{"id":96374,"date":"2026-07-27T10:16:06","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T13:16:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/2026\/07\/27\/stepping-into-the-vision-of-alex-janvier-how-soul-symphony-brings-a-master-artists-legacy-to-life\/"},"modified":"2026-07-27T10:16:06","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T13:16:06","slug":"stepping-into-the-vision-of-alex-janvier-how-soul-symphony-brings-a-master-artists-legacy-to-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/2026\/07\/27\/stepping-into-the-vision-of-alex-janvier-how-soul-symphony-brings-a-master-artists-legacy-to-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Stepping Into the Vision of Alex Janvier: How Soul Symphony Brings a Master Artists Legacy to Life"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Soul Symphony: The Art of Alex Janvier will be presented as a 360 Film Screening in Cold Lake, Alberta from Aug. 1 to 10 at the Cold Lake Energy Centre, allowing audiences to experience Janvier\u2019s artwork through immersive projection technology in Janvier\u2019s home region.  By Chevi Rabbit, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter (ANNews) \u2013 For generations of artists, collectors, and community members, the work of world-renowned Denesuline and Saulteaux artist Alex Janvier has represented more than colour and design. His paintings carry stories of identity, resilience, land, memory, and the way he experienced the world around him. Now, through Soul Symphony: The Art of Alex Janvier, audiences are invited to experience his artwork in an entirely new way, not simply by viewing his paintings, but by stepping inside his artistic vision through immersive technology. The 360-degree film experience combines large-scale projection, sound, storytelling, and digital innovation to bring Janvier\u2019s artwork beyond the traditional gallery setting. For his daughter, Jill Janvier, the project represents a continuation of her father\u2019s lifelong impact. \u201cI feel very honoured to be one of his representatives,\u201d Jill said. \u201cI started working for my parents full-time at their gallery in 2012, and from that time I really got to be familiar with their clients and the general art market, and I got to be familiar with a vast array of Alex Janvier original paintings.\u201d Through her work with Janvier Gallery, Jill has gained a unique perspective on the scale of her father\u2019s artistic contribution. The gallery database contains more than 6,000 entries connected to Alex Janvier\u2019s original works, including paintings, murals, and sketches. But for Jill, her father\u2019s legacy cannot be measured only by numbers. \u201cI feel like it\u2019s open to one\u2019s story, what they interpret as Janvier,\u201d she said. \u201cThat story that they have comes from their experience, from their time visiting him, or from seeing the art and their connection to that piece of art.\u201d Whether someone encounters his work in a museum, public installation, gallery, or private home, Jill said each person develops their own relationship with his art. \u201cWe all get to see it somewhere some days, and that\u2019s part of what we experience and treasure, I think, anywhere in Canada, because it\u2019s everywhere.\u201d A New Way to Experience Art The idea behind Soul Symphony began when director Bernard Duguay encountered Alex Janvier\u2019s work and immediately felt a connection. \u201cI really fell in love with his work during the exhibition in Ottawa,\u201d Duguay said. \u201cAnd I wrote to him, asked him if he would like to do something with me as a visual artist. And he said yes.\u201d That conversation eventually led to a collaboration between Duguay, Lucion, Janvier Gallery, and the Janvier family. Together, they developed a proposal for the Canada Council for the Arts to create an immersive dome film celebrating Janvier\u2019s life and artwork. \u201cWe wrote for a grant for the Canada Council to produce a dome film, an experiential dome film, and then the grant was granted,\u201d Duguay said. \u201cSo then we had the funds to produce a film about the works of Alex Janvier.\u201d Duguay said one of the biggest challenges was finding the right way to tell the story of an artist whose life and career were so expansive. \u201cAt first I didn\u2019t quite know how to talk about the whole thing because it\u2019s a huge family, a big family, the history of Alex Janvier,\u201d he said. The creative team ultimately focused on the foundation of everything, the artwork itself. The production team filmed Janvier while he worked, capturing his creative process and recording interviews that became central to the film. \u201cWe filmed him as he was painting, and we did many, many interviews with Mr. Janvier,\u201d Duguay said. \u201cThese interviews were used to feature his art, the beginnings of his artwork, how he got to be so good, and then how it changed his life. That was basically the core of the story.\u201d Technology That Serves the Art While technology is central to Soul Symphony, Duguay said the goal was never to overpower Janvier\u2019s original artwork. The team wanted audiences to feel immersed in the paintings while maintaining respect for the artist\u2019s original compositions and intentions. \u201cWe didn\u2019t want to desecrate the picture and make it a 3D rendition of his paintings and fly inside this,\u201d Duguay said. \u201cThis would have been a technological whiz, but not interesting.\u201d Instead, the team chose a more subtle approach. \u201cWe kept it flat,\u201d he said. \u201cHis drawing is his drawing, and just a camera sort of floating around the canvas.