Transformation | Coming to Cre8ery Gallery August 17-29, 2023
Created in the current restless and turbulent cultural climate, this body of work aims to cultivate feelings of serenity, awareness, and self-reflection on society’s anastomosing relationship with our environment and its transformation (in short: the good, the bad, and the ugly); challenging the viewer to reflect on what it means to have a relationship with nature and contemplate what we stand to lose if we do not nurture that relationship in a responsible and sustainable manner.
Four series were created for this exhibit to represent and communicate stories about humans and our interactions with the planet.
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Culture Preserved in Stone
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Climate Crisis
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Tragedy of the Commons
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Lykke (n: Happiness)
For pricing and purchase inquiries please contact Jordan Miller at Cre8ery Gallery and Studio
(204) 944-0809 or jordan@cre8ery.com
For behind the scenes and more images of the artwork, follow me on Instagram @bshabaga_art
Available Works in this Exhibit

Acrylic on gallery-wrapped canvas
$330 (taxes included)
Pueblo means "village" as well as "people" in Spanish.
The Ancestral Puebloans were an ancient Native American culture that spanned the present-day four corners region (AZ,
NM, CO, and UT) of the United States. They designed a range of structures that included pit houses, grand pueblos, and cliff-sited dwellings.
Three UNESCO World Heritage Sites located in the US are credited to the Pueblos: Mesa Verde National Park, Chaco Culture National Historical Park, and Taos Pueblo.

Mixed media. Limestone plaster and acrylic (carved) on gallery-wrapped canvas
$375 (taxes included)
Spirals have been found in the form of pictographs or petroglyphs in most countries and cultures throughout the world.
It is a common theory among archaeologists that shamans, the religious leaders of most hunter-gatherer societies, were responsible for making most of the rock art – either directly or indirectly.
Shamans were believed to possess the ability to invoke direct contact with the supernatural world – often through dreams, visions, and entering trance-like states by means of hallucinogenic plants and hypnotic practices.
Hallucinogens can produce effects such as deep changes in the sphere of experience, in perception of reality, even of space and time and in consciousness of self.
Physiologically speaking, spirals seen during hallucinogenic-induced trances are caused by capillary circulation. The “Tunnel Effect” arises partly from a portion of the eye’s central cones and rods (the receptors in the retina responsible for sight) being smaller and more closely arranged than those in the periphery – as a result, any geometric figures perceived are likely to be smaller in the center than at the periphery or edges of the shape (like that of a spiral).

Mixed media. Flow acrylics on printmaking paper; collaged on gallery-wrapped canvas
$145 (taxes included)
The Clovis culture was a prehistoric Paleoamerican culture that existed between ~11,500 and ~10,800 BCE – near the end of the Last Glacial Period.
A hallmark of the Clovis culture’s toolkit is the distinctively shaped, bifacial, fluted-stone point known as a “Clovis point”.
Clovis tools were produced during a ~300-year period.
Archaeologists do not agree on whether the widespread presence of these artifacts indicates the proliferation of a single people – or the adoption of a superior technology by various population groups.

Mixed media. Flow acrylics on printmaking
paper; collaged on gallery-wrapped canvas
$75 (taxes included)
The inuksuk (inuksuit; plural) is symbolic of the north, with deep roots in the Inuit culture. These megalithic monuments were created by stacking rocks to form humanistic shapes that served as guideposts and navigational tools by first peoples.
Now, a symbol of hope and friendship, these stone features are admired across the globe and are a common motif in Canadian Arctic art.

Mixed media. Flow acrylics on printmaking
paper; collaged on gallery-wrapped canvas
$75 (taxes included)
The inuksuk (inuksuit; plural) is symbolic of the north, with deep roots in the Inuit culture. These megalithic monuments were created by stacking rocks to form humanistic shapes that served as guideposts and navigational tools by first peoples.
Now, a symbol of hope and friendship, these stone features are admired across the globe and are a common motif in Canadian Arctic art.

Mixed media. Flow acrylics on printmaking
paper; collaged on gallery-wrapped canvas
$90 (taxes included)
The inuksuk (inuksuit; plural) is symbolic of the north, with deep roots in the Inuit culture. These megalithic monuments were created by stacking rocks to form humanistic shapes that served as guideposts and navigational tools by first peoples.
Now, a symbol of hope and friendship, these stone features are admired across the globe and are a common motif in Canadian Arctic art.

Mixed media. Flow acrylics on printmaking
paper; collaged on gallery-wrapped canvas
$145 (taxes included)
The inuksuk (inuksuit; plural) is symbolic of the north, with deep roots in the Inuit culture. These megalithic monuments were created by stacking rocks to form humanistic shapes that served as guideposts and navigational tools by first peoples.
Now, a symbol of hope and friendship, these stone features are admired across the globe and are a common motif in Canadian Arctic art.

