Joy Noodloo Kooviannatukalu Sevigny is a multidisciplinary artist from Iqaluit, NU, who lives in Annapolis Valley, NS. Sevigny’s work includes both graphic art and sculpture, notably blending the two mediums with CO2 laser cutting to create large-scale mosaics from wood, acrylic and glass.
“I’ve always been artistic, ever since I was little,” Sevigny says about childhood experiments with graphite, pastels and watercolour. [1] In 2005 she won the Federation of Foster Families Art and Poetry Youth Contest, which sparked further exploration into the arts. She began her adult artistic practice as a hobby during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, using it as a way to take care of herself emotionally in her work as a practical nurse at that time. Beginning with a Cricut cutting machine, Sevigny started by making home decor, creating designs digitally using Procreate on her tablet before transferring them to cutting files.
When the machine wasn’t powerful enough to handle the other materials she wanted to work with, Sevigny taught herself how to use a CO2 laser and wood scroll. Her pieces now incorporate acrylic, glass, different types of wood and a wide variety of paints—from stains to wall paint, latex, acrylic and even automotive paints at times. Each material yields a different effect; the automotive primer, for example, “creates a really nice, almost baked clay finish,” she says.
“My family, my children are my inspirations,” Sevigny says about the work she creates, admitting she frequently uses photographs of them as references when drawing. Her cultural heritage also plays a role, with coded Inuit symbols, like parkas, traditional tattoos or an Arctic backdrop, appearing in her work. Sevigny’s late ataatatsiaq, the celebrated sculptor Markoosie Peter, has been particularly important to her practice. “Even though I’ve always admired his work, I never intended to follow in his footsteps,” she says. “He would carve soapstone and wood… I think it’s funny that something he was known for is also something I actually quite enjoy.” Sevigny frequently creates faceless portraits, like the silhouettes of a women in traditional amautiit pictured in Margaret (2023), as well as barn quilts, intricate plywood squares with chevrons and geometric lines. “There are a lot of pieces [in these works], and I have to number them so I know which ones to paint,” she says.
Fall 2023 was a time of rapid growth for the artist, who launched her business Made with Joy Decor in September and exhibited at two Nova Scotia craft shows, the Berwick & District Lions Club Craft Market and the Michelin Makers Market in November and December respectively. In the future, Sevigny hopes to acquire a larger CO2 machine that will let her work grow even bigger, as well as to have her work appear in a local gallery like the StFX Art Gallery at St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia, where she is currently working on a Registered Nursing degree with a minor in Indigenous Studies.
This Profile was made possible through support from RBC Emerging Artists.