Jordanna Kuefler is from Edmonton and works as a Registered Nurse at the University of Alberta Hospital.

She has been a nurse for 16 years and started painting when her daughter was young because her family couldn’t afford to buy artwork.

“I used to buy canvases on sale at home décor stores and repaint them with my daughter’s Crayola paints.

Eventually, I began to create my own paintings on white-washed canvases and found out how much I enjoyed the process of creating something unique,” said Jordanna. “I began painting for friends’ birthdays and weddings as gifts, and one day someone asked to buy one and I was blown away! As of today, I’ve sold well over 100 paintings.”

Jordanna has spent her entire nursing career at the University of Alberta Hospital and absolutely loves working there with her colleagues and caring for her patients.

She has also experienced the hospital from the other side as a patient, when she donated part of her liver to a colleague and friend who needed a liver transplant.

When she heard about the opportunity to get involved with the University Hospital Foundation’s Festival of Trees she jumped at the chance.

“Getting involved in the festival was important to me because I want to be able to give back to the hospital in some form. I am grateful for the opportunity.”

Her favorite thing about the Festival of Trees is the amazing support the event gives to the hospital.

“I have seen the incredible difference it has made in medical and technological advances.”

The paintings Jordanna created for the 2021 Festival of Trees are inspired by the intense color palettes of this year’s theme. Both paintings embody her feelings of joy in different environments and moments of life.

“I feel as though these last couple of years have given us many challenges emotionally, and embracing our feelings of joy is even more important now! Whether it is a more calming sense of joy, or an excitable overwhelming sense of joy, both should be celebrated. I have tried to capture these feelings in my paintings for the Festival.”