Chantelle Trainor-Matties is such a recent alumna of UFV that the ink is barely dry on her diploma, but she’s already making a name for herself in the world of art. To add to her accomplishments, Chantelle was recently chosen as the 2021 winner of the UFV Alumni commemorative wine label competition.

Chantelle’s two designs (one for red wine and one for white) reflect her love of animals and her Indigenous heritage.

Chantelle is an artist with Nisga’a and Metis heritage who graduated in 2020 with her Visual Arts diploma from the School of Creative Arts at UFV. She specializes in illustration, graphic design, and painting.

She works for herself and does freelance work for private and commercial clientele. Her work ranges from bold formline to charming cartoons to painterly realism. Her favorite subjects are flora and fauna (particularly the weasel family), pop culture, the macabre, as well as contemporary North West Coast art deriving from her Indigenous heritage.

“I’ve been practising contemporary Indigenous North West Coast artwork since 2018 and gradually developing a recognizable style. I’m an illustrator, painter, and graphic designer who practices an array of styles from illustrated cartoons to realism and when it comes to my Indigenous work I blend my love for heavy bold stylized graphics with formline.”

She is delighted to have been chosen as the 2021 commemorative wine label artist.

“I’m so excited, humbled and grateful about this,” she notes. “I feel very blessed to be where I am at in my career so early on. I’ve had many amazing opportunities and it means so much to be able to share my work with other people. I jump at any design opportunity I can.”

In 2019, she designed a symbol for the UFV New Student Orientation (Tl’etl’axel) based on an image of an Oregon Spotted Frog.

“It felt so fitting to design two new labels with animal-inspired illustrations that complement that design.”

Chantelle’s work is currently featured in the 2021 Fraser Valley Biennial at the Reach Gallery Museum in Abbotsford. Additionally, she partnered with Leading Edge Promo for a 2021 Indigenous Pink Shirt Day design (see indigenouspinkshirt.com). Follow her on social media at @frettchanstudios and her website is frettchanstudios.ca

Here are Chantelle’s descriptions of her two designs:

Hummingbird: My grandmother loved to fill the hummingbird feeders while watching the little rainbows peek in the window waiting for their nectar and sharing that joy with my mother.

When grandma was sick in the hospital, she asked my mom to feed them.

After her passing my mother saw many hummingbirds around her home; she had never seen them up close that like that.

She continues to feed the hummingbirds, smiling as they flutter by reminding her of her own mother. Indigenous teachings say the hummingbird symbolizes love, beauty, and joy.

Beaver: The hard-working beaver is one of the official symbols of Canada. These little carpenters and engineers work as a team to take care of their own as well as the environment, building dams to house their families and maintain river systems.

Indigenous teachings say that the beaver also symbolizes strength, creativity, and harmony.