HER STORY

ALEXIS MARIE CHUTE is a free-spirited and award-winning artist, author, photographer, filmmaker, art curator, public speaker, and bestselling author with a tendency to burst into song. She’s a mama bear to four children, but is more like a big kid herself. Often underestimated for her goofy and whimsical personality—she’s been described as “awkward but charming”—Alexis is a ground-breaking outside-the-box innovator, storyteller, and cultural connector.

Alexis has endured devastating loss and escaped a cult-experience, only to rise from the ashes as a resilient badass who embraces her (many) flaws and empowers others to joyfully do the same. Proud escape room junkie and underdog, Alexis writes the script for new ways of thinking and being in the world today.

Alexis has always believed there is more to life than what we can see in our daily grind. Schoolyard bullying forced her to understand who she is and what she stands for from a young age. Since then, she’s been on an almost four decade-long search for meaning.

Her adventures have taken her around the world, into temples and churches, between the covers of hundreds of books, in front of audiences as small as one and as large as four hundred, with experiments in as many creative materials as you can name. She is a wellspring of inspiration and energy.

Alexis Marie Chute invites you to live large on a spirit-level and infuse meaning into every area of your life. She encourages creative and mindful living. Join her on this amazing journey.

ARTIST STATEMENT

For decades I have been told I must choose: “Be a painter or a photographer or a writer.” Fortunately, I have not listened. I am a visual and literary artist, an author, documentary filmmaker, curator, and inspirational public speaker and teacher. I thrive in pushing the boundaries of traditional approaches to making art and living our best lives. Across my many creative roles, the overarching connection in my work is that of storytelling.

Narrative is crucial in my art; the idea of connecting the dots and finding the threads that bind everything together. I believe that even when there is no answer to a question, the search is transformative. In sharing stories through my work, I have been honored to connect with others, a process which invites them to be vulnerable themselves. I often invite individuals and groups into the art-making process through collaboration. Creativity is the language which facilitates all this, expressing the sometimes inexpressible qualities of the human experience.

Themes in my work include hope, transformation, connection, nature, healing, and resiliency. My approach begins with a concept to which I let the materials that move me become central. I paint, create fine art photographs, build wood sculpture and wall based sculptural art, write prose and poetry – and frequently combine these 2D and 3D materials, and literary art, in distinctive ways. Filmmaking also brings together my diverse experience and education in unique and culturally relevant ways.

PROFESSIONAL BIOGRAPHY

ALEXIS MARIE CHUTE is an award-winning artist, photographer, filmmaker, curator, and bestselling author.

ARTWORK

Alexis Marie Chute has 20-years experience as a professional internationally exhibiting artist. Her artwork includes bold, bright abstract paintings, conceptual mixed-media portraits, and video art. Her artwork is represented by the Art Gallery of Alberta.

In 2012—2013, Alexis was the Artist in Residence at Harcourt House Artist Run Centre in Edmonton, Alberta. She was named an “Emerging Canadian Photographer” by Photo Life Magazine and an Avenue Magazine “Top 40 Under 40.” In 2018, Alexis received a Horizon Award for distinguished graduates of the University of Alberta.

BOOKS

Alexis Marie Chute is the author of the multi award-winning memoir Expecting Sunshine: A Journey of Grief, Healing and Pregnancy After Loss . The memoir is accompanied by a documentary film, also called Expecting Sunshine, which screened around the world in 2018—2019.

Alexis is the author of The 8^th Island Trilogy, a young adult fantasy adventure series. The Amazon-bestselling trilogy includes Above the Star, Below the Moon, and Inside the Sun.

Her latest publication is called Prairie Spirits: Ghost Stories & Hauntings at the Red Brick School and Oppertshauser House in Stony Plain, Alberta. The non-fiction book officially launched Wild Skies Press and features historical storytelling and over 40 of Alexis’ signature artistic photographs.

FILMS

In addition to “Expecting Sunshine Documentary”—winner of Outstanding Screenplay and Outstanding Long-Form Documentary at FAVA FEST 2019—Alexis Marie Chute has produced many distinguished short films. “Creek Children” was awarded 2^nd place at the Gotta Minute Film Festival, 2021. Her mini-doc, “Of Love & Light,” was screened at The 48 Film Festival at the TIFF Bell Lightbox in Toronto, 2022.

ART CURATOR, ADVOCATE & EDUCATOR

Alexis Marie Chute is the Curator at the Multicultural Heritage Centre in Stony Plain, Alberta. She and her husband, Aaron Chute, founded InFocus Photo Exhibit & Awards in 2014, an annual celebration of Canadian-made photography. They also established Wild Skies Art Gallery where Alexis also curates, in 2020, located at the Renaissance Edmonton Airport Hotel. Alexis was named the recipient of The John Poole Award for Promotion of the Arts in 2015.

Alexis is a highly regarded inspirational speaker and educator. She has presented on business, art, photography, writing, filmmaking, bereavement, and the healing capacities of creativity around the world.

EDUCATION

Alexis Marie Chute received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Art and Design from the University of Alberta, Canada, and studied at Media Design school in Auckland, New Zealand. She graduated valedictorian with her Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Lesley University in Cambridge, MA, USA.

SPARE TIME

Alexis loves spending quality time with family and friends, conquering escape rooms, tasting new food and wine, playing games, and enjoying nature. She is an avid solo- and group-traveler, reality TV addict, passionate paddleboarder, and general adventure memory-maker. A proud bookaholic, she reads constantly in both fiction and non-fiction. She loves all genres. Alexis is not a winter person but lives in the frosty city of Edmonton with her husband and their three living children and puppy-sidekick Teddy.

MEDIA APPEARANCES

If you have a story idea, please reach out.

Contact: 780-499-4311 or  info@alexismariechute.com

Alexis Marie Chute can add to the discussion in the following areas:

• Creativity to heal and empower
• “The Healthy Grief Movement” (A phrase coined by Alexis)
• Creative writing – Crafting powerful and meaningful writing (memoir, fantasy, poetry, non-fiction, fiction)
• Eliminating writer’s block – ANY KIND OF BLOCK!
• Visual art – Being-an-outside the box thinker (painting, photography, sculpture, mixed media art)
• Filmmaking – documentary films and video editing
• Art Curation – The importance of art in contemporary culture and why
• Literacy – How to get people of all ages excited about reading
• Visual literacy – Becoming critical thinkers about what we see every day
• Joyful living – The power of Alexis’ “Who Controls Your Joy” Story
• The business of being an artist-writer-filmmaker-curator
• The importance of creativity in forming positive mental health
• Pregnancy loss and pregnancy after loss