After Leah: Grief, Art and the Courage to Continue
June Artist Speaker Series Explores Grief, Memory and Healing Through Art
June’s Artist Speaker Series will feature a thoughtful and deeply personal reflection on grief, memory, resilience, and the ongoing process of continuing after profound loss with local Melgund Township artist Leanne Nicholson.
The session examines how grief reshapes everyday life, relationships, creativity, and the body itself. Rather than something that simply ends or resolves, grief is explored as an evolving lived experience—one that can surface unexpectedly and remain present over time in emotional, physical, and deeply personal ways.
Drawing from lived experience, Nicholson will speak about the many forms grief can take, including sudden loss, anticipatory grief, collective grief, and prolonged mourning. The discussion considers how each unfolds differently and how loss can alter perception, routine, identity, and creative expression in lasting and non-linear ways.
Throughout the session, art is explored as a space for healing, reflection, and emotional expression. Creative practice can offer a way to hold memory, process difficult emotions, and engage experiences that are often difficult to fully explain through language alone.
Participants will also be invited into a respectful and supportive environment for quiet reflection and optional shared storytelling. The session aims to create space for conversation, connection, and understanding around grief, healing, mental wellness, and the role of art in navigating loss.
Join us
Sunday June 7, 2026 from 1-3 p.m.
Dyment Recreation Hall Lower Level Art Space
Melgund Township, Northwestern Ontario
Contact us at info@artsincubator.ca for a videoconference link.
About the Speaker
Born in Red Lake and deeply connected to northwestern Ontario, Leanne Nicholson is a social worker and artist whose practice is shaped by the land around her. She spent much of her childhood at her family’s cabin on McKenzie Island, where time in nature fostered a lasting relationship with the land that continues to inform her work. Leanne works across visual and mixed-media practices, creating wildlife imagery and pieces incorporating antlers, bones, and skulls. Her work transforms natural materials into expressions of life, memory, and continuity, grounded in respect for the animals and the stories they carry.
Art has also been a vital form of expression for Leanne personally, helping her navigate experiences of depression when language was not accessible. That emotional depth carries through her work, which often explores resilience, reflection, and connection. She often integrates her artistic practice into her work as a social worker, where creativity continues to support connection, reflection, and healing in the communities she serves. Her creative process is rooted in time spent in the forest, gathering what she describes as “gifts from nature” that form the basis of her work. Her practice blends land-based knowledge with contemporary visual art, using organic materials and symbolic imagery.
