The Art of Adaptation: Navigating Uncertainty Through Creativity

The Ladysmith Art Gallery is pleased to present Navigating Uncertainty, an exhibition that brings together the work of two contemporary artists: Lynne Patrick and Denise Tierney.

Patrick’s contemplative abstractions explore the interplay of colour, form and texture, creating landscape-like spaces that invite reflection. Using a butterfly motif, she explores themes such as finding a path in unknown territory, change, danger, relationship and survival. Typically, Patrick uses a limited palette of materials for collage

including: sewing tissue, fragments of pages from a King James Bible, marine maps and fragments from old National Geographic magazines each of which carry symbolic personal significance. The title of the series: From a Butterfly’s Survival Manual points to the potential for survival in an alchemy of adaptive learning combined with ancestral wisdom and embodied in the collective.

Tierney explores the complexity of human connection, capturing the playful yet profound ways we respond, relate, and engage with one another and the wider world. In

this exhibition, she reflects on everyday activities and highlights the moments where

conflicting emotions intersect. These include the mix of joy and anxiety that can arise

during celebration, the presence of lingering stress within leisure, and the shifting

spectrum between self-consciousness and confidence.

Though distinct in style, both artists share a curiosity about how individuals adapt and

seek meaning within natural, cultural, and social frameworks. Their work investigates

themes of independence and interconnection, resilience and vulnerability, stability and

change.

Together, Patrick and Tierney demonstrate how divergent artistic languages can not

only coexist but also illuminate one another—underscoring the richness that emerges

when different perspectives seek commonality and are open to transformation.

Navigating Uncertainty art exhibition runs October 24 – November 2, 2025 at Ladysmith Art Gallery, 7 - 32 High Street, Ladysmith, BC. Open daily, 10 am - 4 pm.

Both artists will be in attendance October 24. One or both artists will be present throughout the duration of the show.