"Celtic" revival is upon us again.

Barry Strasbourg-Thompson, BFA

The Celtic languages are

Breton, Welsh, Irish,

Scottish, Manx, Cornish

  In Canadian Art, Celtic descendants have been reviving that bloodline and what it represents for about the last 20 years. This renewal owes much to the First Nations Art renewal movement which led Celtic peoples to review their own tradition and their stories within art history. The similarities between First Nations oral traditions and Celtic oral traditions point to parallels in the Animalism style. These parallels might be clues towards an understanding that is lost concerning Celtic earthworks and artworks.  We find that understanding comes from walking, participating in and producing artworks based on these traditional forms.  

 When Celtic Canadians, look at Eurocentric history and the Celtic arts;  music, architecture, dress, ornament, tools, weaponry, body art, manuscript and sculpture, we see an art that informs.  Celtic Art is an ancient and indigenous depository of a way of seeing - a wisdom - a story - that contains lost parts of many peoples identities. These lost parts are holes in our contemporary identity. We wander, at times aimlessly and lost, following the ideals of other wisdoms. Celtic individuality and strength of spirit sleep. Our leaders don't understand their own name.

The Celtic Arts ground a freedom quest for security in wisdom rather than matter.

I work with and teach Celtic Art in order to explore Celtic wisdom.