I just wanted to take a moment to wish everyone holiday wishes! I’m going to be stepping away from making work and enjoying time with family and friends for the rest of the holiday season. In the spirit of sharing, I wanted to show off some handy gingerbread house making my mother and I got up to this year. Making gingerbread houses and miniature winter villages is a tradition in my house. This year my mom and I combined them! Wishing everyone the happiest of holidays!
A Journey Of Fantastic Magical Thinking, Or, A Year Of Art College: Part One (First Semester)
This year, in August 2024, I enrolled at North Island College to complete my studies of the Fine Arts Diploma program that is offered through the Comox Valley Campus on Vancouver Island, BC. As part of our learning process, our instructors have encouraged us to share our process online. Made available to us was the option of creating a blog through the platform Wordpress however I was blessed to receive permission from my instructors to utilize my own personal blog in order to share my process and work instead. As such, this blog post is a gathering of the work accomplished while enrolled in the Fin 120 Colour Theory course. All my painting student work, assignments, research, creative process and development are shared here for you to explore!
Unit 1: Grey Scale
Project for creating an abstract piece of work in grey scale.
Our semester began with is learning about how to utilize a grey scale to construct an image. For our first project we were tasked with the construction of making an abstract image and with creating two cut our pieces (pictured below with my process work) of paintings that we made in our first class in the beginning of this wonderful journey.
We were then tasked with creating a self-portrait and with undertaking all the developmental creative process work necessary to execute that undertaking. The image above was my own self-portrait, which, unfortunately due to the time restraints imposed upon us as students, I wasn’t able to successfully finish in time for submission (meaning this image you see is where the piece was upon submission but not where it ended up after being able to dedicate more work on it). We were also given the restriction of using unconventional objects to create our final portrait. For myself, this was perhaps one of the most interesting moments of my whole course: I decided to construct my own paintbrushes using unconventional tools and then to paint with those.
We were asked to create an artist statement for the piece. I originally wrote it down in my creative process book, made available as an image down below, but have redrafted a statement about my final self portrait piece here:
”There is something powerful, cathartic, pathfinding, developmental, truth pointing and a process of self discovery that you go through when you are working on creating a self-portrait. In creating this self portrait, I struggled to depict myself in a realistic way, mostly, I believe due to the restrictions of time and lack of skills, the parameters used in this portrait of using unconventional tools (brushes that I made) and underdeveloped skills in image making that haven’t been previously explored. My exploration of making this piece with utilizing unconventional tools was greatly rewarding in unexpected ways: I created a small series of handmade artists brushes that is a body of sculptural work in and of itself (which I have found rich ground in wanting to work with this idea later on). This painting, despite it not being fully completed in time for critic (the lips leaving much opportunity) I could feel myself becoming a painter. The Self Portrait, this is something I would like to take on again, refine my process with and give myself time to be able to actually do a bit better and maybe on canvas too moving forward. This unit has been a hard one but I feel like I understand the process of painting better, in an odd visceral way, which has made me appreciate how artists such as Frida Kahlo and Van Gogh continued to return to that subject.”
Final Self Portrait in Grey Scale
The images below are a gathering of the process work from my process book that was undertaken in order to help me arrive at this picture, as well as some photos of my portrait while in process. I’ve also included some images of some paintbrushes I made and how they were used.
Unit 2:
In unit two we began exploring how to utilize colour in our painting practice. Our first project, which lasted the rest of the semester, was to create a colour wheel. Below, I’ve included an image of my own that I was working on. Perhaps, more than any other project I have ever done, the work of making a colour wheel was intense and arduous. In fact, even as I finished, I found there to be opportunities to reach my goal with creating a perfect colour wheel: I think this was a powerful moment in my own art practice as it helped me develop the perspective of being able to let go of perfection of outcomes and to be more focused in on the lessons the practice of making.
image of colour wheel before fixed to paper and glued down.
One opportunity that we are given as art students was the chance to work with live models to paint from. I struggled with this initially but found that I got more loose and better and seeing as we moved into the model studies for the third unit of the course. We did a series of 2 or 3 minutes and then two for longer sessions of about 1/2 hour each.
