Intro

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okay can you guys see me and hear me yeah we’re live now bro

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okay thank you we’re live now hello hello i just don’t have uh

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visual but um hello everyone thank you for joining us today my name is rachel bouchard and i’ll be

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guiding today’s conversation

Welcome

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we welcome you to our from the studio series sponsored by epcor’s heart and soul fund as well as the canada council for the

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arts here at the gallery we embrace the teachings of tatawa a kree phrase meaning welcome there is

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room in our house even the virtual one everyone is welcome before we dive into the subject i’d like

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to highlight that this is an interactive event and we’d love to hear from you so you’re welcome to use the chat window

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on the side screen to share your comments as we discuss with heather schilling law if any questions go unnoticed we will be

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sure to review them before we wrap up today’s event so i’d like to start by saying telling

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you a little bit about heather schilling law um heather zinapotic ocean cree denney

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salto chiplin and scots french who looked to her out with no gums her

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grandmothers from before for guidance by contemplating the bush for healing life and sustainability they carried all

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they owned balancing their lives within the landscape and following the buffalo

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shilling law aspires to make art to honor them listening to the sage advice by elders

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and knowledge keepers inclusive of working with anthropologists of the south american indigenous tribes mapuches and gurani

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medicine women this cultural sharing combined with historians and scholars to make art

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blending concepts of body mind and spirit becomes woven messages through her practice

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her experiences weave ideas of design beadwork materials paintings sewing and sculpture which evolves into

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amelia of ideas to convey multiple mesh messages art evolves in her own

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storytelling and retelling of familial oral histories paramount to her practice paramount to

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her practice is sharing knowledge through art in workshops school programs and her artwork

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in exhibitions showcased in galleries nationally and internationally using land-based

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philosophies and narration she pulls on the hearts and minds of her students as she conveys

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how art can sorry distraction there how art can convey a voice beyond the

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bush in her instructional studio practice she teaches her own philosophy called

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meme which is a an acronym for metis ecological arts message as another

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layer of land-based learning methods thousands of students cultural sharing

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and or workshops taught in many schools on reservations community program

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during these exchanges abroad in the u.s south america and europe so please take this time to

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give a warm welcome to artist heather schilling law

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tennessee which away may you take our estimate which means hello and welcome

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hello hello heather i still can’t see you though

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so yeah the button right beside the audio button the one with the two um the two circles

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inside one another one inside the other i’m clicking and i’m getting

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i might have to exit out again and then i’m so sorry no no no no worries

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do you want to just it’s up to you if you want to just continue as i go through the slides you can still we can hear you

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so we can just i’ll try exiting out and exit it in

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again i’m so sorry no no no worries

Hello

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hello hi i can hear you

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now can you see me this time i can’t see you in the no sorry

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can you see me no

Whispers in the Forest

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can you see the uh the presentation oh oh just a minute i guess others can

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see you i can’t see you riley says he can see you

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oh she’s just exited and is re-entering

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so uh this first slide i believe this exhibition was in grand prairie um and it was

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called whispers in the trees oh there she is

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hi heather can you see me now my camera says okay um i just got a message from one of

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the attendees and he can see you or or she can see you so so

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no worries i can’t see you but but we can just carry on as long as you can see the slides and we can hear you

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great okay so um this first one this was exhibited in

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grand prairie is that right yes so that was exhibited in grand prix prairie in

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2016. it was an exhibition called buffalo girl and this is um whispers in the forest

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yeah okay and uh so tell us a little bit about um what

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the trees represent because these are flags individual flags right that are suspended from the ceiling

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yeah so um what i did is i actually went into the primrose air weapons range and

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um went up in cold lake down by the cold lake and it’s a traditional hunting

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or harvesting and hunting ground for my ancestors and i equipped with a camera and i

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photographed each one of these trees so there’s about 100 of them okay

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so so how many flags are there there’s a hundred um there they’re flags but they’re

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individual trees okay and and can you enter into this

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exhibition or into this piece yeah it’s like uh you can enter and exit in four different

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ways and it’s just off of the uh four directions so it’s a skew from it

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and in this installation the flags were kind of supposed to be ghost trees so it’s a

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immersive art piece and installation okay okay and and is there a

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focal point in this is there anything inside of this um inside of the exhibition like as far

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as so you have all the trees and then is there did the paths lead to

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a specific area in the woods yeah so in the center of the piece when you

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enter an exit in any one of the four areas um you enter to the one

