Sydney Rusnak

Sydney Rusnak is an artist born and raised in Edmonton, Alberta. In 2021, she will obtain her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Alberta. She utilizes painting, printmaking, multimedia as well as found material to address topics centered around the environment. Sydney’s body of work is dedicated to the nature found within the Kootenay valley and up to the Purcell mountains. Around and just past Radium, lies a beautiful juxtaposition of destruction, regrowth, as well as the untouched. Through her work, she aims to create awareness of the impact of natural disasters, as well as human impact on land, whether indirectly or directly, in order to pay tribute to this natural environment that has aided in her own personal growth. Within these ecosystems she focuses on an eternal cycle of health, destruction and regrowth that is highlighted. Her work provokes viewers to empathise with this environmental destruction by highlighting the beauty in these isolated areas that have once been jeopardized while also depicting parts of the journey to get to them. In this body of work, she intends to focus on the repercussions of apathy and inaction and provoke the question “what will be left”? Sydney guides you through a journey of memories and documentation, arriving in each space to capture her feelings toward each area which may have succeeded for the time being, and to be protected from human impact for now.