2023
RESIDENCIES, PROJECTS, AND EXHIBITS
Santa Rosa Arts and Healing
In July 2023, I drove from Calgary, Alberta to Christina Lake, British Columbia for the Agua Viva Water Residency at Santa Rosa Arts and Healing. It was a long and beautiful drive full of anticipation. My plan was to work on writing a chapter for my memoir, but just before leaving I decided I was going to teach myself to weave.
My first weaving was on a cardboard loom that I slid onto a wooden frame and exhibited at the Grand Forks Art Gallery, along with a poem about my grandparent’s journey across the ocean to what they knew was called “Canada” from the Netherlands.
My time in the residency, curated and created by Rocio Graham, was life-changing. Spending time with different bodies of water, the water taught me to let go. Let go of the stories I tell myself, let go of burdens, let go of responsibilities, and let go of holding back.
And the riverstones reminded me to breathe. That may actually be the beginning of my memoir.
Process
Residency
Exhibit
Grand Forks Art Gallery
Rocio Graham, Curator of Water Exhibit
Geraldine Ysselstein, "Family Talks" (weaving on wood and poetry) 2023
Navjeet Kaur, "I Dissolve Into You - An Offering" (Photography, Botanicals, Candles, Soil, and Fabric) 2023
Polly Orr, "When the Sun Returned Without You" (mixed media documentation of solstice grief ritual) 2023
Natalie Schuler, "Liminal" and "Descending" (Acrylic on raw canvas) 2023
Ariane Bell Vila "Selkie (Lyrics)" (Watercolour, sharpie pen on paper) 2018-2023
Ashley Slemming, "Water's Lores" (Watercolour and pen on paper) 2023