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it meets in the middle and in the middle there’s this um dress and can it’s garbage

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cans and stuff like that um the one can that i photographed is actually a 1950s

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oil can which is the time that they appropriated um the land reabsorbed the land from the

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crown okay and so so does this do these woods still exist

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because you said you photographed them so i’m assuming that there’s still a remnant of that that

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forested area yeah so um in this area because it’s been appropriated by the crown there was

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um a lot of uh problems within the landscape because it is now a bombing

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range and and it there’s actually um when i photographed it about 16

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months later there was the huff and puff oil extraction actually was the largest oil spill

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in uh 2015 of that year so it was uh you know many many hectares thousands of

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hectares of oil that bubbled up to the surface oh wow yeah significant piece

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yeah it kind of um geared up the whole um kind of ecological beginnings of my

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meme method um in kind of conversation of

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uh you know what making people aware that we need to protect the landscape so that others can see it and enjoy it

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and harvest yeah absolutely uh okay so and this one you know is so

Sky Spirit

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interesting because when i first looked at it uh now this is up in fort marie right

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yes so this piece um was the sky spirit courage of mother bear

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and it was it’s on the traditional teachings trail and and this piece

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um i there’s seven different spots that you can go to and mine is kind of facing north and um

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it has a star constellation of the big dipper yeah that’s so great you know when i

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first looked at it i i initially i thought it was a nest with an eagles feather

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um uh on top of it but yeah no it so it’s a constellation and

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then explain what is the base of it that is so there’s the eagles feather and

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it’s actually a large oversized abalone shell and what what you do is you make a

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smudge right and uh right in this piece because i’m making that connection

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with the stars in my uh naok teachings is that you’re connected through the stars so it’s a

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very spiritual piece and um you use an eagle feather um to kind of smudge

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to bring that uh smudge right up to the stars in the spirit world so it’s a very

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spiritual piece yes yeah so is it i’m sorry is it so would it be a place

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where someone would stop and they’d have they’d say they’d have a ceremony to smudge on behalf of another person or

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how how when you’re saying smudge what do you mean by that

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a smudge is is like a prayer so um okay when you when you do a smudge

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you’re connecting with that spirit world to make a connection to help other

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people other than yourself so that is that is my teaching anyways oh how that’s so beautiful

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can i tell you a little bit about that feather that’s right here yeah please do yeah um so elma gould

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from the big big stone cree nation um she lives up in fort mcmurray and we worked on a project

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in pehonan which is part of saint albert

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the city of st albert they initiated this indigenous committee so she was organizing it and

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she worked with them and she said i was walking by your piece the other day and i found this at the

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base of the um piece of art and i cried because it was such a

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beautiful piece and you know yeah the significance of that right yeah

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but the the piece itself um the feather is actually based off of a flight feather so it’s um

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uh dr troy potnode had um allowed me to borrow his feather which

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an eagle has to die to have this feather so i felt

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yeah so i felt it was really interesting to bridge that connection and with the feather that fell in front

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of the piece i thought that was pretty special that communication amongst the

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absolutely you know i just had this visual when you said that the feather was at the base of an eagle flying by

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and just dropping a feather and you know it honors something like that but it’s not that simple

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i i don’t know how it happened but as you can see there’s a little bit of the dirt around the top

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of it and yeah you know that means that the eagle just lost that feather

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he wouldn’t die from that that feather being lost but okay that’s pretty special yeah

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okay so now this piece i love the layering in this can you

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explain your process and and how long does it take for you to actually work through a piece like this

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well that one i started it last spring and um

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last year last spring and i’m it’s still not finished because i’m

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working through it so you know it’s kind of like the thought process in my a lot of my works but it

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just evolves through time and so this piece is not complete

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um it’s um the big lake which is at the bottom and yeah you’re

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kind of like looking over and it kind of leads into the works that i’m doing

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right now okay

Aerial Perspective

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yeah this is so this is an aerial perspective right yeah so this piece i’m super excited

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because i just got a phone call um that they’re hanging it um right now

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actually at the university of alberta hospital it’s a commission we’re we’re out in the at the

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hospital so it’s in the um it’s in the neurological

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unit um and it’s called

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which means my mind digs in the soil like a turtle so it’s the aerial

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perspective of the edmonton river valley oh yeah okay

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now what’s the significance of now i see we have a okay so this is a close-up what’s the