A large component of unit two was having us do projects as an exercise to understand use of colour in painting. We were asked to plan and work on these projects as a way to refine our ability to create dynamic compositions (I’ve included some of my exercises and projects down below this block of text). I really enjoyed working on the pumpkin piece in particular but feel it was my piece that I made by painting a trace out of both of my hands that is perhaps the most impactful work from this unit, for me.
I wanted to share some of my creative process book work and some of the process I went through for this unit and have included it as a gallery to view below this text.
Unit 3:
At the beginning of Unit 3 we were tasked with creating a complementary colour scale, a similar process where we mix two complimentary colours together ignorer to form different colours and record it in a gradient scale. I found this experience to be very powerful and educational; this was something I had, now seemly to great folly, never really considered before. In creating this complimentary colour scale I was rewarded with beautiful and complex colours and the process of mixing fascinated me endlessly.
Complimentary Colour Scale
As we did in unit 2, we worked on more model studies in class. The second time I attempted this exercise I found that I got more loose and better and that my ability to see had improved. We did a series of 2 or 3 minutes and then two for longer sessions of about 1/2 hour each, same as before, however this time we were blessed with the challenge of having to models in one sitting to work with.
Our final project was a difficult undertaking for me: making a painting from observation with utilizing the complimentary colour scale that we created. At this point, my personal life and health journey was a real struggle and I was trying my best to cope with all of life's pressures while still continuing through on my course work. I hadn’t expected the trajectory of this course to end in the way that it did but perhaps that’s one of the biggest rewards that comes from having na art practice that I learned about this semester: art is a journey of fantastic magical thinking and we don’t always know where it will take us but the place where we end is often one of self-fulfillment, self-awareness, self-healing, self-preservation and self-development.
Image of my final painting for the course as it was brought to the critic for the final class.
For our final project we were asked to come up with an artist statement about the piece. I drafted my words in my process book and shared it in the image gallery below, however, I wanted to share a drafted version of my words for the piece as my sign off for this blog post:
“I found myself navigating difficult times in may family relationships as the semester drew to the end and the impact on myself as a student, person and artist were palpable. One of the biggest changes that impacted me which occurred while making my way through my interpersonal conflicts and obligations was the space where I worked, how I operated in that space and how I creatively responded to these boundaries. I was working in a small office space where I was obligated to keep two blue chairs in the space and while they initially posed as a challenge to overcome they eventually became the pieces which I was inspired to work with for the project. These two wooden and blue fabric chairs became compelling objects where I created narratives around them and projected relationships onto them as I began to tackle them as a subject. There was something captivating in the tension between these chairs; what was happening, what would happen, what could happen and what had already occurred. These two spaces of being, defined by the seat these chairs create, became a holding space for my personal and creative failures, for the anxiety and commitment I have to the relationships in my life. I had a great difficulty in overcoming presenting the chairs, as with the nature of painting, they were moved around a lot to prevent them from being wrecked by exposure to my acrylic paints. My lack of technical skill prevented me from imagining what the chairs should look like in order to read as “correct” and instead present as if their perspective is skewed or off; while initially I was intending to correct the perspective in the work, I inevitably decided to create another piece inspired by this one and to let the mistakes stand in a hope that they convey the emotional elements and narrative constructs which were the genesis.”
Some of my creative process and some work from my creative practice book are below to view.
Root Love: An Open Letter Of Recommendation For The Comox Valley Art Gallery
Dear Reader,
One of the first places I had the pleasure of exploring when I moved to the Island from Ottawa as a teen was the Comox Valley Art Gallery. I was struggling with depression and a growing sense of displacement after moving however the moment I walked through the doors of the gallery I felt relief and a sense of coming home (having spent a phenomenal amount of time avoiding my high school classes in lieu of touring through National Art Gallery of Canada as often as possible instead). Over a decade later, I feel similarly to the Comox Valley Art Gallery as I had when I walked through those same doors years ago, except what had been a fleeting feeling from a few hours spent in the space has been reaffirmed and experienced now many more times over, enough so that now I have come to think of the gallery as a kind of home. The Comox Valley Art Gallery, which is affectionately abbreviated to CVAG by us locals who know the place, is in fact one of my favourite places in the entire north island and I recommend the place to anyone and everyone I can, with passion and sincere love.
