About the Artist
Chantelle Trainor-Matties
Chantelle Trainor-Matties, located in British Columbia, Canada is a mixed media artist graduating [2020] with her Diploma in Visual Arts at the University of the Fraser Valley. She uses a variety of mediums, but specializes in graphic design and acrylic painting. Trainor-Matties and her husband Joshua Trainor-Matties (since 2012) currently have a ferret and a cat, Kēki and Choco respectively. Her main inspiration comes from her love for her fur kids. They have had ferrets since 2012, a business (group) of four ferrets, Momo, Niku, Pabu and Kēki. Three of their four ferrets have crossed the rainbow bridge since and it has been difficult to deal with and it has been like loosing three children. Her ferrets inspire her as a person and as an artist and she has focused a lot of her work around them and their cousins for many years, and it feels more than right to have them live on in her work. Her studio name derives from a combination of a play on the word “ferret” and her first name. Other favorite subjects are the animal kingdom (specifically the family Mustelidae or the weasel family), pop culture, oddities and the macabre, as well as North West Coast art deriving from her Indigenous heritage (Nisga’a and Metis).
Currently working as a freelance artist, Trainor-Matties works for herself and does design work for other businesses and projects. She was also one of the artists for Nations Creations until their closure in January 2020. Some of her biggest accomplishments were having her design chosen for the 2019 “Pink Shirt Day” hosted by Nations Creations, as well as designing the New Student Orientation Symbol for the University of the Fraser Valley in 2019. She has also had her Indigenous artwork sold on merchandise across Canada and in Seattle, WA.
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