About Roxi
Vancouver born Artist Roxi (Sim) Hermsen was profoundly influenced by props and costumes at a young age through dancing at Grace MacDonald school of Dance, and performing on the Kitsilano Showboat and Queen Elizabeth Theatre. In her teens, she performed for the BC Lions Cheerleaders under Miss Grace.
Roxi studied Art and pottery at Prince of Wales Secondary, then Office and Business courses at Pitman Business College. She then continued on in Fine Arts at Langara College and continued her Fine Arts and Social Science studies at the University of Calgary where she obtained her teaching degree. Further studies in Counseling at UBC and University of Victoria had her study both Art and Dance therapy.
As a career, Roxi taught at the secondary level, Fine Arts, Drama, Video production (a career prep program she developed) Social Studies, Textiles and fabric arts as well as business education. She also taught extra-curricular dance to over 40 students and was involved in the yearbook, graduation décor and many other aspects of the school. She worked well with other teachers developing cross curricular studies, especially through her video courses.
Together with her husband, Roxi had a pottery studio for many years where she worked primarily in primitive pottery methods and also painted on Tony’s majolica pottery. Painting on pottery turned into painting on canvas when her family spent time in Grenada West Indies and Roxi took up painting. Her colourful work is influenced greatly by this experience where she went through over 200 ft. of canvas and a suitcase full of paint.
Grenada
In Grenada she joined and showed with the Grenada Arts Council and volunteered at Grenada Clayworks. Her work sold to collectors in Norway, France, Washington DC, Canada, the UK, Barbados and Grenada. After Hurricane Ivan, devastated the island in 2004, Roxi donated several paintings that helped in the recovery there. She also spearheaded “Seeds of Hope” that saw over a ton of seeds and relief supplies get to the village they lived in and be distributed across the island.
Roxi has always been very community minded and was involved in helping to create The Salmon Arm Art Gallery, the Salmon Arm Roots and Blues Festival, The Okanagan Artisan’s Guild, The Enderby Wild Wallflower Community Mural Project, the Enderby and District Arts Council and, together with her husband and parents, The Okanagan Science Centre.
Current Creative Journeys
Now retired, Roxi has joined forces with Rebecca Shepherd creating RnR Murals and Deva Dialogue workshops. The duo had a show in Kelowna together and went to Grenada to paint murals and a playground, as well as personal work. Roxi and Rebecca painted 4 murals at Hanoi 36 a restaurant in Salmon Arm. They offer their workshops through arts councils and create workshops to increase creativity in the workplace.
Roxi’s Pearls of Wisdom Tarot deck, a seven year healing art project, was published in 2007 and 2008. The multi-cultural nature of the deck has made it a favourite among collectors from Indonesia to Taiwan, to Brazil, the UK, Australia, the Netherlands, Finland, Trinidad, The US, Canada and even to Uzbekistan. Now out of print, Roxi has self published the deck after photographing the originals at high resolution, borderless in two sizes, see store. Roxi has written a manuscript/workbook/journal for the Major Arcana through Global Spiritual Studies. Roxi has an App Sacred Feminine Oracle published by Indiegoes Apps, it is also self published as a deck in two sizes.
How to get a Roxi Artwork Piece
Art work, available for sale, is in the store. Roxi also accepts private commissions and custom design work in acrylic paint, coloured pencil.
Roxi’s art is in collections in Norway, The UK, France, Barbados, Grenada, The USA and Canada. The Pearls of Wisdom Major Arcana was shown at the Armstrong Public Art Gallery Oct. 2011. The Pearls of Wisdom Tarot was published in 2007, second edition 2008, third edition 2015. The deck is a favourite of collections and is in collections around the world.
Commissions
You can commission Roxi to create paintings of any size, you can supply the images, as in portraits or specific landscape image, with permission to use the photo. Or you can just commission a particular size for a space you want and we can work together to determine the imagery. Contact for prices and sizes.