Sig Burwash

Sig Burwash is a visual artist whose practice includes watercolour, collage, ceramics, animation, illustration, and comics. Their work is both imaginative and rooted in their lived experience, including cabin building, forest stewarding, motorcycling, and crewing on fishing vessels. They have participated in residencies internationally and have been exhibited in Canada, the United States and Europe. Originally from kEluwi’sst- Rossland, British Columbia, they now live in Unama’ki-Cape Breton Island.

Website: sigburwash.com

FESTIVAL BOOK

Vera Bushwack

The wondrous rustic landscape of Nova Scotia bursts from the page in Vera Bushwack, where reality gladly gives way to fantastical flights of fancy before gently coming back down to earth. A chainsaw fires up and Drew’s vision blurs. Their body vibrates alive with the whrrr of the engine, the whiff of gas. Drew dissolves as their alter-ego, Vera Bushwack, takes charge. Assless-chaps-wearing, unflinching Vera slashes through thick trunks, felling trees righteously from the back of a majestic steed.

Vera’s here to help, of course. Drew needs to clear the land for their future cabin in the woods. And if it weren’t for Vera’s brazenness, Drew may, ironically, fall reliant on others to learn self-reliance. Nevertheless, men enter Drew’s orbit, all too eager to explain how things work—an aggravating occurrence that comes crashing into Drew as dependably as the nearby ocean waves.

Joy, anger, grief, and self-acceptance ripple through these pages with Sig Burwash’s hilariously expressive pencil drawings and flair for buoyant watercolors. Approaching something like liberation, our protagonist comes to terms with past traumas, boundaries, and the many expressions of themself.

GET THE BOOK 

Owl’s Nest Books | Calgary Public Library

BE CURIOUSER

• Burwash’s confident debut aches with joy and pain. –Publishers Weekly
• 5 New Books We Recommend This Week. –New York Times
• Sig Burwash Raises Powerful Questions About Toxic Masculinity and Entrenched Gender Roles. –Broken Frontier