by artist Jasmine Vanstone
Artist Statement: This beaver sculpture celebrates Haiti through vibrant colour and symbols drawn from the natural environment. My artistic practice often explores relationships between culture and nature, so it felt important to represent Haiti through plants, wildlife, and landscapes that reflect the island’s identity.
The colour palette is inspired by the Haitian flag, using bold red and blue tones to bring energy and movement to the design. Across the sculpture are elements such as hibiscus flowers, bananas, cocoa pods, and guava – plants that reference Haiti’s agricultural connection to the land and national exports to Canada. A red horse appears as a symbol of strength and resilience, while the national bird represents the island’s biodiversity.
The soccer ball is painted with abstract wave-like patterns, suggesting motion, rhythm, and the surrounding Caribbean waters. These flowing shapes echo both the energy of the people and the movement of the ocean. Through colour, plants, and symbolic imagery, the sculpture highlights Haiti’s resilience, beauty, and strong relationship with nature while inviting viewers to reflect on their relation to the land.
Artist Bio: Jasmine Vanstone is a Jamaican-Canadian multidisciplinary artist and arts facilitator who inspires and amplifies marginalized voices through arts mentorship, community arts programming, and public art. Through her artistic practice, she experiments in various mediums -primarily collage, murals, poetry, and digital illustration- to share visual reflections of identity, wellness, and the natural environment. Her talent, along with the power of mentorship, has earned her awards and features at CBC Arts, DesignTO, Nuit Blanche, Toronto Outdoor Art Fair, YZD, and Pearson Airport. Most recently, Jasmine was awarded the JAYU Arts For Human Rights Award and co-founded Verse & Visual Expressions to amplify equity-deserving artists in their interdisciplinary creative collaborations across poetry and visual art.
Jasmine’s passions in Black food sovereignty inspired the creation of Nourishing Roots: Cultural Memories and Dutch Pot in Diaspora, both being multidisciplinary projects that evoke community storytelling around food access, cultural memory/histories, and intergenerational knowledge exchange through the sharing of stories and recipes.
www.jasminevanstone.com
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