Martel was born and raised in Saskatchewan and moved to Alberta in 1991, where she earnedher Bachelor of Fine Art (with honours) in the painting department of the Alberta College of Art and Design in Calgary, and a Master of Fine Art, also in painting, at the University of Calgary. She has been the recipient of numerous grants and awards and exhibited across Western Canada and internationally in Germany, New York, Omaha, Tel Aviv, and South Korea.

She says about her work “I have a very egalitarian approach to my use of materials. In my mixed media pieces I embed everything from crumpled bits of found paper, purchased rice and printed paper, my own hand made paper, string, and wire to create richly textured acrylic paintings. The process of their creation mimics an archaeological dig with each addition of material alternating between obscuring and revealing the one before. The similarity in all of my work is that it grows from the notion of the object and the very physical process of layering elements. It has its roots in a multi-disciplinary practice with a healthy dose of popular culture. In these images worlds collide and stories overlap with my own.”

Represented by Koyman Galleries | Ottawa ON, Canada

http://www.koymangalleries.com