ABOUT

WILMA MILLETTE COLLAGE ARTIST

Wilma Millette is an award winning collage, mixed media artist from Vancouver Island in Canada. she has been playing with this medium since 2008. A third generation islander, she lives, and works out of her home studio, in Maple Bay. Open by appointment and during tours, a visit to her seaside studio is like stepping into a cabinet of curiosities.

She creates, one of a kind collage and assemblage artwork using paper ephemera from the 19th and 20th centuries and vintage and antique found objects from her personal collection and other sources in the public domain. She often adds wax, paint and ink to add tone and depth to her work. She strives to combine them in unexpected ways to create a narrative that gives them new life and relevance. She likes to think that the artisans who created them, long ago, would be pleased.

Wilma studied Art history at University and dabbled in many art forms such as drawing, textiles, watercolour and acrylics before discovering her love of collage. She has taken a few workshops but is mostly self-taught and continues to learn through experimentation. She taught art and curated children’s art shows for many years. She continues to teach adults beginner’s collage workshops several times a year from her studio.

She shows and sells her work at various galleries and shows on Vancouver Island and out of her home studio in the Cowichan Valley. She is a member of the Cowichan Valley Artisans group. They show their work together and host studio tours each April and October.   Her work has been published in an art magazine in the UK and has graced the cover of several art publications both locally and internationally including The Faces of Collage out of the US. She has had featured interviews on CBC radio in Vancouver in English and Radio Canada Vancouver in French.

She is fluent in both French and English and is adequate in Spanish. Although her posts are predominately English she does sometimes post in French.

69 thoughts on “ABOUT

  1. Anna,
    Thank you very much. I am happy that you enjoy my art. It started as a way to cope with my son’s illness and has become a great pleasure in my life. Happily my son made a full recovery and the art work has remained as a positive reminder that we can work through things.

  2. Your art is lovely. I too started my painting and craft to cope with an illness, but it was my cancer, luckily not my child’s. I’m so pleased to hear about the pleasure your art still gives you and that your son, like me, is well now. .

  3. It is indeed great work and inspiring. Can’t stop reading and looking at your work. Its nice to see what happens when you add new energy to old things… Love it! Greetings from the Netherlands.

  4. Your Collages are wonderful! I love the first image of the angel in the trio of them. Is that image one that I may use in my own artwork? My grandson was just baptized and I would love to make him something using it! Thanks!

  5. A fellow Canuck! Hello. I’ve dabbled in mixed media and enjoyed the process. We’ve never done much antique shopping while on the island but would love to next time we’re there. I’ll have to snoop around for some of your favourite haunts.

    • When two Canadians meet up in a sea of other nationalities I always feel like we are somehow in a beer commercial. Next time you come to the island message me and I’ll point you in the right direction. The best finds are at Vintage outdoor fairs that happen in the summer rather than antique shops. There was a big one a couple of weekends ago in an arena because we had torrential rains…that is very West Coast and arenas are soooo Canadian!

      • LOL, A beer commercial, geez you’re right on! I always thought it’d be fun to dance in one of those but I’m a lot to old for the demographic. So nice of you to offer to get us (the hubby comes reluctantly…hehe) to all the right treasure haunts, shall do, Thanks tons.

  6. Bonjour Frenchapple

    It is really refreshing to find a truly original artist especially in a medium l know little about. Your work is delightful and if you had a “like everything” button l would press it – twice!

    Bravo

    Regards

    Dan

    • Thank you Dan. I really think that you also are doing very original work . Vraiment magnifique, surtout avec les touches de rouge..j’adore! It is so agreable to meet artists from all over the world through wordpress and see what others are doing. I appreciate also the feedback on my work from other creative people like yourself.

    • Thank you. I have been spring cleaning the site over the last few days so I am glad you can relax as you wander through it and I like to hear “inspired” that is always a good sign. 🙂 Thanks for the visit.

    • Thank you…that is the part that takes the longest…assembling once the decisions have been made is much quicker. I usually pull three times the amount of junk from my stash that I think might go with what I want to convey and most of it gets rejected in the end. The Handle with Care one turned out to be very tricky until I found the oven timer at a church rummage sale and voila! Hahahaha.

  7. Oh I’m so, so pleased to have met you – we have loads in common.
    Will follow on other social media if you are on it. I’m on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest 🙂

  8. How absolutely wonderful to follow your outstanding work and then discover you are just across the water from me. I live just in the country just outside the sweet little village of Ladner. Catching the ferry to visit friends on the Island is always a delight. I wish you continuing success in your spectacular altered art work and your delightful writings. Virginia

    • Well we are practically neighbours…especially as the blogging world goes. I have just returned home from a weekend in Vancouver and nabbed some great vintage finds on Maine St. I LOVE the shops on Maine…so funky.

    • Of course I do remember you Crazyruthie. I enjoy seeing your work on Deviant Art. I follow you there. This is my main portfolio site, the one on my business cards and has my complete portfolio. I really do enjoy Deviant Art as there are many like-minded collage and assemblage artists over there and everyone is so supportive of each others work. It is very inspirational. Thanks for the likes and the follow. 🙂

      • My pleasure! I can see why you’d use this as your main site, there are a lot of impressive artists and all sorts of nice people. I like to be able to share a bit of each thing i do in one place.

        I haven’t done much writing in ages, so that’s really cool. Stimulating some different brain cells!

        I’ll be back to check out more of your work! 🙂

  9. Hello – I don’t often have the time to look through WP “Discover” but your site was a nice find. When I was in high school, wandering around the art museum in Rochester, NY, a mixed media piece by Joseph Cornell caught my eye, and he’s been a particular favorite since then. And I am enjoying your work, too. I’m always intrigued by what people incorporate into their “mystery-in-a-shadow-box”

    • Thank you, I am happy that you popped by for a visit and took the time to comment. I only learned about Joseph Cornell after I had made several of my assemblage boxes, he is absolutely wonderful. I am honoured to be mentioned in the same paragraph!
      Cheers! W.

  10. I just discovered your blog after searching for examples using Golden crackle paste. I absolutely love what you’ve done with it. Your work is beautiful and evocative. I wanted to ask about your technique if I may. With the photo transfers you did in combination with the crackle paste, can you describe how you layered these to achieve the affect you did? Thank you.

    • Hi Cody thanks for the compliments. I simply did a reversed transfer using the gel method, over top of the crackle paste. The Gel transfer method is when you apply a good layer of Golden Gel semigloss medium to the right side of your printed image and apply it face down to the surface and burnish it carefully so as not to move the image, thus smudging it. You let it try completely (several hours or overnight) and then dampen the back paper of your image and gently rub the paper off. Your image is transferred to the glue, which is transparent and shows the crackling below. Reversed transfer is imperfect but that is part of the charm. Best of luck.
      W.

  11. Hello: I have a question re a work that you have, the one with the 2 quail. I am interested in using just the quail with a different background, can you advise on licensing the image? Did you create the quail, or are they public domain, or available elsewhere for licensing? I can send you a copy of our idea, it is for a CD cover for a music project, if they are your image.

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