PAT BRENNAN

Biography

Born in Kitchener, ON, Brennan is a graduate of the Ontario College of Art; and received her MFA at New York University. She also studied at the Centre Internazional Ceramica, Rome, Italy; and was on the Faculty of Education, University of Toronto.

Brennan’s work has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions since 1978 – including Cayman Gallery & Clayworks Gallery, NYC; Kyoto, Japan; Cuernavaca, Mexico; South America, and Canada. Her project Guardians and Arkangels From Earth was a recipient of the Arts Abroad Grant, Ontario Ministry of Culture and Communications touring Russia in 1991. She also received a Toronto Arts Council Protégé Award.

She was elected into the SSC in 1990 and served as Vice-President 1991-1994. She is also as member of: Arcadia Artists’ Co-operative; Canadian Artists’ Representation; and Alumni Ass. Of OCADU. Her studio is based in Toronto.

Artist Statement

Brennan created a series of work, collaborating with dancers and musicians from Toronto to Algoma, and native Ojibwe dancers and drummers.  She produced a community workshop production of a new myth, called Arkangel Drum Dance, which was performed at the White Pines Theatre, Sault Ste. Marie.  The story and choreography were inspired by her Arkangel narratives and by the discovery of a Great Lakes Dragon in the Agawa Canyon pictographs.

The Arkangels and Guardians continue in their mythic journey, and is the subject of a website featuring 47 sculpture works entitled The Arkangel Project. The work is about multiplicity without limit.