I was lucky enough to take on the opportunity to volunteer at the gallery while enrolled as a student at North Island College’s Fine Arts Diploma Program, before the Covid19 pandemic, and was later hired on as an intern by the gallery. I stayed for a long time, taking on many different roles that were funded for or budgeted, much to my delight and surprise each time. It has been a great blessing and a stroke of luck that I was afforded the opportunity to work along side the amazing team and community that surround CVAG. The years of working at the gallery were wonderful and challenged me to continue to pursue my own career as an artist. In doing so, I was lucky enough to receive some support from the gallery in my creative pursuits as well by being included in projects such as a publication in a digital anthology, giving a reading along side reputable and incredibly talented professional writers, participating as a student in incubator projects, exhibiting artwork and doing arts-based community research. I also felt very blessed for how well the gallery had positioned me during my time there to develop my career into doing community based therapeutic recreation as a health care provider (a change in my life and career that was also a result of the Covid19 pandemic). Despite my career development taking me elsewhere most days, I have the pleasure of still contributing to CVAG as a member of the board of directors, which is a great joy and pleasure in my life that makes me feel as though I'm returning a small piece of the joy back that the gallery has gifted me over so many years.
CVAG is a place of art, yes, but it is much more: CVAG is a public space where members of our community can gather and are not required to make a transaction to occupy a space for some time, it is a place that is full of good conversations and laughter, CVAG is a space where members of the public can learn and engage with one another in a safe and meaningful way, it is a place that incubates artist and fosters critical dialog, CVAG is a place where children can engage with artwork in a good way, it is a place where decolonization can occur and CVAG most importantly is a place where we as individuals and a community can grow a root love (also the name of a favourite exhibition of mine done a while ago) for ourselves, each other and our environment that is nourishing and desperately needed in these wild times which we find ourselves in.
The town where I live is full of beautiful places and I am blessed to say that there are many wonderful, exciting things to do. If asked by anyone, however, about my favourite stop to make on my days off from work in the town I live in, I would tell you it is the Comox Valley Art Gallery. Of course I am bias, I acknowledge this, but my lived truth still remains that the CVAG is one of the best places to be. Very few public contemporary galleries across Canada are as courageous and execute such original and dynamic programming as the CVAG. It also offers an opportunity to support local artists and arts students at North Island College by purchasing their work through the CVAG store SHOP: MADE, which is something I always like to do when I can. The exhibitions and convergent programming is always compelling and informative. The community based around the gallery remains to be one of the most lovely and warm places to spend time in. And the Courtenay downtown is a vibrant place to explore and host you after enjoying your time at CVAG.
Besides just wanting to share about CVAG for fun, it felt important for me to take the time to write this letter and share my passion with anyone willing to read these words because institutions such as CVAG only exist with the support of the communities they seek to serve. A little while ago, in the town adjacent to the one I live in, a public art gallery had lost favour with the elected leaders of their municipality and were on the brink of closer. If we do not affirm and perpetuate the CVAG’s existence with our support, as would be the case for any public insulation, it will cease to be. The thought of my community, the island and Canada at large loosing such a powerful and dynamic gallery is haunting. I can only hope it does continue on far into the future and attempt to do my part as best I can for as long as I am here and am able to.
If you are a local of the island, I encourage you to come and see the beautiful space where CVAG is situated. Doing such is not only pleasurable but is also a wonderful act of support. If you are unable to visit in person, I invite you to use the CVAG website to see what has been made available on CVAG’s online platforms. Even a small act like joining the CVAG Newsletter is a meaningful and helps guarantee that this wonderful organization will continue for many generations to come.
With much gratitude and hope you’ll find love for Comox Valley Art Gallery as I have,
Spencer Sheehan Kalina
MMIS Newsletter Forwards 2024
We’ve Come Together To Be Our Own Solutions
It seems like only a few weeks ago that after a number of conversations amongst members of our communities and with each other that a few of us (family members and friends) came together to attempt to offer solutions to challenges and to mitigate the impact that being marginalized has on individuals who live in a remote, rural or underserved in our province, British Columbia.
So much has come together since then: We’ve founded an organization, created a website, opened an office and developed resources, programming and started a counselling service! All of this would not have been possible without the help of many hands and the generosity of many resources being shared with us. I couldn’t be more proud or more grateful for the work that has been done, nor more excited for what we will do next.