University of Alberta

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significance of the flowers this marking a spot yeah so that

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is the flower marks the spot of the university of alberta like the u of a hospital so

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when you look at it it’s kind of well yeah it’s south of the river and

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and then you can see all the little white parts that are connecting and leading up into

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it so in the next next slide right you’ll you’ll see that the wild

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rose the stems and that are connecting with the white the white beaded areas and those are the

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ghost rivers and ponds that are connecting right up with the north saskatchewan so it’s

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kind of commemorating um you know what happens in colonization and

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how the land changes right yeah oh that’s wonderful

Mapping

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okay and so this is another this is mapping as well so this is the first of the series and

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it was a project called whiskey script it was a whole exhibition that i created and this piece

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is called the carlton trail okay and it’s all about kind of the oriole

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storytelling that i remember from my grandfather telling me this story um well while he was drunk the transport

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of whiskey on the carlton trail so wow yeah so this runs from so when we’re

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going um so this would run actually there we have close-ups of these as well right so

Closeups

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this being the furthest um to the left

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so yeah in this in this piece i’m focusing on like the transport would be from fort

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winnipe fort garry which is now winnipeg to fort edmonton

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and so you can see that’s fort edmonton written in the in the yarn yeah and it’s a it’s a

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bias in height so it’s oh wow that’s that’s also like that that

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has a lot of symbolism doesn’t it with and why did you use the sash the sashes

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to mark the x’s oh we don’t we only have a close-up of one so i’m going to go back to this one

sashes

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so you have yeah the x’s are marked with sashes right yeah so it’s it’s really kind of

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storytelling that part of history that um when when my ancestors

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marked um these claims that the government gave them it’s called script there was a

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really a lot of loss um and that in some cases in instances

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they were signing for a sack of flour or a cask of whiskey or um a parcel of land

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whereas they you know there’s a whole bunch of history

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attached to that that it won’t get into because we’ll talk too much about that no that’s that’s very interesting though

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and and the fact that they’re traveling so this is by land yes

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why was can you explain i mean i’d love to hear

the carlton trail

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some of the stories i think everyone would so each one of

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the x’s marks all the stops that would be on the carlton trail right originally they traveled by the

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waterways right um john norris old man jack

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my great multiple great grandfather he was guided by his wife

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um which is mary coyote which she showed him the old indian trails and

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said this is a better way to transport so it was the first land bridge that

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they made and that was guided from one point to the next so how long would this take so

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your need um it from what i read through the history it would take

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probably about you know three months wow you know like it depends on the road

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right like they they didn’t have a road but um the knowledge was the old indian

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trails and they would originally go by foot and this one they had old red river carts so yeah

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yeah so so interesting it makes me think of this this silk trade

the sash

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yeah it is actually funny because i used um ribbons the red ribbon which is like

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the red river trail right no that kind of concept so there’s a lot of playfulness in the piece

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and with um the x as um you had asked earlier it’s actually the

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sash and the sash was known as a a way like the tool kit so you know to

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do repairs or yeah on their clothing and that sort of thing it would hold things you know so this is very integral

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to the culture itself yeah that’s why i asked because they so they would repair like you said repair

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their clothes they’d use it for carrying for it was how so the sash was that was the

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one that was worn around the waist correct uh yeah yeah yeah nowadays women

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wear it on their shoulders right right but it’s it was originally predominantly the man that used it as a

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as a belt as a toolkit as a you know way to repair things and yeah yeah

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okay uh so now this is this is your new body of work right

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yes so um in this one here i’m working with elder hazel mckinnon

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and um she’s giving me some teachings in the ojibwe language

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um sorry elder hazel’s from the sunny bay reservation up in manitoba okay

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and uh she’s giving me these 13 moon teachings which is based off of the fertility cycle

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okay yeah and this one here is i’m going to say it in ojibwe

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jesus which means the freezing moon and this is in october okay and so so

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when you say it’s a fertility cycle so um the freezing moon and i love the

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northern lights that’s beautifully done by the way but um it was so how how was this used

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so in the in the context of the 13 moon cycle so it’s like the women’s um

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it’s like a full year but it’s the women’s cycle which is on the 13 months every 28 days

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we have a cycle so that’s why i’m saying it’s the fertility it okay represents the women okay

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yeah and you know initially when i look at it it looks i don’t see the moose right away

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i sweet i see like i feel like it’s an opening with water in a bay of some kind and then i

