Jiibay Spirit

Her works take form through long solitary walks in nature, particularly in winter—moments of quiet reflection that renew inspiration and open a space for dialogue between body, spirit, and landscape. The canoe (Jiimaan), animal figures, and organic forms become vehicles of movement, both literal and symbolic, across land, time, and transmitted knowledge.

Toulouse creates for her clans (Dodems), the Bear and the Crane, to which she is deeply connected through lived experience, ceremony, and family memory. A survivor of the residential school system, her work also bears the trace of this colonial history and of the memories she continues to move through and transform through painting. Certain works bring forward personal and historical narratives, including that of her ancestral grandfather, the Ojibwe Chief Shingwaukonse, whose presence runs through the painting Sun Man.

Presented at La Guilde in Tiohtià:ke / Montreal—where Toulouse lived during her years of study at Concordia University—this exhibition takes the form of a return filled with meaning. Jiibay Spirit unfolds as an intimate visual narrative, carried by resilience, transmission, and a desire to care for the living world. Through painting, Toulouse invites the public into a space of encounter and dialogue, where individual and collective histories continue to circulate.