Evros 2

Michelle Atkinson is an internationally awarded multidisciplinary artist who creates contemporary artwork based on the environment and humanity’s effect on it. Atkinson earned a graphic design diploma (NMPD’03 with honours) from the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology in Canada with which she has garnered international acclaim and over 30 awards. She was published in Belle Armoire Jewelry magazine (’19) for her copper electroforming work. She is the only person to win the Made in Alberta Awards (Avenue magazine) three times in three categories over three years (’19, ’21, ’22). Recently she obtained grants from both the Alberta Foundation for the Arts (’22) and the Canadian Council for the Arts (’21) for a yearlong installation work at the Leighton Art Centre (’23). Atkinson also donates her time yearly to the Rotary Club of Heritage Park’s Second Chance Art Sale and reclaims broken picture frame glass as part of her practice. Atkinson’s first large-scale permanent public art piece was unveiled as the entrance to the newly designed Wild Canada section of the Calgary Zoo (’23). Her most recent art commission for the Calgary Stampede’s corporate art collection can be found in the newly renovated BMO Centre (’24).

Beauty and disaster are often entangled—what appears luminous from a distance may reveal devastation up close. These prints shape climate data into glowing forms that mirror the duality of attraction and harm.

This series draws from the Evros wildfires in Greece, the largest ever recorded in the European Union. For more than two weeks, the flames consumed 96,600 hectares of forest, including a national park. Debate continues around the cause—human movement across borders or, more likely, the volatile mix of lightning and drought. A storm cloud image anchors the work, reflecting both human failings and nature’s fury.

A glittered plastic layer threads through the surface, shimmering like a mirage of denial. The palette—bright yellow, turquoise, and sky blue—recalls the postcard colours of Greek tourism: water, sun, sand. Yet beneath the allure lingers the weight of irreversible loss.