Acrylic and plaster on gallery-wrapped canvas
$180 (taxes included)
The inuksuk (inuksuit; plural) is symbolic of the north, with deep roots in the Inuit culture. These megalithic monuments were created by stacking rocks to form humanistic shapes that served as guideposts and navigational tools by first peoples.
Now, a symbol of hope and friendship, these stone features are admired across the globe and are a common motif in Canadian Arctic art.

Acrylic on gallery-wrapped canvas
$300 (taxes included
In Japanese culture, Kintsugi (金継ぎ), also known as “golden joinery", is the art of mending broken pottery with gold.
The practice of mending something which was once broken with something as precious as gold is a metaphor for not only embracing flaws and imperfections – but accentuating them; learning that the "flaws" are sometimes the best parts that add the most beauty.

Acrylic and tissue paper on gallery-wrapped canvas
$150 (taxes included)
Created as early as the neolithic period (~12,000 years ago in the New Stone Age), amphorae are ceramic storage vessels with characteristic pointed bottoms and two handles. The form was functional and well adept for stacking and transport, and was popular amongst the Greeks and Romans for wine storage.
Elements of this functional vessel later became incorporated into decorative designs of Roman vases.

Mixed media. Acrylic, gold leaf, and paper
on gallery-wrapped canvas
$110 (taxes included)
Inspired by Homer’s "The Odyssey", an epic Greek poem about The Greek hero Odysseus, also known as the Latin variant “Ulysses”.
The moral of the great epic is centered on overcoming obstacles and facing adversity in the form of challenges from afar, within, and superimposed by forces seemingly supernatural.
This literary motif is reminiscent of the challenges our current society faces with global warming and anthropogenic climate change.

Acrylic on gallery-wrapped canvas
$115 (taxes included)
Corals have populated the planet for the last 500 million years, but by 2050, some experts predict Earth will be void of the coral reef systems we know today.
Coral reefs support some of the most biodiverse ecosystems on the planet, act as natural barriers for costal communities, and are an important part of seagrass beds and mangrove ecosystems – large carbon sinks that help reduce global carbon emissions.
Ocean acidification due to rising ocean temperatures is among the leading causes of coral bleaching, leading to the deterioration
of ecosystem health.

Acrylic on gallery-wrapped canvas
$55 (taxes included)
Humans are driving the transformation of drylands into desert on an unprecedented scale around the world, with serious consequences. The process of desertification is the permanent degradation of land – rendering it nutrient-deficient and uninhabitable.
Desertification exacerbates climate change by reducing vegetation cover, increasing sand and dust aerosols, and trapping greenhouse gases. Food security is also diminished in areas of drought and desertification.
Sustainable agricultural practices and soil health should be a concern we share, societally.

Acrylic on gallery- wrapped canvas
$55 (taxes included)
Climate change-induced global sea level rise poses a direct threat to millions around the globe. Rising sea levels correspond with rising temperatures, which cause increased ice melt and the thermal expansion of water.
Globally, the ocean has warmed faster over the past century than at any time in the past 11,000 years, and global average sea levels have risen faster since 1900 than over any preceding century in the last 3,000 years.
Nearly 900 million people live in coastal zones at low elevations.

Acrylic on gallery-wrapped canvas
$120 (taxes included)
A global phenomenon, red tides are caused by algal blooms that accumulate and cause an array of adverse effects on ecosystem health. Harmful algal blooms (HABs) associated with red tides release toxins into the aquatic environment, poisoning wildlife and humans, and creating “dead zones” in oceans and lakes.
Agricultural runoff containing excessive amounts of nutrients such as phosphorous, rising surface ocean temperatures due to global warming, and high intensity storms contribute to the cause and spread of these events.

Mixed media. Acrylic and recycled pine on gallery-wrapped canvas
$315 (taxes included)
Large scale clearcutting of trees, also known as deforestation, affects ecosystems, climate, and even increases the risk of zoonotic diseases spreading to humans.
Forests are more than just a collection plants, they are integrative and complex ecosystems; they are home to some of the most diverse life on the planet. They also play a major role in the carbon and water cycles that make life possible on Earth.
When forests are lost or degraded, their destruction sets off a series of chain reactions that affect life both locally, and around the globe.

