THE CELLAR
EXHIBITION
MARK CONNORS
·
JOE SAMPSON
·
AL CUSACK
·
JENNIFER MACLELLAN
·
SUSAN COCKBURN
·
JAQUELINE BLANCHARD
.
ALLY PARSONS
.
BAILEE HIGGINS
.
MARY LARADE
.
DAN GEE
.
CLARE KIBYUK
.
MARK CONNORS · JOE SAMPSON · AL CUSACK · JENNIFER MACLELLAN · SUSAN COCKBURN · JAQUELINE BLANCHARD . ALLY PARSONS . BAILEE HIGGINS . MARY LARADE . DAN GEE . CLARE KIBYUK .
RACHEL COLFORD
Rachel Colford, the owner of Frost & Fringe is a multidisciplinary artist who recently works most in stationery and woven art. The purpose of the business is to promote wellness and joy in the day to day by bringing art into your space. Most of the art and stickers are themed around mental health reminders and self love. A portion of proceeds is donated to mental health initiatives.
Bailee Higgins (she/her) is a visual artist based in Unama’ki - Cape Breton.
Her art practice currently focuses on landscape painting. She creates bright, bold, and vibrant paintings inspired by her surroundings which are aimed at capturing the essence and feeling of a place.
Bailee is a graduate of NSCAD’s Master of Arts in Art Education (2022), Mount Allison University’s Bachelor of Fine Arts (2020), and CBU’s Bachelor of Education (2024). She currently resides in Westmount, NS.
BAILEE HIGGINS
JENNIFER MACLELLAN
Jennifer MacLellan is an acrylic painter based in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, whose work is deeply shaped by a lifelong proximity to the ocean. Having lived across the street from the water for most of her life in Cape Breton and abroad in Scotland and Iceland she draws ongoing inspiration from its movement, mood, and quiet force.
MacLellan began painting during the COVID-19 pandemic, turning to the ocean as both subject and process. Her work explores its shifting emotional and physical states, often reflecting a tension between calm and unrest. Alongside these seascapes, she incorporates imagery influenced by her PhD work in Old Norse history, including ravens and volcanic forms inspired by her time in Iceland.
Driven by curiosity and a commitment to growth, MacLellan continually experiments with new techniques and approaches, allowing each piece to challenge and expand her practice. Her work reflects an evolving dialogue between place, history, and the elemental presence of water.
CLARE KIBYUK
Clare Kibyuk is the textile artist and designer behind The Well Made Walrus. From Sydney, Nova Scotia, her work consists of animals and creatures inspired by the natural world, folklore and mythology. Her journey as a textile artist began with teaching herself crochet, which quickly evolved into designing her own patterns.
Amigurumi, the Japanese art of knitting or crocheting small, stuffed dolls and creatures, is her preferred technique. Her huge love of nature, animals, folklore and mythology can be seen in her work that ranges from custom dolls and figurines to decor and accessories.
Through her work, Clare hopes to not only share her love for the stories that inspire her work, but to encourage learning about the natural world and the ways in which we explain our connection to it through the telling and and sharing of folk tales and stories.
ALLY PARSONS
Ally Parsons (she/her) is a queer, multidisciplinary artist based in Unama’ki—Cape Breton.
Self-taught, with over a decade of experience and a former career in the tattoo industry, she specializes in vibrant, bold, and eccentric illustration. Her practice most frequently explores themes of nostalgia and joy, while prioritizing disability-informed pacing and a focus on process over production.
For this exhibition, Parsons presents a collection of whimsical coloured pencil illustrations on acrylic-coated wood panels. Featuring stylized female portraits crowned with playful animals alongside independent imaginative imagery, the series explores joy as a restorative practice. The heavy, intentionally unignorable animal counterparts anchor these lighthearted subjects, mirroring the experience of moving through the world with a disability—where joy and weight coexist, inextricably tied to one another. Ultimately, these pieces celebrate the resilience of imagination and the vital, healing power of playful storytelling
MARK CONNORS
Mark is a Sudbury, Ontario born artist, now residing in Petit de Grat, Nova Scotia.
In 1980 he graduated with honors from the Graphic Design program at Cambrian College of Arts and Technology.
Mark is a multi-media abstract/representational painter, assembly sculptor, and an electric/acoustic music composer in the ambient/minimalist genre, where he produced and composed his debut album, "Deliquesce."
He has had three solo exhibits and numerous group shows throughout Ontario.
Mark received a first-place award at the La Cloche Art Show in the mixed media category.
He has also had six group shows in Cape Breton Island, and is currently a member of Richmond Artist Alliance and Inverness Country Centre for the Arts.
JOE SAMPSON
Currently celebrating 70 years of life experience, Joe has been an avid lover and supporter of photography and music for most of those years.
Joe has had a lifelong passion for photography which started when he won a camera at 10 years of age.
