2024
RESIDENCIES, PROJECTS, AND EXHIBITS
Leighton Art Centre
In 2023, the Leighton Art Centre put out a call to its members to submit a 12” x 12” piece of artwork for their 50th Anniversary Members & Alumni Exhibition in 2024 (from February 9-June 9, 2024).
I submitted not only a weaving called “The Sticks That Stand Together” made from wool and sticks, but also a poem. Here is one line from the poem “Art imitates a meeting of sky and land. The sticks that stand together.”
My 12” x 12” piece and poetry was about a place on the Leighton Art Centre property that surprises me every time I walk by it. It is a place where there are tall sticks coming out of the ground and I am not sure whether it is an art piece, a natural piece, or both. Every time I walk by it, I pause to wonder “Is it nature turned into art? Is it art inspired by nature? Is art nature? Why do we imitate nature in art? What responsibility do I have to the land as an artist?”
The Leighton Art Centre is a beautiful place to visit in all seasons as you can see in the photos below. Not only is there a gallery and gift shop, but there are beautiful trails and views of Kananaskis.
TD Incubator and RBC Emerging Visual Artists Programs at Arts Commons
Between September 2023-September 2024, I participated in two residencies: the TD Incubator Program curated by Josh Dalledone and the RBC Emerging Visual Artists Program curated by Sanja Lukac at Arts Commons in Calgary, Alberta. The residencies included opportunities for networking, professional development, mentorship, performance, and exhibition. Wakefield Brewster, professional poet & spoken word artist, educator, producer and literacy advocate curated the 2023/2024 performance season as the TD Incubator Fellow.
My experience in the residencies felt very affirmative. Being with artists in different settings, scenarios, and practices over a whole year helped to make connections and develop relationships. The RBC Emerging Visual Artists Program also gave me the opportunity to develop two weavings and poetry under the title “The Emperor is Naked: Now What?” and exhibit them in the Window Galleries at Arts Commons. The two weavings and poetry explore white supremacy through the eyes of the townspeople in the classic folk tale “The Emperor’s New Clothes”.
Process
Residency
Exhibit
Contextural Fibre Residency at AU Arts
In the spring/summer of 2024, I was invited to participate in a Self-Directed Residency Program organized by Contextural Fibre Co-op and hosted at the Alberta University for the Arts. I had a few projects in mind, but did not expect to actually have the opportunity to work on a massive stand-up loom. While the residency was self-directed, I did have some guidance from an AUArts staff on setting up my warp on the loom and taking it off. I was relieved! I decided to experiment weaving a PEI landscape painting that my mom made. It was really hard at first to approach weaving on such a big loom and do a landscape in this way, but it did get easier over many hours of practice. In addition to this big project, I submitted a small weaving to the final summer Contextural exhibit at AUArts on the theme of “Exposure”.
Gallery Blog of Words and Art
For the 2024 year, I developed a “Gallery Blog of Words and Art” where I was looking at how arts and culture exists in societies and systems in Canada. Through reflection and research, I wrote and made artistic creations of words. My hope was to stitch words and meaning together and consider opportunities for change.
Below are some examples of the word art I created over the year along with a blog post and/or poem.