Before this, I did not see myself as someone who would be at the helm of such a needed and important organization such as Marginalized Matter Initiative Society; I am deeply honoured to receive my role as President. My roles and work as a Healing Helper, Professional Artist and Author, and Activist were never done with the intention of taking on or preparing for an administrative leadership role but I now see that they have situated me well, teaching the many required skills that can be transferred over and moved laterally. I am excited and eager to share of myself with you all through this new position at Marginalized Matter Initiative Society.
One of the responsibilities for the President, as determined at one of our founding meetings, was the role of Newsletter Editor. As such, I thought I would take a moment to introduce myself and the organization to you in this first edition of our newsletter. As such, I would like to take a moment to mention the other founding members, Peggy Sheehan and David Corkish: Peggy Sheehan will currently hold the positions of Secretary and Treasurer on the board, she looks forward to utilizing her education in social work, festival and event management, medical aesthetics, work experience in the transportation industry and executive administrative roles; David Corkish brings over 25 years work experience in healthcare, community activism and leadership roles to draw from in his position as Vice-President. I think both Peggy and David are two of the most kind hearted and hard working individuals, who are genuinely passionate about making meaningful connections, changes and offering support to our communities. I couldn’t be more blessed than to work with these two amazing individuals.
Alice Walker, the American Author of the book The Color Purple, wrote that “We are the ones we have been waiting for”. What I think she was intending was to say to us is that we, as communities and individuals, need to take responsibility for helping ourselves (particularly those of us who are members of marginalized communities or have marginalized identities). Walker poses the question, if not us then who? When we met to discuss our vision for the the society, not so long ago, it was with that spirit of us coming together to be our own solutions that inspired us to begin this new enterprise, the Marginalized Matter Initiative Society. With that same spirit, I humbly ask for your support and for you to give if you can, be it your time, money or a resources and subscribe to the MMIS Newsletter to stay updated on our progress and what w’ve accomplished in your community.
With warmest of regards to the communities at large we look forward to working together with,
Spencer Sheehan-Kalina
MMIS President
The outside of the first MMIS office, located in Gold River, BC
Film Reviews: Shared Reflections On X
I started to write reviews on X of films I’ve seen over the course of a couple years. The platform’s restrictions on size helped structure a brevity into each review. In this blog post they are gathered here.
Ooku: The Inner Chambers, 2023, Netflix, 6.5/10s
A manga series inspired by Edo Japan and & set in a universe where plague has resulted in a matriarchy. Each episode meets exoectation of the genre while subverting expectated gender norms.
Damsel, 2024, Netflix, 7.5/10
A crowd pleaser, overcoming tropes & cliches with star actors, visuals & succinct story telling makes this movie worth a watch. Most unexpected & satisifying was the amount of strong female leads— my inner feminist is pleased.
Junji Ito Maniac: Tales of the Macabre: Tales of the Macabre, 2023, Netflix, 7/10
It was a cute, spooky moment. As a fan of cats, it ends on a high note. Lovely animation through out & each episode was unique, though some stories were more engaging than others.
Mom (pilot), Netflix, 6.5/10
Fearless comedy delivered with good intentions about heavy subject matter however [there are] occasional misses that are crass jibes. Somehow reminds me of my grandfather. Decent Actors. Chuckled.
La Bamba, 1987, Netflix 7/10
A fascinating bio film with cinematography that remains compelling as the piece ages. There’re moments of noteworthy acting from the entire cast, which makes for a successful film however my take way was that drugs, sex and rock’n’roll are dangerous.
Hannah Gadsby’s Gender Agenda, 2024, Netflix, 8/10
Gadsby shows exemplary curatorial skills and adept social commentary in hosting this compelling comedic line up. Being inclusive, doing good and having a laugh made easy for one night.