Joe had a successful career with Transport Canada/NavCanada for 33 years, working mostly at Sydney and Charlottetown airports but also with shorter stints in Goose Bay, Halifax CGRDO and a year long secondment travelling Atlantic Canada as an instructor on a new computer system for airport tower communications.
Joe was an active member with the PEl Photography Club while living there from 2000 until 2010. As well as being on Board of Directors in various positions, Joe successfully participated in the yearly photo show competition.
For the last 8 years, Sampson has combined his passion of photography and music by photographing live music and cultural performances to create 'ROCKPIXELS' , an ongoing exercise in photo-documenting the Cape Breton live music scene.
Many musicians, venues and organizations regularly use Joes' work for promotions on websites, poster albums and various other mediums
DAN GEE
Dan is an acrylic artist based in Glace Bay, Nova Scotia. He has been creating art as long as he could hold a pencil.
His style is derived from his memories of his grandparents. Being at their house, wrapped in a quilt or flannel blanket and watching the wildlife out the window.
He tries to create a sense of nostalgia for simpler days, yet enough to have the eye wander around his pieces. That, mixed with his own love of big, bright bold colours makes for an interesting visual delight. He calls his style "Patterns of Nature" and is always looking for new and exciting inspiration
JACQUELINE BLANCHARD
Jacqueline Blanchard (she/her) is a contemporary artist and designer born and based in Unama’ki (Sydney, Nova Scotia), Canada. Her art practice explores themes of family ancestry, nature-based illustrations, and abstract personal expression that emerge through relationship to land, self and her meditation practice. Jacqueline’s work contemplates how we care for ourselves and each other, in relationship with the natural world.
Her fine art studies from Nova Scotia College of Art & Design and Graphic Design education combine to inform her art practice which typically explores expressing sentience through textural elements using mixed media materials.
She has extensive experience creating, defining and designing brands for entrepreneurs, community organizations and health and wellness practitioners through her graphic design business, Design by Jacquie. Aside from her eight years running her graphic design business, she has also led entrepreneurial socials and educational events in Halifax and New Zealand. Her recent role has been as an Instructor in Arts Education and Early Career Development for underprivileged youth, in collaboration with Community Services.
She is currently exploring new opportunities, travel and creative leadership in the arts.
AL CUSACK
Al Cusack (he/they) is a life-long learner and self-taught artist who grew up on both sides of the Bay of Fundy. His fibre art, illustration, and writing play with themes of belonging, joy, and story. Today, Al is based in Sydney, Cape Breton, where he discovered his passion for rug hooking when he met his late grandmother’s guild, the Downeast Rug Hookers.
His first major solo project, a multidisciplinary heritage craft and zine project titled “The Craft of Whitney Ave.”, was presented in February 2026 with support from the CBRM Creative Catalyst Program.
Al’s approach to art and life centres community and relationality, which he puts into practice as a facilitator for creative skill-building and community engagement workshops.
SUSAN COCKBURN
Susan Cockburn's work is inspired by direct experiences in nature, discovering images that compel her to present a unique perspective; vivid contrast; energetic motion; a moment's stillness. A sudden awareness that says "Stop - Pay Attention! ...and how would you paint this?" Trying to convey and share these experiences is the underlying objective of all her work.
Having always had an innate ability to draw well, Susan began creating art a very young age, but is self-taught as an artist.
Her early work focused on detailed realism, whether executed with pencil, pen or brush. More recently, stronger use of colour, techniques that enhance surface texture, and experimentation with painting mediums, have developed into more expressive results. "Painterly realism" best describes the resulting style.
Susan works mainly in acrylics and water soluble oils on birch panels, using her own photography to develop concepts digitally. Each work's palette is chosen to best support the design and concept of the piece.
Value, texture and colour are the important elements in her work. Value conveys the light that inspires the images; texture is used to enhance 2-dimensional surfaces that represent our 3-dimensional world; and strong colour - sometimes a drastic shift from the original scene or object - brings the work to life.
MARY LARADE
Mary Larade is a multi-disciplinary artist, and graduate of NSCAD University’s BFA program. She divides her time between painting and enameled jewelry design. Working in acrylic, her paintings focus predominantly on small-scale, experimental landscapes, based on the scenery of Nova Scotia, as well as more representational work, inspired by the plant and animal species found in the Maritimes.
During the last ten years, Mary expanded her practice to jewelry design and enamelling. As a jeweller, her work is focused on creating wearable art predominantly inspired by the natural world, using torch-fired enamel on copper.
Mary’s work has been exhibited in galleries throughout Nova Scotia, including the Anna Leonowens Gallery (Halifax), the Ice House Gallery (Tatamagouche) and the Cape Breton University Gallery (Sydney).
Several pieces of her work have also been acquired or commissioned by private collectors. She is currently producing work from her home studio, in the CBRM.
