Visual Arts & Photography

Nikki Braun is a self-taught abstract artist with a background in graphic design, based just outside Winnipeg, Manitoba. After years working in creative industries, she returned to painting over a decade ago—and found freedom as an abstract artist.

Her layered acrylics, pen, and pencil pieces explore contrast, movement, and emotion. Her evolving style speaks to those drawn to raw emotion and fearless experimentation, inviting viewers into a world of vivid contrasts and layered meaning.

She has exhibited across Canada and shares her evolving process and finished work with a global audience online.

Grant is a Canadian visual artist based in Treaty 1, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada and was short-listed for the Manitoba Society of Artists 2024 Open Juried Competition and Exhibition.  “My main artistic expression is painting.  However, I’ve done print making, sketching, photography, wood carving, and furniture making.

“I have always viewed the world around me in pictures, images, colours, shapes, sizes, patterns and ideas.  My love of nature and the outdoors led to a strong interest in the Canadian art movement pioneered by Tom Thomson, Emily Carr and the Group of Seven artists.  Viewing the Tom Thomson sketches and Group of Seven paintings at the National Gallery has had a significant influence on me.  In my childhood, living beside renowned artist Ivan Eyre, provided an up close glimpse into the life of an artist.  I am grateful to my art teachers for their instruction, direction and encouragement.  Methods and techniques from those classes are evident in the creative process of my art making today.”

For more than 30 years, I’ve been both an artist and an art teacher, passionately bringing creativity to life in our community. My focus has always been on making art accessible and enjoyable for everyone—from children in after-school programs, Seniors in local recreation centers, and adult art classes at Killarney Heritage Home for the Arts, United Arts Center Pilot Mound, and several other in Winnipeg. My art is deeply inspired by the natural beauty of southern Manitoba, and I love working in oil, acrylic, and watercolor. Over the years, I’ve had the privilege of teaching in various art galleries and studios across southern Manitoba, and it’s been an incredible journey of sharing the joy of art with those around me.

S.M. (Samantha Mary) Beiko is an award-winning author of young adult fantasy, and the artist and writer of the graphic novel series KRAMPUS IS MY BOYFRIEND! She has worked in the book publishing industry as an editor and graphic designer since 2010, both freelance as well as for established publishing houses. She has won the Aurora Award for Best Artist multiple times, notably for her covers for Laksa Media.

Beiko's novels have been published by ECW Press in Toronto since 2013. Her first novel, THE LAKE AND THE LIBRARY, was nominated for the Manitoba Book Award that year, while SCION OF THE FOX won the Copper Cylinder Award for science fiction in 2018. She was the co-editor on the original comics anthology GOTHIC TALES OF HAUNTED LOVE (Bedside Press), and the sole editor on its follow up, GOTHIC TALES OF HAUNTED FUTURES. Her current series, The Brindlewatch Quintet, are capsule stories featuring queer characters and cozy monster romance. Her short fiction has been published in the following anthologies: GUSH, THAT WITCH WHISPERS, PARALLEL PRAIRIES, plus a short comic in DIRE BEASTS.

Beiko is also the sole creator (artist and writer) of KRAMPUS IS MY BOYFRIEND!, a slice of life teen romantic comedy which won the 2020 Aurora Award for Best Graphic Novel, and was nominated for the Joe Shuster Award for Best Webcomic that year. It is ongoing and self-published.

Beiko's freelance editorial work covers all aspects of developmental editing for prose fiction. She specializes in science fiction, fantasy, and horror, and also edits and art directs for comics and graphic novels at all stages (from pitch to script to layouts and finals). She has a studio in downtown Winnipeg's Exchange District, and is the Artistic Director for Prairie Comics Festival.

𝘔𝘺 𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦,
𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘮𝘱𝘵𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘳𝘦-𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘪𝘵,
𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘰 𝘳𝘦-𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘪𝘵.

Gillian Crawford is a self-described creative and grief walker of Métis and settler ancestry, living on Treaty One Territory. She is the creator of The Connection Desk, a small participatory public art installation in Winnipeg’s North End that explores grief and invites meaningful engagement.

Her eclectic and ever-evolving practice spans multiple mediums including poetry, photography, and installation. Her work is deeply rooted in the landscapes of home, exploring identity and uncovering the sacred in everyday life. Since the death of her father in 2024, Crawford has been transmuting a grief larger than her physical form into art, connection, and community—meeting herself anew along the way and discovering what each evolving self has to offer the world.