\u201d That decision allows viewers to experience details within Janvier\u2019s paintings that may not be visible from a traditional viewing distance. \u201cThen you get a really close-up view of the details, and somehow, hopefully, you get past the canvas and behind.\u201d For Duguay, the technology is not the focus. It is the tool that allows audiences to connect more deeply with the artist. \u201cThe fact that it\u2019s immersive, the dome film, is very different,\u201d he said. \u201cI felt I wanted to get inside them, to go, to get immersed in them.\u201d Redefining Indigenous Art in Canada Alex Janvier\u2019s career represented a major shift in how Indigenous artists were recognized in Canada. Beginning his career in the 1960s and pursuing art full-time in the 1970s, Janvier was part of a generation of Indigenous artists who challenged stereotypes and fought for recognition as contemporary artists. Jill said artists such as Janvier, Daphne Odjig, and Norval Morrisseau faced barriers when trying to have their work accepted by mainstream art institutions. \u201cThey could create art, but they had no venue,\u201d Jill said. \u201cThey could approach a gallery, a museum, or some kind of professional art place, and they would get closed doors.\u201d The artists wanted their work recognized beyond narrow expectations of Indigenous art,\u201d Jill said. \u201cThey wanted to elevate it to \u2018We are modern artists.\u2019 Whether Indigenous or not, they just wanted to be artists.\u201d She emphasized that the change came through collective action. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t because of him,\u201d Jill said. \u201cHe was one of a few working together on it. It\u2019s because of all of them who did it together that they opened the doors for themselves.\u201d A Legacy of Seeing Differently For Jill, one of the greatest lessons her father shared was his unique ability to see beauty and meaning in the world around him. \u201cHe really showed me a sense of seeing,\u201d she said. She recalled her father asking if she could see \u201c42 shades of green.\u201d \u201cI\u2019m like, \u2018I don\u2019t see that, Dad,\u2019\u201d Jill said. \u201cI might have seen four in front of me.\u201d She also remembered him pointing out purple tones in the mountains. \u201cTo me they\u2019re great tones with whites and greens and browns,\u201d she said. \u201cSo I was like, \u2018Where\u2019s that purple?\u2019 But he saw that.\u201d Duguay experienced a similar sense of wonder while learning about Janvier\u2019s creative process. \u201cWe found out that this was inspired from a tree stump,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s interesting to see how he saw a tree stump. How the reality is his reality very, very different from us.\u201d Carrying Forward the Spirit of Alex Janvier Both Jill and Duguay hope audiences leave Soul Symphony with a deeper connection to Alex Janvier\u2019s way of seeing the world. \u201cMy biggest hope is that there\u2019s a lot of appreciation and a sense of inspiration that comes from the film,\u201d Jill said. \u201cHe led a life that\u2019s an example to follow. He led a life of triumph and perseverance and truth to his own story.\u201d Duguay hopes audiences experience the heart behind the artwork. \u201cIt\u2019s full of love,\u201d he said. \u201cThe soul of Alex Janvier is so rich.\u201d \u201cThe way he sees life is unique, I think,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re really blessed to have had an elder so close to us like this.\u201d He believes Janvier\u2019s artwork carries a feeling that technology alone cannot create. \u201cWe can all draw beautiful things, but he felt it from the heart, and I think it says heart on the painting,\u201d Duguay said. \u201cSo it\u2019s very full of life and full of intent.\u201d Bringing the Experience to Communities Soul Symphony: The Art of Alex Janvier will be presented as a 360 Film Screening in Cold Lake, Alberta from Aug. 1 to 10 at the Cold Lake Energy Centre, allowing audiences to experience Janvier\u2019s artwork through immersive projection technology in Janvier\u2019s home region. Jill said the response from supporters has been meaningful. \u201cI\u2019m very grateful for all my supporters and contributors back home who have helped bring it to our community,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s been an important part of everything.\u201d For Jill, the greatest success of Soul Symphony is that every viewer can create their own relationship with the artwork. \u201cThe film and the art and the words that go with it, that is something for [each] person to experience and interpret,\u201d she said.  <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Soul Symphony: The Art of Alex Janvier will be presented as a 360 Film Screening in Cold Lake, Alberta from Aug. 1 to 10 at the Cold Lake Energy Centre, allowing audiences to experience Janvier\u2019s artwork through immersive projection technology in Janvier\u2019s home region. By Chevi Rabbit, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter (ANNews) \u2013 For generations [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":137,"featured_media":96375,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2075,118,1],"tags":[2074,116],"class_list":["post-96374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-alberta","category-indigenous","category-uncategorized","tag-alberta","tag-indigenous"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/137"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96374\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}