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and then all of a sudden he pops out so this piece he’s it’s a

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female um uh moose that is accepting a call so her mouth is open

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a little bit and um in the freezing month which is in october that’s when they

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meet um so usually if you’re a hunter you would go and hunt at that time and you could um

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do a call and you would find a mousse okay so so disease to the pieces so if we go

the study

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on so they each this oh this is that piece so that was the study for this one

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that’s great yeah so i’ve been i’ve done a whole bunch of watercolor pieces and this is now the next stage

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and it takes a long time to stitch them out but um around the moose it’s like the

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frost and then there’s the big dipper and it’s that time of the year how the big dipper sits and the

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polaris star so there’s a lot of a lot of research and it’s reflecting the landscape so the animal

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silhouette is stitched out of the time and the season and the moon mimics that as well

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and and in the center in the moon you have trees right yes so

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the trees are um yeah it’s just kind of mimicking some of the like a silhouette inside of

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the moon or the moose right and it’s on you said it’s on hide as

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well yeah so um it will be stitched it’s actually maybe not going to look like i kind of

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staged it a little bit i have to okay stitch it on there so it’s just kind of as a prop up to see kind of what it

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would look like okay oh there we go now we can see a detail

the moon

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on that moon yeah that’s and this is and the that is uh

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done with stitching as well yeah so this is um using like terminology of paint

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and thread painting and yarn so um you know it’s just kind of basically

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taking what i’ve done previously with the um carlton trail and turning these into

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art quilts and using other mediums so okay it’s beautiful i love

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when you see it up close the the detail in the in the stars yeah

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yeah and then oh and there’s a little bit of beads in there as well it’s hard to see that in the slide but

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they’re um little stitched beads so for that

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okay and this is this is the study for another right yes so this one here

the spirit moon

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um is called mindo jesus and this is called the spirit moon in january

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and um i actually have it stitched out if you would like to see

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yeah definitely you know what though um i i don’t know that uh that we can see you

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because the the um in the chat the the person that said that they could

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see you can’t see you anymore so i’m worried oh yeah oh that is very

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frustrating i’m sorry i no no it’s okay but if you want if you want to try clicking on that button

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again the you know which one i’m i’m referring to right the up on your top the toolbar there’s a

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blue um you can if you scroll over it it’ll say turn video on or off

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it’s true there you are oh my gosh it’s so ridiculous i’m sorry i’m not at

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all technologically advanced at all but here’s

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oh yeah here’s the piece oh wow so as you can see it’s it’s a

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little different than the painting i i kind of when that when i showed you that one it’s kind of got a little

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smudgy so i thought this was nicer because then you can see more of the stitches so beautiful

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so and this one here you’re getting a bit of a sneak peek it’s actually going to be shown uh in

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march of next year at the mcmullen gallery so cool yeah sorry very excited to

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uh you you all get a sneak peek oh yeah so so there will be the 13

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pieces yes and there’s sorry will you include the studies as well as the

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um the finished works or no you don’t usually do that i

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i don’t know i i have to think on that i have so much work though i i’m making

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a i’m beating a giant giant turtle right now which i i’d show you but it’s awkward to even

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show you on the screen and yeah it’s a kind of a 2d relief

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um turtle and it’s so big i’m i’m not i’m thinking i might not have

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room so would it would it show with this show as well

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yes yes wow oh good and so the placement of this when you’re when you’re placing it in

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the gallery do you place it according to the cycle of the moon like is there a play on all of that as well

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i haven’t figured all that out yet um i still have have meetings with them i i

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thought it would be kind of cool to show them in a circle but i’m not sure if that’s gonna happen or not so

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um so i have a few comments that i’ll share with you uh chris miller says hooray great to see you

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heather uh and angela says the same absolutely gorgeous

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and um sarah says who leia says such a beautiful piece heather lovely to see

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you in your work

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i’m excited for this exhibition i hope that they place it in in that in that and honor that cycle that you’re

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referring to yeah so this is a really i don’t

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i have one of their moons done but on monday jesus which is the sucker moon

sucker moon

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in april and it’s where the the sacrament goes back to the spirit wall so it swims

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back to the spirit world and i can’t say any more than that

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because i’m not supposed to tell the full story because the thunderbirds are around

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there’s there’s interest there’s a time there’s a time speaking of these oral okay storytelling happens in the winter

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time okay and and when you say uh jesus that’s moon jesus’s moon yes

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okay did you want to see the sucker moon yeah okay so here is

