{"data":{"id":"9bd39299-bf9a-443e-875e-917ece87e503","originKind":"SYNDICATED","title":"Going where the spirit leads: Fort McMurray artists paint Northern Alberta’s pride at Stampede","summary":"The Northern Lights will shine bright at this year’s Calgary Stampede as two local artists from Fort McMurray showcase the effervescent life and community that lies beyond the oilsands through their craft.\n\nA spiritual encounter: Amy Keller-Rempp Born to a Mohawk mother and German father in Belleville, Ontario – a small town nestled in between the Ottawa Valley and Muskoka, Amy Keller-Rempp is a self-taught nature and wildlife artist.\n\nHer journey as an artist began 37 years ago, when – as a ten-year-old – she would spend hours painting wildlife around her. Growing up with a disabled father meant her childhood years were spent learning survival crafts – art was a therapeutic escape Rempp throughout her life, and ever more when grief came knocking twelve years later.\n\n“I’m the middle of three girls, we didn’t have any brothers, and we lived in rural Ontario, so we had to do a lot of work,” Keller-Rempp said.\n\n“I bring his legacy with me because now I’m able to do this artwork, use tools, and not hurt myself.”\n\nThis year marks the third consecutive year the Alberta local has been featured at the Stampede art show, but Keller-Rempp remembers her first year looking very different from this one.\n\n“We didn’t have the best lighting and were literally using flashlights at some point” she said, describing the hurdles she’d faced as a first-time participating artist.\n\nKeller-Rempp attributes much of her artistic success to living in the oilsands region.\n\n“The opportunities I have received in Alberta as a whole, but Fort McMurray in particular, is incomparable. There’s a lot of entrepreneurial mindsets,” she said. “Albertans make respectable decisions quickly and act on it.”\n\nThe entire SkyDance series – a unique northern lights art series, was born because of her move to Fort McMurray in 2008. It was her first time seeing the Northern lights, and she felt what she calls a “direction from creator” to bring the image to life.\n\nThings ended up then really taking off when Keller-Rempp was commissioned to paint a mural at the Fort McMurray Airport – a piece that would take her nearly 40 days to complete. The work is housed in the Observation deck of the airport.\n\nSince then, Keller-Rempp has painted public art benches, metal art pieces and prints at the Bear and Buffalo restaurant, and larger pieces commissioned by the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo.\n\nIndigenous roots bound in her craft For Keller-Rempp, art supersedes being just a career, transcending into what she describes as an interactive spiritual encounter.\n\nIn her SkyDance series, she paints the experiencing of a vision manifesting itself.\n\n“I immediately could see images; a bison running down a wave of light, eagle wings coming up, a wolf pack moving through the lights, and my brain wouldn’t shut off. I’d try to go to sleep and it was just one slideshow one after another.” Keller-Rempp said.\n\nShe describes the experience as “a sacred space” that she knows is “a gift from God.”\n\nFor her, every painting is a depiction of the spiritual details in life that can easily be missed.\n\n“I feel like I’m in two worlds sometimes because I’m walking and I appreciate everything that creator that God has created for us and I have been given this gift so I can show people life is like through my eyes.”\n\n“I do” in the oilsands: Alexandra Kavanagh Originally from Montreal, Quebec, Kavanagh has been living in Fort McMurray for twelve years, working on site for eight of them.\n\nIt’s Kavanagh’s first year at Stampede, under the “Rising Artists” profile, and it is an experience she said she never saw coming.\n\nAccording to Kavanagh “this was never the plan” for her life, but after wedding a pipefitter, she ditched her plans to study in Wales and headed up to North.\n\nAfter working as a labourer in Syncrude, operating forklifts during her 12-hour days, Kavanagh secured a job as a safety manager for Sterling Crane – an opportunity that afforded her the exposure to multiple oilsands sites including Suncor, Canadian Natural Resources (CNRL), Syncrude and Kearl oilsands.\n\nSoon Kavanagh garnered attention from co-workers after people would notice her paintings of the work site, and once enough colleagues had bought her art, the companies began taking a keen interest in her work.\n\nThis led to her joining the Fort McMurray Chamber of Commerce, which Kavanagh said was the “biggest change” for her, giving her “exposure to people, businesses, and events.” The artist recently had one of her paintings gifted to Canada-US Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc during his visit to Fort McMurray on June 22.\n\nThe Fort McMurray message Kavanagh said she truly believes in an interconnectedness between the North and all of Alberta.\n\n“It’s such a tight community and everybody there is tied to the oilsands in one way or another,” she said.\n\nFor her, every brush stroke is an attempt to represent Northern Alberta in a positive light, piecing together sceneries and landscape that speak to these synergies.\n\n“This is pride in our work. The men and women have so much pride in their work and it’s incredible. I’ve never met harder working people in my life.” Kavanagh said.\n\nAs laborious as the application process seemed to have been, joining the art show meant that Kavanagh could show Albertans back home “it’s not just a big corporation, it’s families.”\n\n“That’s really my motivation,” Kavanagh added.\n\nThe art show theme is “Western Living”, bringing in over 50 Canadian artists. It will run till July 12th, featuring original artwork and photography from creators across the nation.\n\nIUmanah@postmedia.com\n\nBookmark our website and support our journalism: Don’t miss the news you need to know — add FortMcMurrayToday.com, EdmontonJournal.com and EdmontonSun.com to your bookmarks and sign up for our newsletters here.\n\nSign up for the Fort McMurray Today newsletter here\n\nYou can also support our journalism by becoming a digital subscriber. Subscribers gain unlimited access to The Edmonton Journal, Edmonton Sun, National Post and 13 other Canadian news sites. Support us by subscribing today: The Edmonton Journal | The Edmonton Sun.","url":"https://edmontonjournal.com/news/going-where-the-spirit-leads-fort-mcmurray-artists-paint-northern-albertas-pride-at-stampede","imageUrl":"https://smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/edmontonjournal/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/akr-art-1_304163527.jpg","publishedAt":"2026-07-08T15:28:35.000Z","sourceLabel":"Edmonton Journal Music","tags":["Local Arts","Local News","News"],"authorName":"Itoro Umanah","contentHtml":"\"An

The Northern Lights will shine bright at this year’s Calgary Stampede as two local artists from Fort McMurray showcase the effervescent life and community that lies beyond the oilsands through their craft.

