Within Water by Deanna Musgrave

Biography

Menagoesg (Saint John, NB) based painter Deanna Musgrave is best known for her monumental paintings and ability to move from representational surrealism to complete abstraction. Her large installation, “Transcendence” (2022), filled a 20’ by 37’ wall and served as a feminist counterpoint to Salvador Dali’s “Santiago El Grande” during opening celebrations for the Beaverbrook Art Gallery’s (BAG) Harrison McCain Pavilion. Her recent work “Shipwreck” (2024) continues conversations from her earlier large works acquired by permanent institutional settings, including Diversity (2021), Mirror (2019), “Cloud” (2015) and “Tropos” (2011).

She graduated from the Mount Allison University Fine Arts program in 2005 and was soon after selected by the Beaverbrook Art Gallery for the 2007 Studio Watch Award. She has also won numerous grants from the New Brunswick Arts Board and the Canada Council for the Arts. In 2019 she completed her Master of Interdisciplinary Studies from the University of New Brunswick (Psychology and Fine Art) where she delivered her thesis titled “Connecting Crossmodal Interactions in Visual Music to Create ‘Mindful’ Experiences.” To honour her research in visual music, she often has debuts of compositions by Canadian musician, Andrew Reed Miller, at her art events.

Supporting a healthy arts community, water and wellness is important to Musgrave which is why she completed the Orca Institute’s Counselling Skills Program in 2024. Along with her supervisor, Danielle Hogan, she supports fellow artists through her part-time position with CollectionARTNB where she gets to curate and promote New Brunswick art in the public schools. Along with the Director of the Sunbury Shores Art and Nature Centre, Caroline Walker, she has organized a hybrid artist talk with Eastern Charlotte Waterway’s Ocean Scientist, Kalen Mawer, and the Canadian Conservation Council’s and Fundy Baykeeper, Matt Abbott, in June 2024 to discuss environmental concerns around water. This fall she will be speaking about art and wellness as a presenter for the 2024 Arts Atlantic Symposium.

www.deannamusgrave.com 

Artist Statement

I believe that revolution can be ignited from person to person and that can happen in many different forms. My connection to water speaks to a single idea: that information, knowledge, and experience can exist and be transmitted in many different ways. 

- Deanna Musgrave, 2024

About Her Work

“Water is a dominant aspect in Deanna’s more recent work. The colour blue and energetic flowing brush strokes are readily seen in Deanna’s large works suggesting a strong undercurrent that pulls the viewer in and along. In many spiritual practices water is an important image, denoting cleansing and purification, reflection and meditation, a suggestion of transformational moments.” (Nida Doherty, “Transcendence: Deanna Musgrave,” Centred.ca, Art Reviews, October 30, 2022)

"Often working on the studio floor, using liquid paints to surround, unify and pool around areas of information, Musgrave succeeds in defying a traditional concept of perspective. Her compositions unfold almost three-dimensionally, enveloping the viewer with information from above, straight on and below." (Donna Wawzonek, "Deanna Musgrave: Stirring Large Conversations with Grande Impressions," National Water Centre Blog)