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i hope you can see it okay yeah that’s the sucker moon and the detail i’ll bring it close so

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you can see like so where is there oh that’s so beautiful

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so you feed it into that as well no beets this uh i might add beads later i

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haven’t decided that or not yet but this is a a really shiny swimsuit like

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material so they thought it looked like fish so i

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loved it actually that’s the question do you do you um repurpose things in your works like do

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you you do yeah i do that good um i i do that a lot

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because uh it’s part of that mean philosophy and when i’m teaching the children or when

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i’m talking about my work i talk about um the waste in our world reduce reuse recycle

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and you know that that hidden on the layer message of protecting our environment or

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giving that artistic knowledge that we need to be mindful of our resources so yes

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absolutely yeah it all it all plays into it so now this this hair uh what’s the

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significance of the berries on him so this is um

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called odomen jesus which is the strawberry moon in june which is this month yeah

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and uh my uh so that it’s funny because

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the um wapu switches uh hair would eat the strawberries

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and it would look like a murderous animal right when they eat it they’re like

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it like comes down on their mouth and it gets all red and it’s quite

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quite funny that hair in the back alley meanwhile they’re just munching on strawberries which is

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it’s really interesting they’re um they’ll eat the entire plant

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and and it’s kind of interesting because it’s really like for us ourselves we can use the

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entire plant for many different things so i thought it was kind of interesting to echo that

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yeah so i have a strawberry moon i’ve been working on it getting ready for this moon

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which here is the piece oh wow and it’s kind of fun because um

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it’s it’s really big because it’s the super moon so that’s actually in two

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days so oh watch out for it so can you speak of that of this moon in

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its period or no it’s all only in the winter months um i can tell you because this is common

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knowledge that it is the super moon and and it’s just the where the earth is

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closer to the moon so it just kind of appears you know so much bigger and it’s just

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it’s quite special to see it so if you can see it around midnight um

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i believe it’s on thursday check it out okay yeah i will

falling leaves moon

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so this is jesus now my apologies if we have any ojibwe

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people that have tuned in if i’ve said it wrong my apologies and hazel too she’s

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listening in this is the falling leaves moon it’s in

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september and i haven’t built this one but i have some really fun things that i’m gonna

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gonna do with that piece i can imagine so so um you’re always reflecting

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the animal in the moon the animal spirit in the moon so this i’m assuming this one will be

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sorry go ahead so in this one here it’s just that reflection of the landscape and

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what happens in the in the land at that time and you know i kind of thought you know children’s going back to school the owl

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sort of seems appropriate the owl is made out of leaves that are

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colored you know again it echoes back that special time in the year where

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you know the the earth is okinawa which means mother earth is going to

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sleep so getting ready oh so is is the the wispiness around the moon is that is

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that mother earth like is that the hair is that a suggestion of her in that sense or

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yeah yeah so i was thinking you know i kind of liked the design part where the leaves were just kind of going

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off and then the same thing with the moon that it was just the wind was blowing so it’s it’s more

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about the wind yeah it really comes across that way yeah

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that’s beautiful and i i wonder like i love the northern lights and you have so much of that

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suggestion and the work in the especially the fall pieces and winter pieces and i’m

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i do you think you’ll be able to will you incorporate that in in the piece as well yeah because i’m

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using a lot of black fabric so when i’m painting on it i’m finding that you know i like to i can’t just stick

35:01

with one color i always got to add other uh colors to it so it it’s it’s going to be added a little

35:08

bit in there like little suggestions of other colors because you know it’s it kind of looks like galaxies

35:17

it really does yeah you can you can almost move through the piece and in certain areas um i have a comment

35:24

from darlene bailey i love your organic shapes of your pieces oh thank you

grade markers bison

35:36

so in this piece it was uh grade markers bison it’s part of a grade marker series okay

35:45

and uh you know when you go to a grave site you see a portrait of the

35:51

person and then you have the text that’s below them that talks about their life or a poem or

35:57

something about them right um i felt that the the bison had like a story and it’s the

36:04

land story of where they they live what they eat off of and that and so that’s what the collar is around

36:11

the animal okay so that would have been the areas those would have been the the the plants

36:19

that they would have grazed on yeah like that they they would have walked all over

36:25

different parts of the prairies so these are all prairie flowers so you know they eat probably the the um

36:33

fireweed um you know tiger lilies and i don’t know if they eat all of those

36:38

ones but i kind of saw it more like the land story i don’t know what the animal would