A spiritual encounter: Amy Keller-Rempp

Born to a Mohawk mother and German father in Belleville, Ontario – a small town nestled in between the Ottawa Valley and Muskoka, Amy Keller-Rempp is a self-taught nature and wildlife artist.

Her journey as an artist began 37 years ago, when – as a ten-year-old – she would spend hours painting wildlife around her. Growing up with a disabled father meant her childhood years were spent learning survival crafts – art was a therapeutic escape Rempp throughout her life, and ever more when grief came knocking twelve years later.

\"

“I’m the middle of three girls, we didn’t have any brothers, and we lived in rural Ontario, so we had to do a lot of work,” Keller-Rempp said.

“I bring his legacy with me because now I’m able to do this artwork, use tools, and not hurt myself.”

This year marks the third consecutive year the Alberta local has been featured at the Stampede art show, but Keller-Rempp remembers her first year looking very different from this one.

“We didn’t have the best lighting and were literally using flashlights at some point” she said, describing the hurdles she’d faced as a first-time participating artist.

\"

Keller-Rempp attributes much of her artistic success to living in the oilsands region.

“The opportunities I have received in Alberta as a whole, but Fort McMurray in particular, is incomparable. There’s a lot of entrepreneurial mindsets,” she said. “Albertans make respectable decisions quickly and act on it.”

The entire SkyDance series – a unique northern lights art series, was born because of her move to Fort McMurray in 2008. It was her first time seeing the Northern lights, and she felt what she calls a “direction from creator” to bring the image to life.

Things ended up then really taking off when Keller-Rempp was commissioned to paint a mural at the Fort McMurray Airport – a piece that would take her nearly 40 days to complete. The work is housed in the Observation deck of the airport.

Since then, Keller-Rempp has painted public art benches, metal art pieces and prints at the Bear and Buffalo restaurant, and larger pieces commissioned by the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo.

Indigenous roots bound in her craft

For Keller-Rempp, art supersedes being just a career, transcending into what she describes as an interactive spiritual encounter.

In her SkyDance series, she paints the experiencing of a vision manifesting itself.

“I immediately could see images; a bison running down a wave of light, eagle wings coming up, a wolf pack moving through the lights, and my brain wouldn’t shut off. I’d try to go to sleep and it was just one slideshow one after another.” Keller-Rempp said.

She describes the experience as “a sacred space” that she knows is “a gift from God.”

For her, every painting is a depiction of the spiritual details in life that can easily be missed.

\"

“I feel like I’m in two worlds sometimes because I’m walking and I appreciate everything that creator that God has created for us and I have been given this gift so I can show people life is like through my eyes.”

“I do” in the oilsands: Alexandra Kavanagh

Originally from Montreal, Quebec, Kavanagh has been living in Fort McMurray for twelve years, working on site for eight of them.

It’s Kavanagh’s first year at Stampede, under the “Rising Artists” profile, and it is an experience she said she never saw coming.

According to Kavanagh “this was never the plan” for her life, but after wedding a pipefitter, she ditched her plans to study in Wales and headed up to North.

After working as a labourer in Syncrude, operating forklifts during her 12-hour days, Kavanagh secured a job as a safety manager for Sterling Crane – an opportunity that afforded her the exposure to multiple oilsands sites including Suncor, Canadian Natural Resources (CNRL), Syncrude and Kearl oilsands.

Soon Kavanagh garnered attention from co-workers after people would notice her paintings of the work site, and once enough colleagues had bought her art, the companies began taking a keen interest in her work.

This led to her joining the Fort McMurray Chamber of Commerce, which Kavanagh said was the “biggest change” for her, giving her “exposure to people, businesses, and events.” The artist recently had one of her paintings gifted to Canada-US Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc during his visit to Fort McMurray on June 22.

The Fort McMurray message

Kavanagh said she truly believes in an interconnectedness between the North and all of Alberta.

“It’s such a tight community and everybody there is tied to the oilsands in one way or another,” she said.

\"

For her, every brush stroke is an attempt to represent Northern Alberta in a positive light, piecing together sceneries and landscape that speak to these synergies.

“This is pride in our work. The men and women have so much pride in their work and it’s incredible. I’ve never met harder working people in my life.” Kavanagh said.

As laborious as the application process seemed to have been, joining the art show meant that Kavanagh could show Albertans back home “it’s not just a big corporation, it’s families.”

“That’s really my motivation,” Kavanagh added.

The art show theme is “Western Living”, bringing in over 50 Canadian artists. It will run till July 12th, featuring original artwork and photography from creators across the nation.

IUmanah@postmedia.com

Bookmark our website and support our journalism: Don’t miss the news you need to know — add FortMcMurrayToday.com, EdmontonJournal.com and EdmontonSun.com to your bookmarks and sign up for our newsletters here.

Sign up for the Fort McMurray Today newsletter here

You can also support our journalism by becoming a digital subscriber. Subscribers gain unlimited access to The Edmonton Journal, Edmonton Sun, National Post and 13 other Canadian news sites. Support us by subscribing today: The Edmonton Journal | The Edmonton Sun.

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