Young Ottawa artist gives a powerful voice to wildlife

Marianne Keuleman

In the corner of Ben Lachapelle’s loft art studio in Sandy Hill, an unfinished painting of an endangered sea lion rests on an easel. He’s anxious to finish it, but it’s hard to find the time. In addition to being an emerging artist and prolific author-illustrator, he is an advocate for inclusivity in the arts and for wildlife conservation.

“You know what would happen if you stood face to face with a full-grown Galapagos sea lion?” he asks as I inspect his work-in-progress. “People think they’re playful, but sometimes male sea lions can get very angry if they’re bothered. Instead of barking, they roar when they’re angry. But they also roar when they want to sing.”

Ben calls himself the Animal Knower, and he certainly lives up to the title. I ask about his paints, his choice of medium, his busy schedule, but he always comes back to the real focus of his work: the animals.

His next project is part of the City’s Ottawa 200 celebrations and is made possible through the Ottawa 200 Artist/Creator Grant. The Ottawa 200 Biodiversity Tree will feature creatures far closer to home. The six-foot carved tree, modeled after the oaks in Strathcona Park, will house clay sculptures of past, present, and at-risk species in the National Capital Region. Ben can’t wait for this opportunity to introduce other Ottawa residents to species we might not realize are our neighbours.

Ben and his mom, Julie, moved to Ottawa just a year ago from the Laurentians, where his artistic career began. The 2025 documentary Ben’s Animals (available to watch on CBC Gem, as part of the Absolutely Canadian series) tells the story of how he became an artist, with a focus on the connective power of art and his experiences as an autistic person. “I used to be a solitary kid,” he told me. Arts programs like Autism and Arts in the Laurentians provided an opportunity to connect with like-minded creatives. Now, he’s working to build a community in Ottawa as he continues to build his career, leading workshops with the Ottawa Art Gallery and Action Sandy Hill, exhibiting at Art in the Park in Strathcona Park, and more.

The Biodiversity Tree is a multi-disciplinary effort, to be designed in consultation with local conservation groups. It will feature many animals we see every day in Sandy Hill—groundhogs, raccoons, the black cormorants that visit us on the river—but rare and at-risk species will be featured, too. Ben hopes to include the peregrine falcon, a once-endangered bird of prey that disappeared from Ontario in the 1960s. Today, it is no longer at risk thanks to the efforts of conservationists who sounded the alarm of its potential extinction. With works like the Biodiversity Tree and his captivating Extinction Protest Series paintings, Ben follows in their footsteps, while offering an inspiring example of an autistic man carving out an impressive career as an artist.

Learn more about Ben and his social enterprise, Ben Animalia, at www.benanimalia.com.