36:44

see what they might eat um that kind of thing so okay

grave markers series

36:52

and these are just little details of the um the grave markers series and uh

37:01

fourth for different so was it only the bison no you had several in that series yeah so on the

37:08

top left we’ve got that’s just a little close-up of gray markers mousse

37:13

on the bottom is like to the bottom of that the leaves and that that there is

37:19

uh the fox and then on the right hand side is the bear okay

37:27

and these are all like what i should point out on the moose one the the tree part is

37:34

painted but the rest of it is not painted this is all beads machine embroidery

37:42

and experimenting with thread painting as well

37:48

okay now this this one i was going to ask you um you traveled abroad and you learned

indigenous practices with plants

37:56

about different indigenous practices with plants and so was this series before

38:03

that that trip or was it after because you went on a cut a few

38:09

trips right where yeah so i was invited a couple of

38:14

times um the first time i travel to um

38:19

argentina which is started off in buenos aires and i spoke at a conference with you know these

38:27

indigenous women and then i got a chance to travel with um the

38:32

mapuches with an anthropologist and and she toured me all around and

38:40

the more i looked at the plants the more i thought when back home we have this great

38:46

knowledge within our plants and it kind of rejuvenated this

38:51

want this need to incorporate those teachings on our own plants yeah so

38:59

excuse me they inspired me and uh they talked about lambda sustainability

39:05

so they were they were using plants for dying techniques they were harvesting plants for selling in the

39:12

markets or medicines so and they they also used it in in in their art in their artwork as well right

39:20

that’s right yeah and then there was another lady a wonderful lady the same year and this is

39:25

back in 2009. um i i got a second invite to go to paraguay and

39:31

um ono vencia riviera which is um a lady she’s um

39:38

part of the the

39:44

and she um it was really interesting because she spoke in her language and it was translated

39:52

twice so um when when i spoke in english

39:57

it went from the spanish translator to the indigenous language that she spoke

40:04

but then then she showed me all her baskets of medicines and then all of a sudden

40:09

we were communicating without the translators yeah we’re like we’re pulling it up and

40:14

smelling it and talking about how useful this one is and that and it was just

40:20

that’s so interesting so you’re so much lost in translation too right like semantics can really change

40:27

the feel of it but you were able to to communicate without

40:32

that do you want to talk about each of these

body of work

40:37

pieces sure if you like um so in each each one of these bodies of

40:42

work these are all at the art and rental sales right now um these ones are all inspired from the

40:48

kokum’s quilt um okay and earlier i called it kukum’s quilt but i wanted to call it the

40:55

kokum’s quilt because my mother corrected me that it was through our

41:00

my great-grandmother that was the true medicine woman which i’ve now been learning from my mom elder

41:08

uh shirley norris schilling okay i think you showed her slide earlier

41:13

correct yes okay i said the very yes at the very beginning so um yeah so she was talking about

41:22

agnes um harriet janveer piquette and

41:28

she’s the one the extraordinary woman that taught us a lot of the ethnobotany and

41:34

it’s been passed around from the matrilineal side so that’s where this work is coming from

41:40

you know from the experience from south america now coming back home and really focusing what’s happening here

41:49

yes it’s yeah very grounding that’s yeah very well said

41:54

yeah it’s i i always love that about traveling too you leave and you it’s such a great

41:59

education in that sense because you come back and and there’s there is an attachment to your own

42:05

your own sense of place yes so this in oh three sorry that’s all right

42:12

this one here is called uh buffalo in the stage and there’s a little toy

42:17

buffalo so there’s cowboys and indian toys that were gifted to me from the 1950s and it was very

42:24

appropriately given to me because it’s the 50s when

42:29

the crown reabsorbed the land from the look off indian reserve and up and up by primrose so you know

42:36

a lot of that landscape which is where my mother’s from um you know she would she would tell me

42:43

stories of her grandmother taking her on the wagon for harvesting in the summer so it’s

42:50

it’s stemmed off of those stories and these whole bodies of work that started with this and my

42:57

continuation of my practice now okay so the toys are symbolic of

43:03

what each one has a specific toy which is what is that what’s the message in that

43:09

so that’s again part of that mean method um in this one here the buffalo is hidden

43:17

in that landscape because this is the diet of the of the bison so

43:22

it’s just tucked in there so it’s it’s kind of a fun way of incorporating these things but also

