When 14-year-old Jade Linklater put paintbrush to paper, each stroke is a re-creation of her community in Sandy Lake First Nation.
This holiday season, the Mikinakoos Children's Fund saw the potential of this young artist by commissioning a selection of her art to display on holiday greeting cards that are available to purchase.
She is a young woman of few words when interviewed by NWOnewswatch.com, but her excitement of being able to share her work outside her community spoke volumes. When speaking with Jade’s mother Carol Linklater, they were at the store gathering more art supplies, so Jade could continue crafting the world through her eyes.
Carol said that for the last couple of years Jade had developed anxiety, which painting helped her to overcome.
“Painting helps her to release some of that anxiety. That’s why she started painting,” Carol said. “She just picked up a paintbrush last year and started painting.”
Although Jade paints everything that she sees, Carol explains that some of the work Jade does is a self-portrait.
“I get inspired by my community. Sometimes I just think of something and I paint it,” Jade said.
It was these pieces of work that caught the eye of Mikinakoos executive director Emily Shandruk.
“When we were creating this baseball camp in Sandy Lake this summer, Peter (camp facilitator) let me know about one of his baseball players that was also an amazing artist. He had sent me an image via email. It was a beautiful picture of a wolf. It’s one of the images that we have for the greeting card that we are selling,” Shandruk said.
From there, Jade shared a few more pieces with Shandruk.
“She showed up with nine or 10 paintings and it blew me away. Not only is she a very good baseball player, but her artistic ability was out of this world,” Shandruk said.
Seeing the talent of this young artist, Shandruk set out a plan to commission Jade’s artwork into a collection available for a wider audience to purchase.
“Whether it was painting on a canvas or working with other materials, we were thinking about how we can further support that kind of activity in Sandy Lake and other communities,” said Shandruk.
“Mikinakoos is primarily supported through donation. We understand that we only use dollars if there directed. We have our three main projects and funds that we work with around food insecurity, warm winter clothing, and then what we call our healthy living program which helps us purchase things like art supplies and sporting equipment. But we are limited to the funds that we have,” said Shanduk.
Commissioning Jade's artwork and making it available for purchase helps the Mikinakoos Children’s Fund do two types of work. They can share Jade artwork with a wider audience, and proceeds from the greeting cards support incentives that bring supplies to remote communities.
“Maybe, the power Jade has will inspire other young artists in the community to see that this is an opportunity that art could be a future,” Shanduk said.
All proceeds from the sale of these card packs go directly to the Mikinakoos Children’s Fund charity. Jade’s greeting cards are available to purchase here.
Engage with Mikinakoos Children's Fund on social media through #FirstNationKidsFirst and donate to Mikinakoos Children’s Fund here.
