Creating a Legacy of Canada's West Through Storytelling and Fine Art

Canadian artist Alexandra Verboom Fritz is collecting stories from ranchers and people like you working in the cattle industry across Western Canada.

Using your stories Verboom Fritz will create and show a collection of oil paintings with goal of accomplishing 3 things…

To bring awareness to the lifestyle of ranchers and the trade of the working cowboy/cowgirl alive today in Western Canada
To honor the men and women who are doing their part to keep the traditional west alive today
To document modern western life and create a legacy for the generations to come

Project Details

Step 1: Raise your hand if you’re interested (it’s free to participate!) by contacting Alexandra at averboompainting.com

Step 2: Share your story in a 10-15 minute video chat or phone call. There are 3 suggested prompts for what stories to share. You can share a story for each prompt, all three, or share something else.

Prompt #1 Something Funny: Share a time that makes you chuckle to look back on.
Prompt #2 Something Challenging: Share a time where you got into a wreck or where you were pushed to your limits
Prompt #3 Heritage & Tradition: How are you honoring the heritage and traditions of ranching and western life in your current practices?

Step 3: (Optional) Share a photo of yourself or an animal featured in your story. The photo(s) submitted can be just a head shot, you on horseback, or anything else, and it does not need to depict the story you shared specifically.

For copyright reasons you will be asked to provide the source of the photo submitted and possibly the contact information of the photographer.

It's okay if you do not want to submit a photo. Alexandra may still use your story as inspiration and combine it with another reference image.

Step 4: Painting. I’ll create a painting inspired by your story, possibly using the photo you’ve submitted.

Step 5: Show & Sale. Once the collection is complete I’ll share the completed series and the corresponding stories in a solo show open to the public. If a painting is inspired by your story you’ll have first dibs on purchasing the original! But there is no purchase commitment required to participate. (This could be a great way to have a custom painting done without the commitment of a commission!)