Gail Noonan  

A childhood spent in rural Nova Scotia prompted the decision to live the next phase of her life in as different an environment as possible. Winnipeg, a city on the prairies was the polar opposite of a small east coast village. Polar in more ways than one but the city was culturally alive and the University of Manitoba had a vibrant art school. After sampling most of the disciplines Noonan eventually focused on printmaking and continued to make etchings and exhibit in Winnipeg for another seven years after finishing her studies.

Noonan continued her slow westward migration with a move to Vancouver. A change of location prompted a change of media so she returned to art school to study film animation for two years at Emily Carr College of Art and Design. She thinks of it as more of a lateral transfer since her prints always had a strong sense of story and implied movement. Her graduating film, Play Ball!, won a Golden Sheaf Award at the Yorkton Film Festival in Saskatchewan which encouraged her to continue to make her own films. Noonan’s last Westward Ho! was a move to Mayne Island, part of the Southern Gulf archipelago off the coast of Vancouver. Strangely enough the locale is similar to the small coastal village where she grew up on the opposite side of the country. (8/14)