Tofino Artist Susanne Hare

Susanne Hare was born in Guelph, Ontario in 1945. She has created art for most of her life, making jewelry, hangings, designing and painting in her teens. She moved to Vancouver in the early 70’s and opened two galleries for art and metalwork in Gastown; “Ironmongers” and “Metalmorphosis”.

After several years, she moved to Long Beach on Vancouver Island. Her art was shown in group shows at the original Wickaninnish Inn as well as other events and was displayed and for sale in local galleries.

Living on a remote island off the west coast of Canada for over 40 years, she has produced metal hangings, paintings, jewelry, cards, posters and other artwork in her home and studio there. She has shown and sold her art in galleries in Vancouver and on the West Coast, opened an artist’s co-op and maintained a gallery-museum in Tofino to show and sell her own work as well as that of local First Nations artists. She had a successful show of her paintings and metalwork at the Wickaninnish Inn in 1999, where she was commissioned to do a large copper piece for the central lounge overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Dedicated to the wild Pacific salmon, it is a piece that represents the movement of the ocean, water, fish, kelp and other marine life in a lightly abstract form.

Susanne has blended her art and her life as a mother of 4 with her love of the wilderness and wildlife of the coastal lands and waters. She was the co-chair of the Canadian Environmental Network for 2 years.

She lives surrounded by deer, eagles, ravens, raccoons, osprey, whales, seals, sea lions and a myriad of other life on an island covered in old-growth forests, layered in spiritual ancestry & culture of the local First Nations of the Nuu Chah Nulth Peoples.