Canmore-born artist explores mountain life with humour in new artsPlace exhibit

CTV News

09-07-2025

Artist Amery Sandford poses for a photo at the opening reception of her exhibit 'Dare to Ride' at artsPlace in Canmore on Thursday, June 26. (RMO/Leah Pelletier)
Canmore-born artist Amery Sandford is back in her old stomping grounds.
After leaving the Bow Valley at 17 for art school, the now Montreal-based artist has returned home to explore the spirit of mountain life with humour and fun in her first Canmore exhibit, 'Dare to Ride'.
Specializing in illustration and risograph printing, through a series of drawings depicting observations and memories from her hometown, along with a collection of mountain life screen prints, Sandford explores ideas of tourism and the balance of appreciating a special place without exploiting it.
'Because I've been gone for so long, I've seen so many changes [in Canmore] and a big part of visiting here is the landscape but it's also the people, so I feel like I have a lot of really funny drawings of tourists,' said Sandford.
'It's really funny and I hope people can kind of laugh with me. I'm super curious to see how people are gonna react to it.'
During a residency at Elevation Gallery last summer, Sandford worked on a drawing-a-day series. Walking around town observing people and places, while revisiting memories of her childhood growing up in the mountain town, the sketches from the project are now on display for the first time in the exhibit.
'I was kind of just going from the things that I have walked by thousands of times in my life, like a picture of the Canmore Hotel with tourists and collecting memories past and present through drawing,' said Sandford.
She captures scenes like a proposal at Quarry Lake, hanging out with high school friends on the Canmore hoodoos and tourists snapping selfies at Sunshine Meadows.
'We're all kind of coming [to Canmore] to enjoy and experience this really special thing. I feel like my attention kind of focused on the landscape, but also equally the people, and I thought that was interesting,' she said.
Also completing an emerging artist residency at the Banff Centre last winter, Sandford experimented with the idea of recycling her old prints into new paper.
'I love trying to use recycled stuff, old inks that no one's using, and I feel like I'm just trying to create less waste, and I like printing for that reason because … the environmental impact of that is relatively small compared to other things,' said Sandford.
Along with her illustrations are a collection of screen prints, murals and Sandford's self-printed artist book PURE ALBERTACANA.
Capturing the ski and snowboard life through several of her prints, Sandford's lighthearted style features pops of colour and quirky characters.
'I ended up making some screen prints about ski culture and in Banff, this transient energy of just people coming and like partying really hard and skiing … it felt like this kind of temporary place to push the limit,' said Sandford.
'It's pretty celebratory and fun, but I was just really interested in … the extremeness of mountain life mixed with how we actually enjoy a place without exploiting it.'
Having travelled and lived in several places across Canada, Sandford's work is often shaped by the qualities of a place, its local people and landscape.
'I think I'm just really curious as to how we enjoy tourist spaces or any special place intentionally and respectfully because it feels like a conversation that is being had everywhere.'
Moving to Newfoundland for a time after school, Sandford noticed a connection between the East Coast community and her hometown back in the Bow Valley.
'In St. John's, they have a lot of similar problems and conversations about tourism and cruise ships and they're trying to shove all these huge cruise ships into the narrows and the infrastructure of the town can barely handle it and the people are frustrated, and it seems like they're looking for solutions on how to make money but also let people who live there live there,' said Sandford.
'I just was really fascinated by how I was just somewhere so far away, but I felt really understood,' she added.
While done in a humorous spirit, Sandford's work speaks to current conversations being had in many tourist towns across the country.
'I think it's a really poignant conversation at this moment in time, though, as Canmore is looking at really large-scale projected growth, so this whole conversation around nature and tourism … are really relevant conversations to be having,' said Shanon Fitzgerald, director of programs at artsPlace.
'Amery's work depicts it in a really jovial kind of way.'
'Dare to Ride' is part of the community exhibition program at artsPlace, a program featuring Bow Valley artists, whether professional or emerging. The exhibit runs twice a year.
'The idea behind the community stream is that it's really sort of resonant with the spirit of the Bow Valley,' said Fitzgerald.
The exhibit is on display at artsPlace until August 20.