Calgary artist creates collection of paintings inspired by daughter’s journey in dance

Dancers practise for years and dance moms are right alongside them for the journey. One turned the journey into an art exhibit.

Canopy Studios are hosting a solo exhibit called ‘Strength and Grace’ by Calgary artist Jean Parker. It’s a series of paintings surrounding Parker’s daughter Molly and her dance career in contemporary and ballet that spanned from the time she was three years old to a university student at 19.

“I wanted to honour that journey so I kind of broke apart this concept of what is a dancer and I saw that there’s this duality, strength and grace,” Parker said.

“Strength is the training like an elite athlete -- but they can’t just do it with being an athlete, they have to be an artist and they have to be a master artist.”

It’s the first solo exhibition for Parker, who says she spent thousands of hours watching her daughter learn various techniques and routines, then perform them.

Painting dancers

Parker’s own artistic career started 2021 when she became a full-time artist painting landscapes and then dancers.

“You’ll see in my in my actual show, I love everything about movement and change but ultimately what I love the most is my daughter so this is kind of an honour to the world of dance and to her,” she said.

“(Molly) was training 30 hours a week and in grade nine,” she adds. “She was at an elite sport school and all of these kids had this dream of going to the Olympics and she said to me, why can’t I have that dream?”

Breakdancing was the first discipline to debut in Olympic history at the 2024 Australian Summer games.

At 19, Molly spent time in Israel with a professional contemporary dance company but now at 25 years old, her Olympic dance dreams are over and she lives and works in Ontario.

“My mom was always there and I never had to worry about where she was going to be no matter what time the show was or whether we had to travel, she was always there,” said Molly. “So in retrospect today, she really was just my biggest fan you know.”

Molly has seen the entire collection and is happy to be the inspiration for her mom’s exhibit.

“So many of those paintings that I actually remember vividly, a lot of them are from my high school years and even my university years,” she said.

“I can still remember the moment that I was on stage doing that move and the intensity and the emotion that I was feeling that my mom has done such a good job of capturing in all of her paintings.”

Former dancer

Kim Webb, creative wellness director for Canopy Studios, is also a former dancer who see’s the beauty in Parker’s art.

“There’s a lot of work that goes into dance especially when you’re just learning,” she said. “But I think it’s just a sense of freedom and Jean’s captured that sense and that emotion in all her pieces.”

Webb says the studio provides space to artists and wellness practitioners with a number of artists working right on site and art therapists upstairs and dance therapists in the basement and residency programs that Parker is involved in while her exhibit is showing.

“We do host a number of creative workshops and we encourage people to come in and just try out their creativity,” said Webb. “Because at Canopy we really believe in the healing power of the arts and that everyone can use their creativity as a powerful wellness tool.”

The ‘Strength and Grace’ exhibit is from March 1 – 12, 2025, with Parker’s artist residency days taking place from March 4 – 9 (12 PM – 4 PM).

Learn more about the exhibit and studio here.