plus more than a dozen sketches that inspired her.

The Port Moody show is Canadian first for Elise, a Vancouver resident who has displayed her artwork in solo and group exhibits in Cape Town, where she lived for four years with her South African husband.

A third year student at Emily Carr University of Art + Design majoring in painting, Elise is mostly self taught but acknowledges her motivation to build a career in the craft came from her high school art teacher in Trail, B.C.

Her talent is evident and has been recognized by the PoMo Arts Centre - not just in granting her an exhibit spot this month but awarding her with the 2012 Kwi Am Choi Scholarship, named after the late local artist who died in 2006 while hiking on Grouse Mountain.

Also, Elise's painting skill recently caught the eye of officials at TransLink, the regional transportation body, which will display pieces from Goodnight Goodluck on buses and SkyTrain cars over the next two years.

In addition, the collection has been picked up by the Arts Council in North Vancouver, which will exhibit her work in October.

Elise said the attention her paintings are receiving "is a thrill" and she plans to continue studying fine arts after graduation next year, perhaps in the master's degree program at Concordia University in Montreal.

Working from media images and ideas is something she will consider in the future as well.

"It feels relevant," she said, adding when the Japanese destruction hit, "it was just one of those things that you couldn't ignore. It started living inside my head as I went about the day.

"To me, that shows impact and that's very powerful in art."

The opening reception for Maegan Elise's exhibit, Goodnight Goodluck, is Thursday at 6 p.m. at the Port Moody Arts Centre (2425 St. John's St.).

Also launching their displays are artists Chris Mackenzie (Stones, Chestnuts & Snow), Rosemary Burden (Breeding Ground) and Angela Gooliaff (Cabinet of Curiosity).

jwarren@tricitynews.com