About Drunken Paw
Drunken Paw is a collaborative drawing practice comprised of artists Mark Dicey, Leslie Sweder, and Janet Turner. Each artist maintains an individual practice while participating in an ongoing shared process that has developed since 2009.
Our practice takes shape through sustained collaboration across difference. We work from distinct positions—shaped by gender, sexuality, physical ability, neurodivergence, and differing philosophies of practice—while maintaining an ongoing shared practice.
The group works within environments selected for their atmosphere—social, spatial, and sensory. These contexts shape the conditions of the work, informing tempo, attention, and the unfolding of each drawing session. Rather than depicting specific scenes, the drawings emerge through sustained engagement with the surrounding environment and with one another.
OUR PROCESS
Drunken Paw’s process is structured through rotation and response. Three drawings are developed simultaneously and circulate between the artists. Each artist works in turn, responding directly to what is already present on the page.
This iterative exchange creates a layered conversation in which marks are continually extended, interrupted, and reinterpreted. The process is cumulative rather than planned, with no single author determining the outcome. Over time, a shared visual language emerges through repetition, divergence, and return.
Extended periods of working together—such as during residencies—allow this process to deepen. Longer sessions support sustained attention and the development of larger-scale works, which often unfold over months. These conditions enable the drawings to accumulate density and complexity, reflecting both the duration of the collaboration and the environments in which they are made.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
April – June 2012 | The Ants Go Marching
Epcor Centre for the Performing Arts, Calgary, AB
February, 2012 | Love Triangle: Evil as All Bejeesus
Hot Wax Records Calgary, Alberta
August 2011 | egg drop soup
Museum of Ephemera, Nakusp, BC
Summer 2011 | The Leavening
Drunken Paw at Sidewalk Citizen Bakery, a six week exhibition and performance Sidewalk Citizen Bakery, Calgary, Alberta
January – February 2011 | Drunken Paw’s Interpretation of Houdini’s Chinese Water Torture Trick
a six week exhibition and performance Sugar Cube Gallery, Calgary, Alberta
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
April 2022 | Atlas Project Release
Esker Foundation, Calgary AB
October/November 2021 | New Normal
Ruberto Ostberg Gallery, Calgary AB
July/August 2019 | Cache
curated by Kevin Kanashiro. Group exhibition at Herringer Kiss Gallery, Calgary AB
November/December 2014 | Carte Blanche
A Postcare Exhibition DNA Artspace, London ON
December 2012 | Black Tie One On
exhibition & fundraiser; Stride Gallery, Calgary, Alberta
November 2011 | Ring a Ding Dong Dandy
a three month installation and one night exhibition | BJ’s Gym, Calgary, Alberta
July – August 2011 | Bring the Noise
Jarvis Hall Fine Art, Calgary, Alberta
September 2010 | Passages: A Chris J. Melnychuk Retrospective Curated by Kari McQueen
Untitled Art Gallery, Calgary, Alberta
August 2010 | Summer’s Edge II
The Edge Gallery, Canmore, Alberta
June 13, 2010 | Gender Blender
Sugar Shack Art Salon, Calgary, Alberta
December 6, 2009 | Paper Jam
Sugar Shack Art Salon, Calgary, Alberta
September 30 – October 3, 2009 | SPAWN
Arrata Opera Centre, Calgary Alberta
ARTIST TALKS
April 22 2022 | The Calgary Atlas Project + Esker Foundation present:
Celebrating Calgary – Art Underground, Calgary Goes to the Movies & Architecture in 40 Buildings
March 24, 2022 | Nickel at Noon:
James Ellis – The Atlas Project: Calgary’s Art Underground with Diana Sherlock and Drunken Paw Nickel Galleries, Calgary AB
SPECIAL PROJECTS
2021 | Calgary Institute for the Humanities Atlas Project:
Calgary’s Underground Art Scene: Place | Time | Art | A Guide
Drunken Paw was invited to produce a drawing that was reproduced for this art map project. Three large scale drawings were made and one was chosen for reproduction. DETAILS
2012 | The New Gallery Fundraising print portfolio
December 2012 Drunken Paw drawing made for The New Gallery Fundraising print portfolio:
One of ten chosen artists specially commissioned for the inaugural run of prints on John Snow’s refurbished press. John Snow House, Calgary – artists in the portfolio are: drunken paw, David Garneau, Heather Huston, Kim Huynh, Don Mabie, Mirielle Perron, Scott Rogers, Ryan Statz, Tim Westbury and Andrea Williamson.
John Snow was a master printer and an influential member and supporter of Calgary’s arts community from the 1950’s onwards.
SITE SPECIFIC DRAWING RESIDENCIES
2016 | Simmon’s Building, Calgary AB Sponsored by Sidewalk Citizen Bakery
2015 | The Bourbon Room, Calgary AB Sponsored by Kevin Kanashiro
2011 | Museum of Ephemera, Nakusp, BC Sponsored by the AFA
2011 | BJ’s Gym, Calgary, AB
2011 | Sugar Cube Gallery, Calgary, AB
FUNDING: GRANTS AND AWARDS
- 2022 Canada Council for the Arts – Research and Creation Grant
- 2011 Alberta Foundation for the Arts Project Grant
COLLECTIONS
- Alberta Foundation for the Arts
- Drunken Paw is represented in numerous private collections throughout North America
ONLINE PUBLICATIONS
- Tousley, Nancy, ‘Calgary Report: An Artist-Run Alberta’, Canadian Art, March 2011
- www.canadianart.ca/online/features/2011/03/03/calgary_report
PRESS – Online and print
- Drunken Paw Love Triangle: Evil as All Bejeesus, February 2012 catalogue that accompanied the exhibition of the same name at Hot Wax Records, Calgary. Writing by Diana Sherlock drunken paw: drawing in public
- Paradis Claire, Drunken Paw in Nakusp, Arrow Lakes News, BC, December, 2011
- Tousley, Nancy, ‘Calgary Report: An Artist-Run Alberta’, Canadian Art, March 2011 www.canadianart.ca/online/features/2011/03/03/calgary_report
FILM
- Sidewalk Citizen (in production) | Feature length documentary by Michal Lavi (supported by the Canada Council & the AFA)