Pascale Ouellet Bigoudi is the nom de plume of Pascale Ouellet, visual artist based in Canmore, Alberta.
"Although my native province of Quebec has shaped the person I am, my adoptive Alberta has transformed the artist I have become."
During her formative years in the mid 90s, Pascale completed a diploma at Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf in Fine Arts and Communications, attended the Visual Arts Program at the Université du Québec à Montréal and graduated from an intensive Interior Design program at Inter-Dec College in Montreal. After moving to Alberta in 2002, she has been largely self directed in her artistic pursuits – participating in artist-residencies, collaborating with other artists and teaching when time allows. Since 2004, Pascale has produced 29 solo exhibitions, participated in more than 35 juried group shows across Canada, and been awarded four Public Art Commissions by the Town of Canmore. She has participated in four artistic residencies at The Banff Centre and have been selected as a 2015 artist-in- residence with TRACS program on Fogo Island in Newfoundland. Pascale Ouellet is represented by 3 galleries in Western Canada and 2 in the USA and her work is in corporate and personal collections across Canada, the USA, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Norway, Switzerland, Argentina and the United Kingdom. Her work is also in the permanent collection of the University of Calgary Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and at the University of Regina.
Artist statement on the 'Blame it on the kittens' series.
It all began in 2016, with a collaborative experiment alongside Mike Cameron, an artist for whom I have great respect . We combined elements of his paintings with fragments of my photographs, creating a spontaneous collage that sat untouched for quite some time.When I finally revisited this improvised composition, a narrative emerged—one that was both unsettling and ominous. Dark tones dominated the piece: deep blacks, roaring flames, menacing figures, and a looming road sign, all evoking the tension of an impending disaster. To counterbalance this heavy imagery, I sought to introduce something light and joyful. The image of an innocent kitten surfaced in my mind, embodying sweetness and simplicity. Yet, it wasn’t enough. This kitten had to be more—its laser eyes became the natural source of the surrounding chaos, burning things as it went.
In this series, the kitten symbolizes a broader concept: 'denial.' As we scroll through social media, we’re captivated by adorable kitten videos, distracting ourselves from the harsh realities of the world—climate change, war, the erosion of women’s rights. In this work, I ask the viewer: could these tiny creatures, with their overwhelming cuteness, be the ones to blame for the chaos? Or perhaps, through them, we are avoiding facing our own culpability.