Writing Worth Reading: Reflections and Recommendations
A question frequently asked of authors is what books would you recommend? While it is a perfectly reasonable question for one person to ask of another person, this is a question I often fumble over. Usually, I will spit out a list of titles and authors while hurling questions for guidance from my inquirer… which is a response that generally seems to leave most confused and regretting the inquiry. To prevent myself the embarrassment of continuing to answer people this way, I have created this list of my recommendations and reflections on why I think they’re words worth reading. To say it is a comprehensive list would be a lie. The truth is, there are hundreds of books I think are worthwhile recommendations and I simply can’t name them all. Also, I want to acknowledge that I know I will never have the pleasure of coming across many works which are superb works more than deserving of being read and celebrated.
Novels:
The God of Small Things, Arundhati Roy - A novel of stunning beauty that fearlessly tackles the multifaceted nature of human existence.
The Color Purple, Alice Walker - Characters of great strength and resilience are brought to life and given immediate voice, which offers invaluable lesson and heals hearts of those willing to listen, in Walker’s best known work of fiction
The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood - A warning call to us all that reads as chillingly pertinent to our times despite its publication over 50 years ago.
Non-Fiction:
Halfbreed, Maria Campbell - Campbell courageously instigates the process of decolonizing our thinking by sharing her life story with unflinching honesty and truth, which offers insights and intimate reflections on her lived experience of growing up with an intersectional identity (Metis, woman) in Canada.
My library of books behind me.
In Defence of The Campbell River Art Gallery: An Open Letter to Campbell River City Council
This letter was originally composed as a response to the Campbell River City Council threatening to remove funding from the Campbell River Art Gallery in October 2023. This letter was written too late to be included with a number of other letters from Campbell River residence and members of the arts community addressed to city council. All the same, I sent the letter off to all stakeholders and then decided to release it as an open letter on my blog in a hope to continue to bring light to the issue. As such, some alterations to the original letter were made in order to capitalize of the formatting potential offered by presenting it as a blog post. The changes are minimal, however, with the heart and the bulk of the letter remaining mostly identical to the first draft placed forward.
Dear Campbell River City Council,
It recently came to my attention that the future of the Campbell River Art Gallery is in jeopardy. I am offering this open letter as my contribution to the campaign that was initiated by the Campbell River Art Gallery (referred to as CRAG here on in throughout this letter). I remorsefully admit this letter has been composed late and by the time it reaches its intended readers it will be tardier still, however, I have decided to write and send it off all the same, as I hope to address matters which likely will be long standing outside of this instance in time; what has taken place, at least from my perspective, is a trend in the defunding of public institutions by local municipalities across North America. In composing this address to you, I hope that you may hold some space for a perspective that sees the role which public institutions play as paramount to the wholistic success and health of our communities and the individuals that call them home.
I first learned of the difficult financial position that CRAG has found itself in when I had come to meet my friend and former co-worker, the artist, Nadine Berteau for an impromptu coffee date, after being a few weeks out of touch. Nadine had spent the last few months working in the CRAG’s public make-art studio project, The Hive, and upon my inquiry into how her current gig was going she proceeded to inform me that the Campbell River City Council was looking to remove the CRAG’s funding. I felt shock as soon as she told me. I asked her to repeat what she’d said and as she reiterated, I felt myself grow stiff and chilled. How could this be? I don’t remember if I’d asked her out loud or if it was simply my facial expression of shock which prompted her to let me know about a letter writing campaign that was taking place to help the city’s council understand the significance and importance that CRAG has to Campbell River’s residence, and to a lesser degree those distanced further out in outlying communities. The idea that a corner stone public institution such as CRAG would face the possibility of dissolution from lack of a city council’s support seemed inconceivable to me. Particularly so when an organization had been so well established, the CRAG having been in operation from before my birth in 1991. Indeed, when Nadine told me this disturbing news, I felt as though I was watching a pillar of the Campbell River community irreparably crumble before my eyes. While change is always expected, those public places that are venerated by so many, to me, always seemed sacrosanct and safe despite what other worldly pressures and concerns were imposed upon us as Vancouver Island communities.
