THUNDER BAY—If you happened to tune in to this spring’s 2023 IIHF Women’s World Championship and caught a glimpse of the incredible artwork on the ‘player of the game’ hockey sticks for players at the tournament, the works included those of Sheshegwaning First Nation artist Angela Jason.
“I have pretty much been creating art since as far back as I can remember,” stated Ms. Jason, who noted she is originally from Sheshegwaning. “Jason is my married name. I am a member of the Sampson family (Sheshegwaning). I came up to Thunder Bay for school in 2006 and never left.”
Ms. Jason explained she had “read that Indigenous Tourism Ontario is a partner with Hockey Canada and a call was made for artists to put in proposals to design hockey sticks, 25 most valuable player sticks for the tournament.”
There were about 80 artists who submitted proposals for designs with four artists chosen, all Indigenous artists from Ontario. Along with Ms. Jason, the artists included Shenoa Simon from Chippewas of the Thames, Shawna Boulette Grapentine from Rainy River and Cathie Jamieson from Mississaugas of the Credit, who also created 25 player-of-the-game hockey sticks each for the tournament held in April.
“I thought initially I would be able to submit my proposed designs digitally,” said Ms. Jason. “But this wasn’t the case, and I had three weeks to paint the hockey sticks. I was sick for one of those weeks so didn’t do any work that week.”
“It was definitely involved, designing something to put on a hockey stick shape,” stated Ms. Jason. “On the blade of the stick I did a profile of a woman’s face on a black background surrounded with the provincial and territorial flowers of Canada. It was stylized Ojibway floral style. The design represents all the women’s backgrounds from all the different countries that they represented at the tournament and the strength they have.”
“Yes, there were a lot of late nights and planning that went into all of this,” said Ms. Jason. She had cut out numerous stencils and outlined each stick, painted those parts white and then completed her design.
While she has always done art, she didn’t start painting regularly until eight years ago. “I started painting and from there my curiosity peaked to many other forms of mixed art,” she said.
Ms. Jason is an in-residence artist at The Creative Company in Thunder Bay. She had moved to Thunder Bay in 2006 to study at Lakehead University. “I came up here to go to school and never left.” She left a previous job at Nishnawbe Aski Nation to focus on her artwork during the COVID-19 pandemic beginning full-time at The Creative Company in May 2022. She is a self-taught artist whose artwork includes drawings, acrylic paintings, digital art and stained-glass art.
Ms. Jason is currently working on an art piece for a bat exhibit for the Toronto Zoo. “They are using a sea can with a portable exhibit inside and artwork on the outside. That is what I’m designing,” she said noting, “it is going to depict the creation story of the bats.”
“This work has to be done by June 9,” said Ms. Jason. “I guess I like working in various types of art and in tight timelines.”
