Cam is a Tofino-based abstract artist. Born in Ottawa, ON. He completed his double major in Fine Arts and Business at Bishop's University, where he discovered his passion for painting. Cam’s work examines the interrelationship between colours, lines, form and texture in an experimental method. His abstract non-representational style is loose and organic, and he uses this technique to create a rhythmic visual experience that evokes an emotional response. His free-flowing paintings are a means to express inner spiritual feelings without the use of representationalism ideas. Rather than constricting himself to precise outlines while painting, Cam works in a way that allows the colour, shape, form and line to dictate how they might be employed in relation to one another. Cam’s paintings are like open-ended stories—what they mean can shift completely depending on who's looking and when. That openness is something he values while working. He usually does not start with a set idea or plan, and almost never sketches things out ahead of time. The process is very instinctive—what ends up on the canvas is the most honest version of Cam’s thoughts and emotions in that exact moment.

Claire (she/her) is an artist based in Yuułuʔiłʔatḥ. She explores interconnection through an ecofeminist lens. Her mediums are film photography (35mm), language, texture & form. Claire’s poetry was longlisted for the CBC Poetry Prize (2024), and she is a founding member of the Cumberland Film Club, a film photography arts collective based in K’ómoks territory.

Locally tolerated artist who was born and raised in Ontario, ILIA developed a passion for art from a young age, encouraged by a family that valued creativity. After moving to Tofino over a decade ago, ILIA has found endless inspiration in the island's wild beauty and has been actively exhibiting really good art ever since. When not in the studio (my apartment), ILIA can often be found camping and exploring the island's hidden corners with her dog and cute husband.

Raised in an off-grid float house in her traditional Tlaoquiaht territory, Ivy has grown a strong passion for the arts. Starting with the basics at a young age, such as drawing, beading and macrame. Slowly evolving over time into large-scale paintings, carvings and experimenting with the digital arts and design. Finding inspiration in her surroundings, whether it be nature or family, she’s found it easy to leave the creative doors open for new opportunities and art styles.

Joanna Streetly works as a pen-and-ink illustrator and also as an oil painter, where she represents her love of trees. Her work was exhibited at West Coast Visions 2023 and in other coastal venues. She does take commissions, although she is primarily an author, with five published books, and is currently working on a novel. She has lived in unceded Tla-o-qui-aht territory for over thirty years and was the inaugural Tofino Poet Laureate. Her 2025 poetry collection, All of Us Hidden, is being published by Caitlin Press in September 2025.

I have called Tofino my home for the last 5 years. I have a background in stone carving and now enjoy carving wood as my artistic expression.

Katherine Leslie (B. 1988, Wpg) Over the past decade, Leslie has lived in Tofino, BC, taking intermittent leave to travel, complete her BFA at Emily Carr University (2016), as well as the LA Summer residency at OTIS College (2019). She recently spent 2021 converting a 1912 storefront into a studio space in Nanaimo, BC/Snuneymuxw, before returning to the west coast. Katherine Leslie’s paintings explore a feeling of place through abstraction, inspired by her lived experiences in nature. Leslie explores the idea of real and imagined places, melding them together through memory and daydreams. Often using a lowered perspective, her work invokes a feeling of floating in water looking upward, or by seeing a place through the eyes of a child. Using an intuitive process, the images are recalled through memory and informed by bodies of vibrant colour, creating the feeling of the places that initially inspired her.

Lara Palmer is an Artist whose work is deeply inspired by 16 years of living in Tofino, B.C., surrounded by its stunning coastal beauty. An award-winning Art Director with a Bachelor of Arts from the Ontario College of Art & Design, Lara has judged prestigious industry awards and shared her creative expertise worldwide. An avid surfer and nature lover, Lara began creating photography-based conceptual art in 2024, drawing from the rhythms of Tofino’s tides, light and ecosystems. Her work offers a fresh perspective that invites discovery, sparks imagination and inspires wonder. Lara’s work was featured in the group exhibition “Interface” at the Tofino Gallery of Contemporary Art, (November 2024), The Long Beach Lodge Artists Series and the Harmony Arts Festival in West Vancouver.

