Artist Statement

Emily Rose Govier Honderich is a multidisciplinary artist living and working in both Toronto and Canmore, Alberta. Her practice spans digital art, painting, drawing, and textiles, with a material range that includes acrylic, oil, watercolour, charcoal, knitting, embroidery, and weaving. A graduate of OCAD University with a BFA in Integrated Media, she has focused on abstract painting and digital illustration in recent years, primarily using the iPad as a creative tool.

Emily also works as a freelance graphic designer with The Shoe Project, an organization that supports immigrant and refugee women in sharing their stories through writing and performance.

At the heart of Emily’s artistic practice is an investigation into the emotional and psychological impact of colour and form. She uses abstraction to distill and communicate core human experiences—grief, delight, solitude, exuberance, vulnerability, and transformation. Her art is not only a means of self-expression but a language that allows others to find resonance and meaning through visual sensation and exploration.

Recurring themes in her work include:

·       Identity: Her artwork explores personal and collective identities, often reflecting on her own evolving relationship to place, memory, and selfhood. She is particularly interested in how identity is shaped by emotional experience, ancestry, and the subtle rituals of daily life.

·       Culture and Heritage: Emily draws from both contemporary and traditional craft practices, such as embroidery and weaving, as a way of honouring the histories embedded in textile work. This connection to domestic and ancestral knowledge allows her to explore how cultural values are passed down, preserved, or reinterpreted.

·       Emotion Through Abstraction: Her compositions are guided by intuitive mark-making and a careful balance between spontaneity and control. The gestural quality of her lines and the vibrancy of her colour palettes serve as visual metaphors for emotional intensity and change.

·       The Natural and Built Environments: Living between the urban landscape of Toronto and the mountainous terrain of Canmore informs her sensitivity to space, texture, and light. My work reflects the contrast and harmony between these environments through a deeply personal, expressive lens.

·       Movement and Impermanence: Whether in the swirling patterns of paint or the layered strokes of digital illustration, my work emphasizes movement, both physical and emotional. I am drawn to the transient nature of feelings and moments, and I aim to capture that sense of fleeting presence through dynamic compositions.

My work invites viewers into a space of reflection, encouraging them to feel rather than interpret, to sense rather than define.

Emily’s artwork and writing can be explored further at: www.emilyhonderich.ca