Northwestel Announces Directory Cover Art Winner for NWT

Northwestel selected Yellowknife artist Nick MacIntosh’s painting “Connecting the North” to adorn the cover of the 2012-2013 telephone directory for the Northwest Territories.  The acrylic painting portrays a family relaxing in their living room on a sunny winter day.

“I wanted to portray a typical northern family dealing with the cabin fever that we all experience during the long winters of the north”, said MacIntosh. “Sometimes during the dark winter months, shut up within our homes and kept at bay by forty below temperatures, the only view we have is of our own four walls”.

MacIntosh’s painting features a mother working at a computer, while two children relax on the floor watching cartoons and a third chats on the telephone as he looks out the window.

“Isolated by great distances as a result of living up north, life in the Northwest Territories is made bearable by the very services provided by Northwestel such as: telephone, cable and internet”, said the artist. “We as northerners are closer to the rest of Canada and the world because of these services and through bridging the gaps, we have become connected.”

Nick MacIntosh was born in Kingston, Ontario in 1975. His family moved to the North when he was three, eventually settling in Yellowknife, NT. He studied art at Alberta College of Art & Design in Calgary, earning his Bachelor of Fine Art degree in 1999.  The artist travelled to Japan after graduation where he spent six years teaching English as a second language. In 2008, he returned home to Yellowknife with his own family and now works as a Correctional Officer at the North Slave Correctional Centre.  MacIntosh continues to make art hoping to become a professional artist here in the North. 

“Northwestel is committed to improving the quality of life in the North” said Paul Flaherty, President and Chief Executive Officer at Northwestel.  “We live here, we work here, our children go to school here; that is why we feel it is important to support our communities. We are pleased to showcase the work of another talented artist from Northwest Territories on the telephone directory this year. We wish him great success in the future.”

Each year, Northwestel invites artists from across the North to create a work of art to be featured on the covers of the telephone directories in NWT, Nunavut and Northern British Columbia/Yukon. The winning submissions become part of the Northwestel permanent art collection and each artist receives $2,000. Complete information about the competition is in “The Community and Directory Cover Art” section of the Northwestel website at www.nwtel.ca.

About Northwestel:

Northwestel Inc. services the largest operating area of any telecommunications company in the western hemisphere over the most remote and rugged terrain in Canada.  It provides a complete range of voice, video and data solutions to residential and business customers in the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Yukon, northern British Columbia and High Level, Alberta.