Nomadik in the Desert

The Nomadik Harvest Dress was part of the Flatlanders and Surface Dwellers exhibition at 516 Arts in Albuquerque New Mexico. Curator Lea Anderson invited me to come down and give a talk about my work and so I took the opportunity to also have the Ms Cornucopia, this time embodied by Korie Tatum, cook up a dish of Cholla cactus buds. I met with local native plant forager, Amy White, who took me out to gather plants, which was the highlight of my trip. We also went out to the desert to take some photos of the dress in it’s natural habitat. Special thanks to Rhiannon Mercer Simpler and her husband Trent for having us in their home and also to Marge and Wolf for letting us onto their land. I had been to ABQ a few years ago for the Land Art Symposium and since then i had imagined one of my pieces in this sparse but rich landscape. Thank you to all who helped make this vision possible. Go to this Flickr page to see more photos and Special thanks to gallery assistants Teresa Buscemi and Claude Smith, who took photos and brewed up a large pot of Navajo Tea for the event. View video of the Tohono O’odham picking Cholla, one of the desert’s super foods.

Nomadik Harvest Dress camping and foraging for local native plants in the New Mexico desert

Cholla buds taste like a cross between and artichoke and asparagus. They have a slippery texture like okra or aloe verra.

Cholla stir fry with veggies. Local and nutritious.

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2013 Environmental Art Calendar

2013 calendar

Start the new year off with the 2013 Environmental Art Calendar  by Amber Lotus Publishing. Photo Solar Resource is featured in February. I am in good company with other artists such as Steven Siegel, Patrick Dougherty, Chris Drury, Karin van der Molen,( whom i met during Land Art 360 Mongolia) Chris Booth (who exhibited during the Earth Art in Vancouver) and Diana Lynn Thompson (who lives on Salt Spring Island here in BC). What an honour!

http://www.amberlotus.com/productdetails.cfm?sku=13EA&isbn=9781602376113&title=2013-environmental-art-wall-calendar

FASHIONALITY

FASHIONALITY, dress and identity in Contemporary Canadian Art

Fashionality is a new exhibition curated by Julia Pine at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection Gallery in Kleinburg Ontario. This exhibit features 23 Canadian artists who work with the theme of the garment. The show runs from May 5th to September 03, 2012 and the opening reception is on Sunday May 13. I will be showing photos of my IceShifts and my Weedrobes series, plus a new video on my work. I will also be doing an art residency at the McMichael from June 17th to July 1st. There i will create a new dress/tent called the Nomadik Harvest Dress which will culminate in a performance in the gallery and in the park. The gallery houses the largest collection of paintings by the Group of Seven, the iconic Canadian landscape painters and it is said that some of them are even buried in the park, so it is a great privilege for me to create there.

The artists are: KC Adams, Ingrid Bachmann, Lori Blondeau, Dana Claxton, Cathy Daley, Nicole Dextras, Aganetha Dyck, Jane Eccles, Gathie Falk, Farheen Haq, Barb Hunt, Michele Karch-Ackerman, Meryl McMaster, Kent Monkman, Janet Morton, Jacques Payette, Camal Pirbhai, Barbara Pratt, Ana Rewakowicz, Natalie Purschwitz, Jana Sterbak, Camille Turner, and Mary Sui Yee Wong. “Together, the assorted practical and conceptual approaches of these artists speak the common language of dress and, in the process, help to define just what it is that Canadian fashionality might be.” Julia Pine.

Read more in this Fashionality article

Pharos

Pharos consisted of six blocks of ice with fabric embedded in them created during the Winterlude Festival in Ottawa Canada in February 2012. The 5 foot high blocks of  ice were created outdoors in situ and the garments were meant to represent the early days of winter Carnivals. The piece was installed in Confederation Park, along with 10 other artists who were part of the BlizzArt exhibition. It took a week for the ice to freeze due to the unseasonal warm weather in Ottawa- they even had to close down the Rideau Canal to skaters for a few days. Big thanks goes out to my cousin Michel and his friend Jen who helped with with the installation and photography. The clothing became more exposed as the ice melted in the sun. As 695,000 individuals attended this year’s Winterlude, many photos were taken of my work and it’s a pleasure for me to see how others interpret it.

Night photos of Pharos illuminated.

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Pommes Maison

I chose this tree because of it's expressive branches

Pommes Maison was an installation I created for the Land Art Mont-St-Hilaire festival in Québec from October 12th to the 16th 2011, where I was one of 10 artists invited to create sculptures in a working apple orchard within 4 days. It was a challenge to find and harvest my materials and then construct my piece in such a short time frame, in all weather but it was well worth it. On October 16, the exhibition opened to the public and I witnessed people of all ages interact with the apple/skirt/shelter.

My sculpture was constructed around an apple tree and consisted of a dome shape, which acted as a skirt for the tree and also as a shelter where one can sit, eat apples and contemplate the sky. The structure was made from Willow branches onto which apples with holes through them were skewered, like giant apple kabobs. Once these were staked into the ground in a circle, the tops were bent towards the trunk to form the dome. I then decorated the top with long apple skin peels, which I discovered one day as they were making apple cider in the kitchen.

This event takes place on Mr. Robert’s land and he has a large roadside store called Le Pavillon de la Pomme, which produces fresh apple pies, juice, cider,  you name it- warm homemade apple turnovers where the favorite breakfast food of most artists. This very well attended Land Art event is in it’s 5th year and is curated by artist Jérémie Boudreault who runs a small theatre across the road. She was very accommodating and supportive of the artists and took us out to dinner every night for fantastic local meals.

You can view the other artist’s installation on my Facebook page. Not all artists used “organic” materials and some brought pre-made things with them but all works responded to the site and formed a engaging exhibition. All the installations stay up as long as possible as many people frequent the orchard and woods for walks throughout the year. The artists were: André Boisvert, Épurarium, which won the best of show,  Olivier Lefebvre, Steve Jobs Portrait, Luce Pelletier, Toison, Stacy Levy, Bluegrass, David Moore, Ulysse,  Michael McGillis, Seigneurial Chandelier, Gary Smith, Against the Grid, Yolanta Sprawka, Mémoire d’eau, Linda Swanson, Pommes de la terre and also with Pedro Mendonça, University of Sherbrooke art student.

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