It brings to reason that our times of economic hardship and the issues of food security, housing security, public health and safety are crisis which have arisen across Canada, though it certainly seems reasonable to suggest these issues have not been caused by the CRAG. As such, would it also not seems a reasonable assessment that Campbell River would also struggling with these same issues which most communities across Canada are, and that the community’s struggle with these crisis is certainly not to be blamed on the CRAG? Frankly, I find the opposite to be true, the CRAG has made meaningful attempts to offer support to the community in relation to these issues while still staying safely within the boundaries of what a public art galleries scope usually is. Therefore, I found myself shocked upon doing some further research into the issue when returning home from my time with my friend; the articles I was able to access left me feeling afraid, disgusted and shocked. As reported by the Campbell River Mirrior newspaper, I found the comments made by city council and the allegations of the gallery being a “bad neighbour” seemed inane and ridiculous. Also, I found the city council’s commitment to undermining the democratic practice of freedom of expression deeply problematic and disturbing.
To find out that my assumption that a public gallery such as CRAG was universally beloved and venerated was, indeed, not true was a deep blow to my spirit and created a deep sense of anxiety; I couldn’t help but question that if we, as communities, are not able to maintain a significant and necessary public institution, such as a CRAG, then we were indeed experiencing a slow death walk toward being a hollowed out communities with missing pieces of culture and available public resources that service the general public. Indeed, across Canada, this is becoming a common fear and unfortunate reoccurrence. While other examples, such as the loss of the public gallery for the Quathet region, offer direct parallels to CRAG’s struggle, the extent of this trend that focuses on defunding public institutions that serve the general population is far reaching and continues to expand beyond fine art: a recent and famous example is the recent outcry of Canadian authors, such as Margaret Atwood, for the protection of libraries; or another example, the more disconcerting trend of medical clinics attempting to establish a paid model for their patients in the prairies. I can’t help but pose the question to the Campbell River City Council, when this funding is cut and this institution is gone, what will you remove from us next?
While it is undeniable that Campbell River is riding alongside many local Canadian municipalities in defunding organizations that cater to the needs of the general public, shamelessly, I ask there to be pause and to consider if this is truly an action that best serves the greater population of the people you were elected to serve. The CRAG for me, as a young, queer man who had been transplanted to the north Vancouver Island at the age of 17 was a life raft that buoyed me through many difficult years. Without the CRAG I am certain that I would have succumb to the many pressures which youth often face and aren’t so lucky to escape unscathed. Even now, while my life is very different and I am certainly not living under the thumb of societal pressures which youth often face, a lifetime later the CRAG still offers me significant value as a place to visit, heal, learn, create, listen, connect, to make friends and community build. Though I now live outside the boundaries of Campbell River, I frequently return to this town of my youth to visit the gallery exclusively. Knowing that the CRAG would not be available for me to visit would directly impact my choice to visit Campbell River.
Lastly, as a professional artist, author and individual who works at another publicly funded art gallery, I want to take a moment to point out the quality with which the CRAG operates: having spent much time traveling across Canada and in other gallery spaces, I attest that the CRAG is unarguably one of the most tough, powerful, fearless and exemplary galleries across Canada. The CRAG brings artists of national significance and international renowned to a rural coastal town that may otherwise go unnoticed and missed by Vancouver Islanders, let alone the rest of Canada. The CRAG is a public institution that, despite what appears to be the current climate with city council, the townspeople should be incredibly proud of. Those who are arts literate will concur; CRAG is an incredibly respected gallery that makes meaningful contributions to Canada’s cultural landscape. To allow the loss of this organization would be the greatest of tragedies for the people of Campbell River, for all of us that continue to visit it despite having moved out of the city’s district, and to, indeed, all Canadians. As such, I implore the Campbell River City Council to not only reconsider not cutting the funding but to do just the opposite, please give the CRAG more funds to continue the important work they do.
With warmest regards and hope for reconsideration around allocation of funds,
Spencer Sheehan Kalina
Rereleasing Revolutionary Radishes: The Survivalist Manifesto of a Radical Artist
Rereleasing my creative manifesto Revolutionary Radishes: The Survivalist Manifesto of a Radical Artist as a digital artists book, available on my Etsy store, is an exciting new adventure in the life of this creative essay. Originally this text was published last year (2021) by Lupercalia Press in their digital anthology Vulcanalia. Shortly after its release as a digital edition, I also had the opportunity to do a limited edition run of Revolutionary Radishes as a pamphlet. Next year a new edition of the pamphlet will be printed but in the meantime, while we wait for that beautiful carbon copy, the work is at least available for reading in a digital edition with additions to the original published text.
