Sima Elizabeth Shefrin

Gabriola Island, British Columbia Canada — nearest ocean:  Northern Pacific
European Heritage, Older Adult (50 and over)

About the art

Trans Mountain is a proposed massive tar sands pipeline that would ship more than 890,000 barrels per year of highly polluting tar sands crude oil from Alberta to the coast of British Columbia where I live. The pipeline is currently owned by the Canadian government after a huge resistance movement forced its previous owner – Kinder Morgan – and investors to back out. I was inspired to do this piece by my husband, Bob Bossin’s music video called “We Don’t Want Your Pipeline”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bKxATTtVaM

I dedicate this image to these two courageous women who have chained themselves to the gate at the Burnaby Mountain crude oil tank farm, and to all the protesters who have been arrested for working for a world we can safely pass on to our children and grandchildren.

About the artist

My life as an artist began in 1951 when I played as a toddler in the galleries of Rome. I've been creating images ever since. As well as occasional curating, I have been working as a visual artist for over 50 years, and have exhibited throughout North America, particularly in the area of community art. In the last few years I have taken great pleasure in the Illustration of books and creation of comic strips. For more information and images see: www.stitchingforsocialchange.ca . I am particularly interested in the ways that artwork brings together people of different cultures. My largest project was the Middle East Peace Quilt www.middleeastpeacequilt.ca , an international community art project made up of contributions of over 300 people of many ages and backgrounds. The quilt showed at over 35 venues in its North American tour, which ran from 1999 to 2008. My studio is called "Stitching for Social Change" and my work as an artist is dedicated to creating a world that works for all the people who live in it.