WINNIPEG -- As the COVID-19 pandemic continues throughout the world, more people have been getting creative with their masks.
And now an Indigenous artist from Manitoba is getting national recognition for her creation.
Cynthia Boehm, who has been a beadwork artist for four years, created two masks, one of which will be showcased in an exhibition in Banff, Alta.
She said she started making the masks back in March when the pandemic first started after she found a Facebook page called Breathe. The page was created by two Metis artists, and they were asking for artists to design traditional masks.
"I decided I needed to keep busy so I designed two masks during the lockdown," said Boehm.
Of all the submissions made on the page, one of Boehm's masks was chosen for the 'Breathe Exhibition'.
Source: Jamie Dowsett/CTV News
She said the mask she made for the exhibition is called 'Optimism' and she never expected to get the recognition she has.
"The beading community is just amazing,” Boehm said. “When I made the masks, I was excited about it and I never dreamed they would be at national exhibitions."
The mask heading to Banff isn't the only piece of art that Boehm created that is getting major attention.
Source: Jamie Dowsett/CTV News
Her other mask, entitled 'Resilience', has been commissioned by the Glasgow Museums Resource Centre in Scotland.
"The word resilience came to my mind while I was making it and beading it, and I thought of my ancestors, our ancestors that faced and endured many pandemics prior. Resilience, that word just kept popping into my mind and I decided to name it that. That was my thought process throughout making the mask. It gave me hope."
She added this mask is extra special as it represents her Metis and Scottish heritage.
Boehm's great grandfather, Donald McLeod, came to Canada with the Hudson's Bay Company in the mid-1800s, and that is when he met her great grandmother Sally Neepin, who was Cree.
Cynthia Boehm's great grandparents. Source: Cynthia Boehm
Boehm said they got married and moved to Norway House and settled on the banks of Nelson River, which is where her family home is today.
"I am excited, honoured, humbled that my resilience mask is going to Scotland, his homeland," said Boehm in an email to CTV News, speaking about her grandfather.
The Breathe Exhibition in Banff runs from September 2020 to January 2021.
Boehm will be joined by another Manitoba artist, Brenda Davidson, who is from Thompson, who also has an entry in the exhibit.