In the process of preparing a new digital edition of this essay, I decided to share a piece of it here (at the end of this blog post), as well as to.upload a video of me reading a portion of the piece aloud onto my YouTube account (available here). I feel like it is important for artists to be able to make money for themselves in order to survive, however, I also feel like it is of the utmost importance to insure that there is also work available to people with as few barriers as possible— in sharing this portion of my manifesto, I hope I achieved that balance in a meaningful way; the portion shared here and on YouTube is the heart of the manifesto, and if you feel like there is benefit in exploring the work more you can pick it up as a ebook from my Etsy.com store here.
Revolutionary Radishes: The Survivalist Manifesto of a Radical Artist was a piece of writing that came out of a difficult time for me: I was working through some medical, personal and professional hurdles, a bout of writer’s block, all the while starting a wonderful, new relationship and working through completing my Fine Arts Diploma at North Island College. For me, this Manifesto came out of a need to give myself focus and a directive on how to be in the world as an artist, writer and human being. I decided to share the piece publicly with the release of some other writing projects, when I was asked publicly about my creative process and my thoughts behind my own work while giving a public reading— while I was able to answer the questions of the time, I also thought it worth while to give a better and fully thought out response which inevitably resulted in the manifesto’s text. It does not explicitly refer to any one piece I have made but I think it does offer some suplimentary insight to my general practice, and therefor may be of some use to someone who is interested in my work.
I also hope that Revolutionary Radishes can be a seed of inspiration in the life of someone else. There is a long tradition of manifestos within the western art cannon and I have drawn inspiration from those works in the past, myself. Often times, seeing how others work and their own ideas of art can instigate something within our own selves and creative practices. I think it is the biggest compliment when I hear from someone that they have decided to construct their own manifesto. I hope that, for anyone, when their eyes leave the page of this work that they consider how they too operate in the world, maybe even write it down and share it with others. We live in relation to those around us, understanding each other more only can help enrich our lives, after all.
Chant of a Radical Artist
This chant is a psychic space that has unfolded from lived experience. I have come from difficult experiences, learned and have returned with these words. Who we are and our place in the order of things, like all things such as water or the trees, is constantly in flux or motion. These words are of the body, meaning they are alive and should be breathing: expansions and contractions, edits and alteration based on the need of the list for the person, place and time. What is presented here is the chant as it has been caught to the page come the time of its sharing.
I am alive and I am breathing.
I am drinking the water and I find nourishment.
I am the creator of my body’s artifice.
I am waking and resting and walking on the First People’s land.
I am talking and eating and learning among the ghosts of my Ancestors.
I am scavenging and inventing and learning new talk.
I am a house with an open door for all to come in, be warm and rest.
I am a truth finder and speaker, no matter how grim.
I am lost but also where I am supposed to be.
I am the water and I am in the water and the water is in me.
I am displaced and unsettled.
I am a writer of lists.
I am sloth.
I am nuanced, contradictory and hypocritical as every other human.
I am the realized ambition of my Ancestors efforts for survival.
I am open hearted and authentic.
I am giving you my heart words, my sleeve’s cut back and my wrist bare and open, bleeding.
I am a sculpture that will never be fully fathomed.
I am my own food, and am now asking neighbours to taste me, be nourished.
I am feminist.
I am queer.
I am all the animals you’ve ever seen me as.
I am listening to elders and I am listening to children and I am listening to all my cousins.
I am cat person and a dog person, I am an every animal kind of person.
I am holding both my parents’ hands, though they can’t hold each other’s.
I am a talking body, dancing tongue and thundering emotions.
I am able to grow dreams and hope like hair and skin, and shed them just as often too.
I am willing to stand in disruption and be uncomfortable.
I am in transition to a better self.
I am wanting to become a good Ancestor for those still to come.
I am not afraid of other people’s opinions of me.
I am the inheritor privilege.
I am in disbelief of what has happened and know we can all do better
I am hungry and tired.
I am not afraid to look through other perspectives.
I am not afraid to tell my story as I know it to be.
I am a tool of dismantling oppressive systems of operation.
I am singing.
I am stardust and I will always be stardust.
I am a believer that there is more good than bad in people.
I am certain that loving each other will change the world.
I am holding magic in my cupped hands.
