Among the 13 selected artists, this season, is born-and-raised Yukoner Lara Bode, who is from the Little Salmon Carmacks First Nation.
“I really love anything holiday themed,” Bode told What’s Up Yukon over Zoom from Vancouver where she is in her first year studying art and design at Emily Carr University. “I spent a lot of time thinking about the holidays, so I was really excited to just do something I would have done anyway, drawing something holiday related. Then there was just the added bonus of knowing it’s going to be all across Canada.”
Bode’s art for the Purolator boxes is meant to capture how “the holidays bring the coldest of nights and the warmest of memories made even more memorable by our families,” according to the artist.
In working with the theme for the Purolator boxes, which this year was gathering for a meal, Bode said she decided to create from the experiences she shares with her family during the holidays.
“My family doesn’t really gather like that during the holidays, but every year my mom and I bake cookies and give them out to everyone in our family,” she said. “So I decided to do cookies, and I just love the snow reflecting off the holiday lights. I just think that’s so pretty.
“I wanted to do something with lights and snow and then the cookies just brought that all together.”
Typically, when Bode creates art, she takes her time and does whatever she feels, so working with a tight deadline was a new challenge and a learning experience she believes will benefit her as she furthers her artistic education and practice. While she is in her first year of university, right now, Bode hopes to transfer into illustration or animation in the future.
“It’s definitely different, I think,” Bode said of being in art school. “There’s still all the academic writing, but there’s also, like, you have an illustration due on Thursday—that kind of thing. At first, I was really struggling to balance, but I think I’m starting to get that in check now.”
Bode went on to say she always knew the arts would be something she would pursue, academically and professionally, and not just a hobby. She sees illustration and animation as being connected and is particularly fond of those fields.
“I already love illustration, and I think having the skill to make illustrations move is just such a fantastic way to improve storytelling in art,” she said. “I’d just love to see myself doing that.”
Bode said she thinks her friends and family might be even more excited than she is to see her art featured on the Purolator holiday boxes, and it was almost overwhelming the first morning the announcement was made, because she woke up to her phone already blowing up with messages congratulating her.
“I had just gotten up and I was getting ready for class and my phone was just exploding,” she said.
The 13 artists selected for this year’s Purolator boxes were nominated by last year’s artists, and Bode said she’d love to give another young, emerging artist like herself a shot at it for next year. Purolator is also donating $5,000 to the Whitehorse Food Bank, fitting with the theme of sharing food.
While she’s busy with school now, Bode still loves to create art for her own enjoyment and hopes to turn some of her attention to designing a set of stickers in the near future.
“I’ve always had that passion to create. Things just kind of worked out in a way where I felt it would be very viable for me to go into the arts. I can’t really see myself doing anything else.”
To read more about Purolator’s 2022 holiday boxes, visit purolator.com.
