Audrey Dear Hesson (born 1929 in

Halifax, Nova Scotia Halifax is the capital and most populous municipality of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Nova Scotia, and the most populous municipality in Atlantic Canada. As of 2024, it is estimated that the population of the H ...

) is a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

practical

craft A craft or trade is a pastime or an occupation that requires particular skills and knowledge of skilled work. In a historical sense, particularly the Middle Ages and earlier, the term is usually applied to people occupied in small scale pr ...

artist, mainly working with

pottery Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other raw materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. The place where such wares are made by a ''potter'' is al ...

sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

jewelry Jewellery (or jewelry in American English) consists of decorative items worn for personal adornment such as brooches, ring (jewellery), rings, necklaces, earrings, pendants, bracelets, and cufflinks. Jewellery may be attached to the body or the ...

and

textile Textile is an Hyponymy and hypernymy, umbrella term that includes various Fiber, fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, Staple (textiles)#Filament fiber, filaments, Thread (yarn), threads, and different types of #Fabric, fabric. ...

. She is a member of the Canadian Women Artists History Initiative and was the first

black Canadian Black Canadians () are Canadians of full or partial Afro-Caribbean or sub-Saharan African descent. Black Canadian settlement and immigration patterns can be categorized into two distinct groups. The majority of Black Canadians are descendants ...

to graduate from the

Nova Scotia College of Art NSCAD University, also known as the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (NSCAD), is a public art university in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The university is a co-educational institution that offers bachelor's and master's degrees. The unive ...

. She is the only living artist in the exhibition curated by David Woods called ''Discovery: African Nova Scotian Art Pioneers''.

Early life

Hesson was born and grew up in Halifax's north end. In grade nine, she was encouraged to pursue art by her art teacher, the

Bedford Bedford is a market town in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 Census, the population was 106,940. Bedford is the county town of Bedfordshire and seat of the Borough of Bedford local government district. Bedford was founded at a ford (crossin ...

artist Elizabeth Tolson, who submitted her early art work for the high school art classes at the Nova Scotia College of Art.

Studies

After graduating from Queen Elizabeth High School, she studied at Nova Scotia College of Art and Design from 1947 to 1951. Hesson majored in crafts and was part of the first graduating class in the college's new art education program, which prepared her to be a professional artist. In 1951, she was the first black graduate of the Nova Scotia College Art and Design.

Later life

In 1957, Hesson and her husband (who was in the navy) planned to have their first child. She decided to put her art career on hold to be a housewife. In 1988, her art was rediscovered by the curator David Woods.

Work

Hesson worked in jewellery,

metalwork Metalworking is the process of shaping and reshaping metals in order to create useful objects, parts, assemblies, and large scale structures. As a term, it covers a wide and diverse range of processes, skills, and tools for producing objects on e ...

woodcarving Wood carving (or woodcarving) is a form of woodworking by means of a cutting tool (knife) in one hand or a chisel by two hands or with one hand on a chisel and one hand on a mallet, resulting in a wooden figure or figurine, or in the sculptural ...

and pottery. When she was a student in college, she made her first art work, commissioned to make a grey

Moroccan leather Morocco leather (also known as Levant, the French Maroquin, Turkey, or German Saffian from Safi, a Moroccan town famous for leather) is a vegetable-tanned leather known for its softness, pliability, and ability to take color. It has been widely ...

case to be presented to Princess Elizabeth and the

Duke of Edinburgh Duke of Edinburgh, named after the capital city of Scotland, Edinburgh, is a substantive title that has been created four times since 1726 for members of the British royal family. It does not include any territorial landholdings and does not pr ...

upon their visit to HMCS ''Ontario''. Hesson mainly worked with jewellery and textile, but more focused on leather crafting and sculpture. Her work represents a wide array of craft-based works.

''African Art Pioneers''

The

Evergreen House Evergreen Museum & Library is a historic house museum and research library in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. It is located between the campuses of the Notre Dame of Maryland University and Loyola University Maryland. It is operated by Johns ...

museum in Dartmouth hosted an exhibit called ''African Maritime Art Pioneers'', curated by David Woods. Hesson was one of the artists highlighted in the exhibit.Gerges, Merray. Major Feature. ''beckaviau'' Woods said that "Hesson's works has been exhibited in the past, but never with the other trailblazers of African Maritime arts".

Legacy

Hesson's works were exhibited along with other notable African-Maritime artists such as

Edward Mitchell Bannister Edward Mitchell Bannister (November 2, 1828January 9, 1901) was a Canadian–American oil painter of the American Barbizon school. Born in colonial New Brunswick, he spent his adult life in New England in the United States. There, along with h ...

and Edith MacDonald-Brown.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dear Hesson, Audrey 1929 births Living people Artists from Halifax, Nova Scotia Black Nova Scotians NSCAD University alumni Black Canadian women 20th-century Canadian women artists