June 3rd, 2021
I will start with a huge shout out to my fellow classmates in Textiles, and everyone in Craft and Design at Sheridan! I am so proud of us all for carrying our ideas into action through our creativity, resilience, and collective compassion. Here is the link to our graduating show through the Ideas and Objects website: https://sheridancraftanddesign.com/textiles
I am done my capstone project and 4th year (as of April, 2021)! While I am still coming to terms with the reality of that, I can say I feel overjoyed, relieved, tired, and so grateful to be here. My project solas evolved over the last 8 months into a body of work that holds a lot of ideas and spirit that I truly care about. I titled my project solas as a nod to the term “solastalgia” expressing the concept of ecological grief, focusing on the root word “solace” (verb- giving comfort in grief, to soothe; noun- alleviation from grief).
Discovering this concept and beginning to reflect on it through my process has opened a new language for my work to speak with. After our final critiques, I brought the work outside to High Park in May. I installed each piece in a place on the landscape that felt significant and where I had spotted bees before. Although they were placed off from main paved roads, further into the park, three out of the four pieces were stolen within 7 days! I was not surprised as much as much as saddened. It was a lesson in surrender in the way. I installed the work in a public place and I am still glad I brought them back to the source of inspiration- I am not discouraged, only more motivated to explore making more work!
Below, I have included the Synthesis as well as Acknowledgements I originally wrote for my process document:
Synthesis for solas
The beginning of my project journey involved a lot of gathering of sources and exploration. I allowed time to experiment with surface and form techniques. I enjoyed becoming inspired in making samples, weaving, and coiling smaller pieces and combining eco- and rust printing. The concept solidified the more I kept myself open to possibility.
The commitment of a year long project is daunting, so this approach allowed me not to restrict my ideas (whether physical or conceptual) too soon. I was challenged by using some techniques, like twining with different fibres, that I only recently learned more about for this project. Through this time, I found confidence in taking risks making work first imagined on paper into dimensional objects.
Imagining what my final work would look like brought another level of challenge. I started out vaguely thinking the work would represent physical habitat requirements specific to native, mostly solitary bees. However, after the first semester, it felt more realistic to work with my strengths and to make textile art that echoed these habitats but did not conform solely as functional shelters for bees.
As much as I love science, I’m neither an entomologist nor do I approach work solely from a design perspective. In the winter, facing the question of “why” in my project brought me to working in my sketchbook to research artists and craftspeople intentionally to fuel my own work. I was drawn to baskets, and this was a launching place. I began to see where the weaving and coiling techniques I had chosen related to my concept about bees and environmental change, and where my work could exist in an outdoor context.
Throughout, I have improved on reflecting on my process and reaching out when I feel stuck. I have been learning to receive feedback, from a wider range of people while also improving on discerning what resonates within the feedback I receive. I was successful in this process through thinking deeply and making time to reflect on my research. I found relevant inspiration and brought together techniques that spoke to me and aligned with my intention of concept- weaving, basketry, its cultural significance, and native bees and their habitats around the city. I planned my sculptures after addressing the fact that I had to take a risk and carry focus into production while being interested in many avenues. The passion I have proves to me that I laid the groundwork for future projects if I so choose. The project journey also made me face expectations I put on myself, versus what happens in reality- like sharing a small living space to make work at home for much of the year, while we are all still living in a pandemic. This experience required space for adaptation, problem-solving, and gentleness- all constant practices.
I have strengthened my relationship with bees through poetic voice; recognizing where emotion and mystery, and play reside inside my project- and where they live outside of it. In the bigger picture, the lifecycle of building these “nests” for my project is also aligning with the bees who start to emerge in April- around Toronto, and southern Ontario. Just as my project comes into being whole, some bees are coming into existence or re-emerging for spring, which brings comfort to the end of this journey and even more to my reverence for the cycle of life and the presence of bees.
Acknowledgements
I am grateful for this opportunity to live, create, and learn on the land around what we know as Toronto, Ontario. The name ‘Toronto’ originates from the Mohawk word Tkaronto, meaning “where the trees stand in the water.”
Tkaronto is part of the traditional territory of many Nations, including the Wendat and Tionontati (Petun) First Nations, the Haudenosaunee, and most recently the Mississaugas of the Credit, of the Anishnabeg Peoples.
I am grateful to my beautiful family and friends who have always been holding the foundation of my “nest”- supporting and loving me unconditionally throughout life and my creative path, wherever home may be(e).
Thank you to all my fellow makers at Sheridan, in Craft and Design graduating class of 2021- we have all worked so hard.
Big thanks to my community in Textiles. You are all brilliant beings!
Endless gratitude to all my teachers and mentors throughout the last 4 years, including: Janelle Guthrie, Thea Haines, Meghan Price, Kate Jackson, Amanda McCavour, Rachel Miller, Isabel Stukator, Saskia Wassing; Leopold Kowolik, Peter Fleming, and recently, to Tara Bursey.
Thank you to Mink Taylor, Carly Joynt, and all the wild women and nature-mentors I have crossed paths with- you gave me space to build and tend my fire.
Deep gratitude for land and water protectors, and to young climate activists everywhere. This land is home to many human and non-human kin. I am grateful every day for the plant kin whose wisdom and resilience teach me endlessly.
In grace to those I lost in this four-year journey:
my dear friend Annie Bartlett (1998 – 2018) and my dog Poncho (2010 – 2020).
Annie: You were a big part of why I committed to pursuing art through textiles. I have compared the non-linear expanse of my grief in the spirals you taught me to weave, and I feel your deeply loving, creative soul continuing to inspire everything I make and experience. I love you infinitely.
Peace.
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You can find the rest of the work archived on my page of the Ideas and Objects 2021 graduating show