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Authority record
Wyers, Jan
Wyers, Jan
Person · 1888-1973

Jan Gerrit was the second son of farmer, Harmen Otto Wijers and Johanna Kets, he was born on July 20, 1888 at Emmer, a community within the Municipality of Steenderen, 16 kilometers northeast of Arnhem, in the Netherlands.

At the age of 12 Jan had to quit school to work on the family farm. In 1913, Jan and three friends left home for the United States. Working through North and South Dakota threshing on various farms, he got the idea to rent a farm but discovered that would be too expensive. Wyers came to Canada with a thousand other immigrants as the Canadian government was actively promoting settling western Canada.

He acquired 1/4 section of land near Windthorst in 1916. During the 1930’s Wyers became the area bootlegger and “did time” in the Correctional Centre in Regina for defaulting on a $200.00 fine for being in violation of the liquor act. Wyers was an inventor of sorts, - on March 11 Wyers filed an application for a patent on an animal trap “particularly adapted to catching gophers and other rodents” when there was a bounty of one-half cent for each gopher tail.

Jan started painting while convalescing after surgery on a ruptured appendix in 1937/38, in the winters he would paint and in the summer he would farm – until 1960, when he quite farming at the age of 72.

In 1969 Windthorst’s new library named a portion of the building the Jan Wyers Arts Centre and in October 1970 Jan Wyers moved to the Willowdale Lodge in Kipling and continued to paint in watercolor despite being crippled from arthritis, in 1973 he moved to a nursing home in Regina where he died on July 4, 1973.
Xhignesse, Louis
Person · 1926-2010

Louis Xhignesse, was born on April 2, 1926, he worked as a volunteer intelligence agent in occupied Belgium for the Belgian High Command in exile during the Second World War and came to the United States around 1951. From 1951 to 1955 Xhignesse studied aeronautical engineering and aeronautical maintenance and then completed a Bachelor of Science in mathematical-engineering at the University of Illinois, Urbana. He began graduate work in engineering psychology but became interested in the Communications program at the University of Illinois' Institute of Communications. In 1961, he began his doctorate in the study of communications and engineering psychology and by 1963 had completed his course work and examinations. In 1963, Xhignesse started work at the University of Saskatchewan, Regina Campus as a Special Lecturer, Assistant and then Associate Professor of Social Studies until he retired in 1987.

In 1963, Xhignesse came to the University of Regina, following Dallas Smythe, under whom he had studied at the University of Illinois. He continued work on his thesis but has never completed it. From 1963 to 1987, Xhignesse taught, primarily, for the Department of Social Studies, as well as for the Canadian Plains Studies Program, Engineering, Psychology, and Religious Studies. Many of Xhignesse's classes were interdisciplinary in nature, and usually fell outside the core of required classes. In Social Studies he lectured on such topics as: the Symbolic Basis of Behavior, Communication and Social Reality, Man and Time, Time and Change, Propaganda, and Ecological Perspectives. Xhignesse worked on developing an undergraduate Human Information and Ecology Program, and a Social Studies (Human Ecology) Laboratory.
Yuristy, Russell
Yuristy, Russell
Person · 1936-

Russell Yuristy was born in Goodeve, Saskatchewan in 1936. In 1959 he received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon and a Master of Science in Art from the University of Wisconsin in 1967 with a major in painting and a minor in graphics.

He taught drawing and painting at the University of Saskatchewan, Regina Campus from 1967 to 1971 and was an administrator of the Emma Lake Artists’ Workshops from 1968 to 1970. From 1971 to 1981 Yuristy was known for his large animal playground sculptures which he built in Ottawa, Spokane (Washington), Churchill (Manitoba), Vancouver (for Expo ’86) Swift Current, Saskatoon and Regina. He was also painting, drawing, making prints and ceramic work during this time as well.

In 1984 Yuristy created Saskatchewan Rain for the CBC Building in Regina, in 1992 Fish was created for the new City Hall in Ottawa and in 1994 Switch Hitter was created for the Ottawa baseball stadium (now Jetform Park). Since then Yuristy has concentrated on painting, large woodcuts, drawings and print mediums. He has shown in many public and commercial galleries. In 1986 he moved to Ottawa and taught classes at the University of Ottawa and the Ottawa School of Art. He moved to Montreal in 1993 and back to Ottawa in 1998.