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CC’s “Buy local” Christmas Guide

10 ideas for that Christ-centred, creative Canadian on your shopping list.

One of the best things about Christian Courier (in my biased view) is that you’ll come across Canadian artists you’ve never heard of before. Chances are you first heard of poet Andrew Lafleche and photographer Karene-Isabelle Jean-Baptiste right here, with us.

We don’t want your engagement with these brilliant creators to end there. That’s why, at the end of the year, we go through our archives and choose artists we think you should spend more time with. Maybe you can even use this list as a unique place to find Canadian gifts for your family and friends

There’s been confusion in the past, so we want to be extra clear: these aren’t advertisements. Christian Courier makes no profit off of this article.

So why are we doing this? We care deeply about Canada’s creative ecosystem and we know you do, too. We all want to be intentional about who we support with our holiday spending. And we want to show off these unique creators a little, because they deserve it! 

ART

1. Karen Bailey

Karen Bailey’s use of colour and texture to capture a moment is unparalleled. But it’s her story that blew us all away. Karen lives in Ottawa and her art has been exhibited all over the city: from Rideau Hall to Ottawa Mission, Ottawa Art Gallery, the Canadian War Museum, and the Ottawa School of Art. 
Instagram: @karenartist
Website: www.karenbailey.ca

Editor’s tip

If your budget looks like mine, buying original art isn’t an option. But here’s a tip: if you love an artist, see if they sell prints or art books. I’d recommend Triage, Karen’s twenty paintings of her time in a triage hospital in Afghanistan. She’s one of the few Canadian artists who was allowed into the operating room and she captured a time of collaboration between Canadian and Afghan medics that is now in the past.

2. Nick Schuurman

Nick’s blockprint art on our editorial page back in July might have been a blink-and-you-miss-it moment, but the ethos behind his art is so cool that we wanted to give him some space. Nick practices “non-violent creativity,” which sounds like our wish for the world right now! 
Instagram: @the rain_thesnow_theseed
Website: www.therainthesnowtheseed.ca

Editor’s tip

When you order one of Nick’s prints, you don’t actually pay him. He calls his business an “unprofit disorganization.” Here’s how it works: you donate directly to a non-profit that supports peace and then he mails you the print. You know your money is truly going to the cause.

3. Amanda Le Blanc

I just interviewed Amanda for our December issue and I’m still absorbing all the wisdom she shared. Amanda does not shy away from difficult topics. Her two current series look church hurt and mental illness in the face. She is one of the most intentional, focused artists that I’ve ever spoken with. Look for her hyper-realistic watercolour birds in our December issue!
Website: www.lucidpalette.ca
Instagram: @lucidpalette

Editor’s tip

Not every artist offers this, but Amanda does commissions. Have a poke around her website to get a sense of her style – everything from paper cutout to inks to watercolour – and then tell her what you’re dreaming of.

4. Karen Tamminga-Paton

We haven’t had a chance to interview Karen Tamminga-Paton for her story – yet – but her painting of newly arrived refugees in Canada was featured alongside a poem by Karen Wilk in CC. Karen’s work is a study in metaphors. She is an Alberta artist, a former high school art teacher, an empty nester and a lover of nature. 
Instagram: @tammingapatonart
Website: tammingapaton.com

Editor’s tip

Follow Karen Tamminga-Paton on Instagram and you might end up participating in her art! In a recent post, she put out an open call for people to share their “language of repair” to add to her current project, “Peace Talks.” “I wanted to gather words of repair because it asks of us to actually formulate these thoughts beyond the gutpunches these horrors bring,” explains Tamminga-Paton.

