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Jenni House artist-in-residence illustrates a whimsical Whitehorse

Larissa Stanley’s residency runs for the month of August, with plans for an open house during the month.

Larissa Stanley is this month’s artist-in-residence at the Jenni House.  

The Whitehorse resident is the latest in a long line of artists who have taken up a spot at the Jenni House, located in Shipyards Park. Over 175 artists have worked on their art through the program, which began in 2015.  

“It's been a really lucky year for me, doing all this art stuff" Stanley told the News.  

Stanley said that she has been doing art since before she can remember, but she decided not to pursue it as a career as a teenager.  

“I had planned on going into it outside of high school, but then everybody was kind of warning me against it. You know, it's not like a real job,” said Stanley.  

Stanley ended up working in finance for a decade. But four years ago, she decided to start a hobby business selling her art on the side.  

“I've just slowly been working on that more and more, and now it's my full-time freelance kind of gig,” said Stanley.  

In recent years, Stanley’s work has been included in the territorial health department’s Keeping the Fire immunization reminder. She also designed the merchandise at this year’s Annual Meeting of Federal, Provincial and Territorial Ministers of Agriculture, held in Whitehorse. 

She’s also been commissioned to design a mural for the new mental health unit at the Whitehorse General Hospital.  

Stanley is Kaska, from Liard First Nation, but she grew up in Whitehorse. The city plays a role in the project she is working on this month at the Jenni House.  

She’s taking photos from all over Whitehorse and the Yukon and adding in digital illustrations. Many of the landmarks in the photos have a personal meaning to Stanley, she said, such as the Village Bakery in Haines Junction.  

“It brings back good memories of road trips and day trips,” said Stanley. “Just fun times with my brother, and my husband Josh.”  

Most of the shots will be recognizable to Yukoners, but Stanley says some of them will be a little more difficult to place.  

“Some that are going to be a little bit more obscure, kind of like a game,” she said.  

After taking the photos, Stanley imports them into her iPad where she adds in whimsical elements, like a dragon perched up on the roof of the Jenni House. Magic is the theme in most of her works – whether it’s a phoenix playing with ravens on the clay cliffs, or a team of gargoyles gazing down at tourists from above the shops on Main Street.  

The project is a stepping-stone for a future project Stanley would like to start, which is recreating the version of Whitehorse she visits in her dreams.  

“It's been the same my entire life, like the buildings and everything in my dream version, but it's different than real-life Whitehorse,” said Stanley.  

For example, in her dreams, Stanley said she often visits a hot spring in the mountains when she feels anxious. She said her ancestors are often at this hot spring, and that it carries healing energy for her.  

“I don't know if it's like, actually my ancestors talking to me or something like that, trying to make me feel that love and connection, but that's what it feels like. So I really want to try and illustrate that,” said Stanley.  

“It sounds kind of weird, but it's like this thing that I've had for years and years, I always go there when I'm feeling overwhelmed.” 

Stanley plans to hold an open house to show the public her art at some point in August. While this is her first residency, it will not be her only one – she'll be in France for two weeks in November as an artist-in-residence at Château de Bouthonvilliers.  

After that, Stanley hopes to go into graphic design full-time.