Biography - Claire Kujundzic
Born in Scotland, Claire Kujundzic emigrated to B.C. at age five. Between 1959 and 1964 she lived in Nelson, where her father founded the Kootenay School of Art. In her teens, living in the home of writer George Ryga and his family in Summerland further encouraged her interest in social issues, music and art. After living on a co-op farm in the Salmon Valley, she moved to Vancouver where she volunteered at Co-op Radio, trained in commercial printing, sang with the band Ad Hoc and attended Langara and Emily Carr Colleges. From 1985-86 she designed two series of stamps for the Nicaraguan Philatelic Service. After returning to Canada, Claire did a series of paintings and collages for use in two fundraising calendars for Tools for Peace.
Her images have been reproduced by groups including Amnesty International, the International Congress of Midwives, and the Health Sciences Association. She has served on numerous juries and arts boards, and was Moderator at Images and Objects in Penticton in 1996. In 1997 she won the Canadian Association of Labour Media best illustration award, and in 2002, a Woman of Distinction Award in BC's Northern Interior region.
The canvas paintings in Claire's 2009 exhibition "Cariboo" at the Two Rivers Art Gallery in Prince George incorporate pine beetle marks, maps, animals and wood textures in a range of beautiful imagery and abstraction.
Claire and her husband Bill Horne have converted the former Holy Rosary Catholic Church in Wells into "Amazing Space Studio". She has done a number of community murals in the Cariboo and north central interior, and is a Past President of the Wells and District Chamber of Commerce.
In the summer of 2002, Claire initiated a hunger strike to save the Wells-Barkerville-Bowron elementary school. Nearly 50 others participated in the hunger strike, including Wells Mayor Dave Hendrixson and BC Federation of Labour President Jim Sinclair. The school is still open.
She moved back to Wells from Naramata with Bill at the end of May, 2005, and is immersing herself in new artwork again.
Biography - Bill Horne
Born in Vancouver, Bill Horne studied painting and drawing at the Banff Centre and film animation at UBC. He has taught silkscreen printing at the Vancouver Native Education Centre, Kakali Handmade Papers and Island Mountain Arts, and paper-making at the National Art School in Managua. For several years, he wrote a twice-monthly column about art and politics for the Quesnel Cariboo Observer. From September, 2003, until May, 2005, he worked at the Naramata Centre as Director of the Summer Program. He and Claire moved back to Wells at the end of May, 2005.
Bill has exhibited his work across Canada, most recently at the Workers Arts & Heritage Centre in Hamilton, Ontario. He was part of the "Living at the End of Nation-State" winter residency at the Banff Centre in 1995 and the 1996 New Works residency, as well as a 1997 residency at Engramme in Québec City. Bill likes to print on a wide range of materials, such as handmade paper, marble and hides, depending on his subject. He illustrated "Queen of All the Dustballs", a collection of poems by Bill Richardson, and his "Portrait of Norma and George Ryga" appeared on the cover of Talonbooks' 25th Anniversary Catalogue.
Bill's Behind the Lines series of 3-D assemblages, which poses screen printed letters from MPs with related imagery, brings together his activism and art. He designed BC photographer Chris Harris' books Barkerville, Tweedsmuir, Kamloops, Spirit in the Grass - The Cariboo-Chilcotin's Forgotten Landscape, The Bowron Lakes - A Guide to Paddling British Columbia's Wilderness Canoe Circuit, The Bowron Lakes - A Lifetime Journey, and Derek Evans' Before the War. Some day he hopes to return to film animation.
Bill is the past President of Canadian Artists Representation/ le front des artistes canadiens BC, a past editor of Visual Arts Voice, and past Western Vice-Representative for CARFAC National.