Marnie Recker is a photographer and painter in Tofino. She has been living in Tla-o-qui-aht territories for over two decades, where the open ocean and ancient temperate rainforests are her greatest source of inspiration. She began her work as a professional photographer in 2011, specializing in wedding and portrait photography. When she's not chasing the light with her camera, you can find her painting in her studio. Her creative painting process is an exploration of mystical, spiritual, archetypal and earth-honouring themes. Her interest in culture, history and social justice had her pursue a BA in Anthropology from the University of BC. She has a graduate degree from the Vancouver Institute of Art Therapy. She deeply values how art is medicine for the soul. She believes everyone is an artist, and to come back to one’s creativity and imagination is one of the most healing things we can do for ourselves and the planet. For the past two years, she has been living a double life and working as a part-time relief lighthouse keeper, travelling to the most remote parts of the Pacific Northwest. The solitude and time with nature have greatly inspired her art.

Mary began carving in 1999 with her friend and teacher, Henry Nolla. Her woodwork is guided by a need to move beyond the surface with a reverence for nature and the untamed forces of wind and water. She recognizes decay as a thread of life that enriches, nourishes and beautifies. Mary is most interested in honouring the place where life and death are woven together, occupying the same space. One can readily experience her connection to these mysteries in her art. Mary lives on a tiny Island with her partner in the traditional territory of the Tla-o-qui-aht. It is here that she finds her inspiration, where the strongest storms bring the ocean lapping at her doorstep.

I have been living in and appreciating the beauty of Clayoquot Sound for the past 50 years but only in the past 20 years have I been trying to reflect that beauty through the medium of paint. Other examples of my work can be found at the Common Loaf Bake Shop.

Melissa Renwick is a portrait and documentary photographer who has found home on the Canadian west coast, in Tofino. She is interested in documenting the complicated interrelationship between the coastal landscape and those who inhabit it. Through her intimate style of portraiture and long-term storytelling, she aims to capture the different ways people live in remote regions of the country. Renwick’s work has been exhibited internationally and been recognized by The Magenta Foundation, FotoFilmic and The Canadian Online Publishing Awards. She is a co-recipient of the 2019 R. James Travers Foreign Corresponding Fellowship, a recipient of the 2020 Yannis Behrakis Photojournalism Grant, received the 2024 Trebek Initiative Grant and is a 2025 finalist for the Salt Spring National Art Prize.

Olive was born and raised in Vancouver, British Columbia. Her first memory of enjoying art was making a mosaic picture from magazines in grade school. She developed her portfolio through the International Baccalaureate Visual Arts Diploma Programme and then went on to study Interior Design. After two years of formal training in design, she continued her studies in Fine Arts and completed an undergraduate degree with a Major in Sculpture at Emily Carr University of Art + Design. Olive currently resides in Tofino, British Columbia.

I am principally a wood carver. For me, art that reflects place is the essential guiding principle of my work—both external and internal places. For me,  30-plus years living with my family on a small island on the west coast of Vancouver Island in Nuu-Cha-Nulth territories has informed my life and my worldview. I have a wonderful affinity with the forest and the wood therein. It is a language I am grateful to be fluent in. As an adopted member of an Ahousaht family, I have taken a particular interest in Nuu-Cha-Nulth art forms, and that influence is present in many of my carvings. Working on monumental pieces such as totem poles is the realization of a dream. As my carving skills develop, so too does my relationship with the tools that are used to do the work. Certainly, I use power tools for portions of the process, but it is the hand tool work that brings me the most joy as I evolve as a carver, so too does my skill as a tool maker and keeper of a sharp blade.

At times, my work is inspired by seeing an image in a particular piece of wood and other times I am imposing the will of my internal vision on the wood. The latter is much more difficult but the path with the most growth. I would say that my creative process is full of limits. The limits of what the wood is willing to do, the limits of my tools and the limits of my skill. I have come to trust the process implicitly.