“I’m hoping people have some sense of the pain they’ve been through, their resilience, and build a little empathy, compassion and understanding.”
At a Holocaust memorial service in 2016, Saskatoon artist Carol Wylie listened as a survivor described his experience in a Nazi death camp, realizing those firsthand voices would soon be gone.
The moment sparked what would become an ambitious project: large-scale painted portraits of survivors. Soon after, a series of experiences convinced her Holocaust survivors should not stand alone on her canvas.
At a community Passover service, she heard a rabbi remind his congregation to remember the struggles of Indigenous neighbours. Wylie learned that residential schools in Canada had been described as “the final solution,” decades before the Holoca