I am made of magic.
I am a dreamer, artist, lover, warrior, academic, healer, teacher, storyteller and student.
I am racialized.
I am gendered.
I am with a sweet tooth and will eat food for comfort when stressed.
I am convinced that art is medicine that we all need.
I am making medicine, enough medicine for everyone.
I am at home in the city and the country.
I am my home and my home is my body.
I am excited to sleep and dream and wake, until I don’t.
I am in love with everyone I see.
I am chanting.
I am seeking balance and harmony.
I am not able to reconcile everything that is happening, that has happened.
I am still convinced that I can fly by breathing deeply.
I am in a performance.
I am the food I’ve been nourished by.
I am bridge and blockade unapologetically.
I am growing radishes from city refuse.
I am caring for bushes of wild berries that I sometimes talk to.
I am netting honesty.
I am doing the work.
I am watching time progress linearly but know it is a circle.
I am healing.
I am not doing enough of the work but both my hands are full.
I am waiting until I can do more work.
I am certain that to work is to have your place in things.
I am happy to have a place.
I am totally invested.
I am not one place or person to just one person, I am part of a community.
I am not trying to brag but sometimes it comes out that way.
I am trying to disappear.
I am trying to make things better before I go.
I am trying to fit into little pockets, like change, but I’m too loose for that.
I am gambling, with everything, but I’m not a gambler.
I am mentally unhealthy but more stable, able and grounded than ever.
I am able to expand and contract beyond limitations imposed on me.
I am yelling.
I am nature, just as much as anything ever was or will be.
I am dark on the inside.
I am scarred.
I am a preservationist.
I am making preserves.
I am a constellation of resilience and resurgence of life’s joy.
I am family orientated.
I am a medical miracle.
I am a survivalist making it through.
I am remembering how much my grandmother loved me.
I am able to exist freely and alone.
I am always working.
I use every precious family heirloom as much as possible.
I am dancing.
I am forgiving but not forgetful.
I am recommending you join me social media and mailing list.
I am, in the end, going to erupt in sunlight.
I am not beyond reproach or mistake making.
I am always trying to do better when I know better.
I am starting now and ending here.
I am thanking our Ancestors, the land and creator of all this.
Returning to Social Media
A bit earlier in the month I wrote about how I was updating my website. As part of that I am also dipping back into doing the Social Media grind. Back in 2019, I decided that I was taking a break from Social Media and went on to delete or not utilize many accounts that I was active on. Today, with me opening a new account on Twitter, I suppose that break is coming to an end. While it feel good to be back on social media platforms, conversely, there are also a lot of complicated feelings that come with it. I hope to address some of those here.
Each thing that I make or write comes out of an art practice that is deeply personal and centred on my own process of truth telling. Due to this, my work can not take into account multiple realities and narratives. Sometimes this may cause people to feel left out, upset, angry, excluded, or unvalidated. That is not my intention; In sharing my personal truth, I always hope that others will be able to take what is relevant and useful to them before walking away, a bit richer for having spent the time engaging with my work even if it seems drastically different from their own personal narrative. I never make art with the hope of causing upset, ill feelings or harm.
Here is a list of accounts that I will be returning to or have recently established:
A Snail from the Poetry Workshop
Today I was giving a workshop for teens on how creativity and creative practice can be used as a tool to aid the transition into adulthood. Out of that work came this sketch for a poem idea, a concrete poem about a snail from my porch garden.
Making Announcements
I’m working on cleaning up my website. In doing so, I am making this blog. Here is where I am going to informally share some of the thoughts, messes, scribbles and whatever else I come across while toiling away in the studio on my work.
Like for many others, self-promotion is often an uncomfortable thing for me to partake in. For that reason, I often avoid doing things like keeping a personal blog. This said, I recently had a conversation with my partner where he emphatically informed me that much of people’s lives are spent online now and that I just need to get over it. Begrudgingly, I am following his advice and returning to the process of sharing work with others online.
While I was more active online in the past, it was during the Covid19 pandemic outbreak that I decidedly took myself offline since I was left feeling overwhelmed. This said, I was surely not as active as my intentions are now to be. So, now, I step into my goal of becoming a consummate blogger and I begin with this first blog post here.