5. Nina Schuurman-Drenth

Nina’s series on ecological hope ran from Fall of 2022 until this Spring. We loved reading Nina’s profound insights, gathered from her Masters’ thesis research into eco-theology and Sabbath in both the Old and New Testaments. Even better, she shared her original collage artwork with us. She sells prints of her collages – the perfect gift for a friend who loves nature! 
Instagram: @ninaschuurdrenth
Website: ninaschuurmandrenth.com

Editor’s tip

Nina leads Wild Church, a gathering for Christians who want to discover spiritual connections with God through the natural world. If you’re in the Hamilton area, you might want to join her!

MUSIC

6. Broken walls

This band was the focus of a recent review. Broken Walls is made up of both American and Canadian musicians and dancers, but the founder, Jonathan Maracle, is Mohawk from Tyendinaga Territory in Ontario, Canada. They’ve been touring Ontario in the last few months.The band sees music as a vehicle for breaking down the walls of separation between settlers and First Nations people.
YouTube: Jonathan Maracle
Shop CD’s: www.brokenwalls.com

Editor’s tip

Gary Rekker, who wrote the review, attended a concert that had been organized by a group of local churches. Maybe this is something that could gather churches in your area, too! Here’s the information about bookings.

POETRY

7. Stephen T. Berg

Stephen’s poems touch on the current moment we find ourselves in, as Canadians, like no one else can. This year, Stephen wrote a poem that held space for the loss of homes to wildfires in B.C. “Even time will not heal all,” writes Stephen, “so let us grieve with those who grieve, for we are all inhabitants of this incarnate earth.”
Twitter/X: @GrowMercy
Website: www.growmercy.org

Editor’s tip

Stephen has many collections of poetry for sale. But if you’re still wondering if his style is for you, or if you want a poem for the moment, save his website to come back to. Stephen is generous; he shares poems as he writes them, on the war in Israel, on aging, on gratitude – there’s truly something there for every day. You can read his poems in full, for free!

8. Andrew Lafleche

This poet is a recent discovery for us at CC too! We published his poem “So that nothing worse happens to you” alongside art from Karen Bailey because they both have experience with the Canadian military presence in Afghanistan. Andrew Lafleche is from St. Catherines, Ontario. He’s a military veteran who has a Masters in Creative and Critical Writing and a number of publications – geared towards young men – under his belt.
Twitter/X: @andrewlafleche
Website: www.andrewlafleche.com

Editor’s tip

Poetry is an art form that’s as auditory as it is visual. So why not listen to Andrew read his poems? He has 125 poems on Soundcloud where you can listen for free. . . and you can even invite him to speak at your school or church!

PHOTOGRAPHY

9. Karene-Isabelle Jean-Baptiste

Karene-Isabelle brought JOY to our pages. I asked about her portraits of Black women in healthcare in Quebec during the pandemic and emerged from that interview with armfuls of delight. I’m sure many of you were inspired by her insistence that our society can be unified through joy.
Instagram: @kareneisabelle
Website: www.andrewlafleche.com

Editor’s tip

Karene-Isabelle just put prints up for sale this week! Even if you don’t purchase one of her beautiful images, I would recommend that you follow her on social media or save her homepage to come back to. Why? Not only is Karene-Isabelle capturing Canadian history, she captures the intersection of identities across the generations of immigrant families. (Karene-Isabelle is Haitian-Canadian.) Believe me, it’s artists like Karene-Isabelle who will guide Canada with a vision for our future.

REDEMPTIVE JOURNALISM

1o. Give a subscription

If you have a friend who loves Canadian art, hope-filled journalism and choice columns, you can sign them up for a free 3-month trial of the print copy of Christian Courier. Or, you can pay $70 and sign them up for an entire year!

Editor’s tip

It doesn’t get better than a gift idea that’s completely free AND requires minimal effort. But in case you need more convincing, receiving Christian Courier in print is a completely different experience than reading it online. I mean, have you seen the gorgeous front covers? Of course I’m biased – I’m here in the company of artists and poets, the tribe that believes in embodied work that has a shape, a texture and a presence. When you subscribe, you keep our publication in print, and we get to keep putting artists like these on our paper-and-ink pages. 

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