Starlight Sojourn Studios: Evening Escapades An Exhibition by Darcy Tara McDiarmid and Chantal Rousseau

Evening Escapades is the debut exhibition by Starlight Sojourn Studios, a collaborative animation studio by artists Darcy Tara McDiarmid and Chantal Rousseau. In the Gallery, four new and recent films set the scene for strange and familiar settings of animals majestically traversing dreamlike landscapes: Starlight Sojourn (2023), Evening Escapades (2024), River Revelations (2024), and Midnight Migrations: Wëdzey Tąy (Caribou Trails) (2025) share stories inspired by timeless Indigenous knowledge, ecological stewardship, and traditional practices, with imagery bridging our world and the spirit world. For the first time, McDiarmid’s paintings on birch panel accompany these moving images. As vivid portraits of diverse wildlife, these pieces shed new light on the duo’s deeply personal, hands-on filmmaking process.

Starlight Sojourn Studios is an experimental platform for collaborative visual art, animation, and film. Their short films have screened at film festivals across the country and internationally, including the ImagineNATIVE Film and Media Arts Festival (Toronto, Ontario), the Dawson City International Short Film Festival (Dawson City, Yukon) and Kasseler Dokfest (Kassel, Germany). Based in on Tr’ondëk Hwëtch’in Territories in Dawson City, Yukon, Canada, this is their first exhibition in Northern Ontario.

Artist Biographies:

Starlight Sojourn Studios is a collaboration by artists Darcy Tara McDiarmid and Chantal Rousseau, based in Dawson City, Yukon, on Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in territory.

Darcy Tara McDiarmid is a Han and Northern Tutchone artist from the crow clan. Darcy draws inspiration from nature, trying to capture the pristine beauty of our natural world. She believes in honouring her ancestors by devoting her art to heritage, culture, and conservation.  She is a carver, painter, illustrator, graphic recorder, filmmaker and storyteller – with a gift of weaving dreams and realms of the unconscious into her work.

Chantal Rousseau is a queer settler artist from French Canadian and Ukrainian ancestry. Her work uses embodied experience and research to learn about specific ecosystems. She is curious about points of connection between humans and non-humans, species diversity, conservation initiatives, and deepening a personal relationship to the natural world. She is a painter, animator, and sound and installation artist.

starlightsojournstudio.com

@starlight.sojourn.studio (Collab)

@throughnaturesrealm (Darcy Tara McDairmid)

@chantalroussseau.art (Chantal Rousseau)

Image: Still from Evening Escapades, animation, 4 minutes, 2024. Courtesy of the artists.