Acrylic on gallery-wrapped canvas
$310 (taxes included)
The Earth fluctuates between two main states: “Greenhouse Earth” and “Icehouse Earth”. In a Greenhouse Earth state, continental glaciers and permanent ice masses cannot exist on the planet, and for much of Earth’s history, this has been the case. Today, however, we live in an Icehouse Earth state – with continental glaciers and ice masses at both poles – technically speaking, we are still in an Ice Age.
The natural cycle of the planet should be heading towards a glacial period (a time marked by cooler temperatures and advancing glaciers) within the current Ice Age. However, this phase is on track to be skipped over, transitioning Earth into a Greenhouse state. While the Earth has cycled between these two states naturally for billions of years, the rate at which the planet is losing its permanent ice (due to anthropogenic, or un-natural, processes) is unprecedented.
Nowhere on the planet is this more evident than in the Arctic.
It is estimated that by 2035, summer sea ice in the Arctic could completely disappear.
Communities living near sea ice depend on it for their cultural identity and subsistence practices, many animals rely on summer sea ice for survival, and the world depends on it for regulating global temperatures and ocean currents.
Summer sea ice is the canary in the coal mine. Think heatwaves and extreme weather phenomena are bad
now? Wait 10 years.

Acrylic on gallery-wrapped canvas
$230 (taxes included)
A term used in ecology and population dynamics, carrying capacity indicates the maximum population size a given species can reach, while still being sustained by its environment. Beyond this limit, a species can face collapse due to limited resources and competition brought on by overpopulation.
The majority of scientific studies conclude that the Earth’s carrying capacity for humans is ~ 8 billion individuals.
The world population hit 8 billion people on Nov. 15, 2022.

Acrylic on gallery-wrapped canvas
$240 (taxes included)
Timefulness is the habit of seeing things not merely as they are now, but also recognizing how they evolved – and will continue to evolve – over time.
— Dr. Marcia Bjornerud, Professor of Geology
Our planet operates on an enormous timescale that few (outside those who have studied geology) can comprehend.
This narrow perspective that permeates the majority of the population underlies many of the issues we face today in our current climate crisis.
Knowing the rhythms of Earth and its deep history can offer the perspectives and insights we need to action a sustainable future on this planet.

Acrylic on gallery wrapped canvas
$80 (taxes included)
In 1661, the first book on air pollution was written by John Evelyn, entitled: “Fumifugium – the inconvenience of the aer and smoak in London”. The continued burning of coal lead to The Great Smog of London in 1952, which lasted five days and killed an est. 12,000 people.

Mixed media. Acrylic on gallery-wrapped canvas; fluid acrylics on printmaking paper (collaged)
$95 (taxes included)
Tune in to Receive by Fred Hornaday
Time out and measure the many sensations,
Breathe in the forest with deep inhalations,
Notice the features
The sounds and the creatures
And slowly tune in to the subtle vibrations.

Flow acrylics on watercolour paper.
Matted and framed
$135 (taxes included)
The Way Through the Woods, by Rudyard Kipling
They shut the road through the woods
seventy years ago.
Weather and rain have undone it again,
and now you would never know
there was once a road through the woods
before they planted the trees.
It is underneath the coppice and heath,
and the thin anemones.
Only the keeper sees
that, where the ring-dove broods,
and the badgers roll at ease,
there was once a road through the woods.
Yet, if you enter the woods
of a summer evening late,
when the night-air cools on the trout-ringed pools
where the otter whistles his mate,
(they fear not men in the woods,
because they see so few.)
You will hear the beat of a horse’s feet,
and the swish of a skirt in the dew,
steadily cantering through
the misty solitudes,
as though they perfectly knew
the old lost road through the woods.
But there is no road through the woods.

Flow acrylics on watercolour paper.
Matted and framed
$135 (taxes included)
Haiku | The Rain Plays the World like a Drum
by Peter Galen Massey
Grey storm light leaks through
Heavy clouds and the rain plays
The world like a drum.

Flow acrylics on watercolour paper.
Matted and framed
$135 (taxes included)
Aurora Borealis by Nellie Seelye Evans
There is a flower of climate rare,
That never bloomed for me,
I searched the wood, I searched the moor,
I robbed the emerald sea.
Alone upon an icy coast,
By Arctic's hem it grows,
Its beauty is intoxicant
To those who brave the snows.
But when the Bear shines clear and high
I dream of Polar night.
Wherein this wondrous flower blooms
In sheaves of rainbow light.

Mixed media. Flow acrylic monoprint on rice
paper, recycled paper; collaged on gallery-wrapped canvas
$65 (taxes included)
Sigued F. Olson, The Singing Wilderness
The canoe was drifting off the islands, and the time had come for the calling,
That moment of magic in the north when all is quiet and the water still iridescent with the fading glow of sunset.
Even the shores seems hushed and waiting for the first call,
And when it came, a single long-drawn mournful note,
The quiet was deeper than before.
Questions About the Artwork?
Please contact the artist for any inquires about the artwork.
(For purchase and/or shipping inquiries please contact Jordan Miller at Cre8ery Gallery and Studio at
(204) 944-0809 or jordan@cre8ery.com)