A teacher once told Rita McKeough not to expect fame or fortune if she was to pursue art past high school.

鈥楯ust do it 鈥榗uz you love it,鈥� the teacher told the Grade 11 student.

It was sound advice. Over the years, McKeough evolved into an award-winning artist, exhibiting throughout Canada and parts of the U.S. In 2009, she received the Governor General鈥檚 Award in Visual and Media Arts.

McKeough is an inter-disciplinary artist, and a musician, having drummed with several bands since the late-70s. She is the artist-in-residence for the Comox Valley Art Gallery鈥檚 2017 summer programming. Her exhibition, Veins, opens Thursday, July 13 at 7 p.m.

Veins is a complex installation depicting lands with pipelines that run like veins throughout the landscape, which contains human and non-human life 鈥� a paradox between the natural and human worlds.

鈥淓verybody is torn between it being a positive thing and a negative thing,鈥� said McKeough, a Calgary resident. 鈥淚 like that idea of going from here to there, and it鈥檚 desire to move forward through the landscape to get places.鈥�

The exhibit shows a train pulling an oil tanker along a road. At the sides are oil pumpers, black sandbags, giant leaves and snakes. On the walls are projections of a leaf with owl eyes, an elk with its tongue sticking out, and other 鈥減issed off鈥� hybrid plant/animal creations.

The giant, undulating snakes are 鈥渢he pipeline in my mind,鈥� McKeough said. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e snaking across the landscape, and they鈥檙e very unnerving. And I have the train undulating in a similar way. Everything is linear.鈥�

There is a musical element to the exhibit. A motorized stick beats a drum, creating a rhythmic, almost chanting, soundtrack where McKeough says, 鈥楽low, slow, leaking.鈥�

鈥淭here鈥檚 thousands of holes in the ground. If you think of how porous the earth is, and if there is a leak, all of those holes are just receiving that oil.鈥�

Visitors will walk down the road, from where they can see the pipeline on the landscape. They are asked to remove shoes before stepping into the exhibit.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a different kind of respect,鈥� McKeough said.

She has also developed two new installations. Listen will be installed in the window at CVAG to support and extend Veins, while Cul-de-sac will be displayed in the George Sawchuk Room. The latter shows a clearcut and houses under construction.

鈥淚 learned as a young artist that if things concern you, your voice is important. Everybody鈥檚 voice is important. You can鈥檛 sit back and be apathetic,鈥� McKeough said. 鈥淢y way to express myself is not to convince people about my way of thinking, it鈥檚 about sharing a moment of thinking about these things. It鈥檚 more about experiencing this from a different perspective.鈥�

McKeough will be giving an artist鈥檚 talk at the July 13 opening of Veins.

The North Island College fine arts department and the McLoughlin Gardens Society is supporting CVAG鈥檚 summer creative residency intensive program.