Do You See What I See? – Visual Artists Rey Tatad & Leya Evelyn

Rey Tatad moved from the Philippines to Tisdale, Saskatchewan when he was 16 years old. Growing up, he loved illustration, and when it came time to decide on what to major in at University, Rey knew that art was what he wanted to pursue as his life’s work. In 2021 he graduated from the University of Regina with a degree in Fine Arts, picking up a national award for best emerging artist along the way. Rey Tatad’s art explores themes of colonization and identity, and the overlaps between the culture that he came from, and the culture he is contributing to now here in Canada. “I am definitely on a, on a journey on learning both of the histories and the cultures of the two countries - their differences, their similarities,” Rey says. “But the more that I learn, the more convoluted it gets. As an immigrant, you're neither really authentically Filipino nor authentically Canadian anymore. You're kind of in between.” Rey Tatad shares more of his ideas around identity, and his plans and dreams for his future. Leya Evelyn’s career as an abstract expressionist painter has spanned six decades, throughout which she has witnessed the acceptance of the art form as the dominant form of painting, placing New York City at the epicenter of the modern art world. Leya spent more than twenty years in New York City, and moved to Nova Scotia in the mid-nineteen-eighties where her art and teaching careers flourished. Now, at 85, Leya looks back at her influences and approach to painting. Sean Kennedy, professor of English at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, describes her painting as controlled explosions of colour and light. He says Leya’s paintings matter as much for what they do as what they refuse to do. “I was just born to paint. It's like, I don't feel like it's a choice. You know, it's one of those things that you just, I'm so glad that I found it early enough,” Leya says. “But once I found how much I loved painting, there was no question ever. I have never questioned it.”