43:28

kind of giving some additional knowledge so that it challenges the viewer to go back

43:34

and look into the piece and you engage within it and they start wondering why is it fuzzy

43:41

and why is she using yarn in it because the plant has little hairs in it and then there’s all

43:46

these little toys what’s with the bi what’s with the bison in there why is it in there

43:52

so okay and the previous slide which i didn’t tell you the title of that one

roping dandelions

43:58

here so that one’s called roping dandelions and there’s a little toy horse in the center of the piece

44:04

yeah i can see him and i thought it was appropriate because

44:10

um you know everybody doesn’t like the dandelions they pour lots of pesticides

44:16

and or sorry herbicides on it and you know it’s really um sad because

44:22

you can utilize the entire plant it’s very medicinal it’s very useful and it’s

44:27

delicious so you know so what would you use it for like do you do you use it often well it’s

44:35

it’s something that yeah you can use the flowers you can cut them up and put them in your

44:41

in your fried eggs that’s what i do oh it’s like a vegetable right yeah and you

44:47

know you can make dandelion wine out of the roots and you know the the leaves if you pick

44:53

them young enough you can eat them in your salad they’re quite tasty um okay and even the milk from the stem

45:01

you can use that on ones and stuff however i tell you all this but you have to be cautious and you have

45:08

to ask an elder’s permission or a usage of it because

45:13

because of our landscape that there’s so many changes within our land that if there’s contaminants in the

45:20

soil it can affect you so right and and the roping is you can’t

45:25

really rope at the handy line

45:30

so many people try but they can’t no no that’s so true

bear smelling flowers

45:38

okay and this one is so this one’s bear stop and smell the

45:44

flowers now i just i’m super thrilled like i did this body of work many years ago

45:51

but i’ve now actually individually painted them and brought them into the

45:57

gallery so even though i painted these many many years ago i reworked them because now i

46:04

i can see them better i don’t know what the clarity happens right yeah so there’s a little bear in there

46:12

in the flower smelling the flower and it’s such a beautifully odorous flower that

46:19

has been turned into like perfumes and that so it’s quite beautiful

46:30

oh this one’s interesting yeah so this one here is healing a family

healing a family

46:35

a ghost pipe um plant and it’s um it’s actually of the lichen family

46:42

and uh this piece here has a lot of tetris at the bottom of it

46:47

yeah and uh you know we were talking here a while back about

46:53

how uh you know healing the family there’s there’s liquor sticks along the bottom

46:59

of it um and that’s in the in the base of it and you know there’s alcoholism in my family and many others

47:06

and um we have to look at ways of healing ourselves and and this um type of lichen that is used

47:14

in special ceremonies for healing yeah and and i like the background and i

47:20

i mentioned this to you before it just it it looks like it makes me think of stained glass it

47:27

has that transparency to it that’s that i i i don’t know if you intend it or not

47:33

but it it adds to the the you know the thought process like what you were

47:39

saying about the piece with healing and yeah yeah i thought i thought

47:45

i really enjoyed that comment because you know the stained glass part of it is is very it mimics

47:53

the what everybody understands is going for healing in some ways and a lot of people do this as they go to the church

48:00

but our church is actually the landscape itself and yeah i find that very very

48:06

interesting and exciting that you see that yeah well i was i was actually reading

48:11

into i was thinking that you were suggesting like it was a reflection on the experiences and the

48:17

pain with residential schools and everything that happened and i was i was thinking along those lines but

48:22

that’s also what is so amazing about art like everywhere comes to it and you give them

48:28

bits of information and then they see all of these things that that are you know fitting with the time

48:37

yeah residential school is on a lot of people’s minds and you know there’s a lot of family that

48:42

have gone through that um and you know that does come up in my work i don’t

48:48

tell i don’t explain that specifically um just because it’s a it’s a very

48:55

it’s a very emotional thing to talk about um and it’s there it’s definitely there but

49:02

i don’t oh i don’t the older i get the more i talk a bit

49:08

about that and uh and it evolves throughout my time and my maturity of talking has my

49:14

artistic voice and you know i think i’m ready to highlight um that that subject matter because it

49:20

is something that is uh it’s very difficult to talk about through art and art can

49:25

convey those messages it can yeah and it needs to be heard as well yes it’s it’s it’s a hard thing

49:33

to process as an artist it’s a hard thing to explain but it has to be not forgotten and art can

49:40

you know harvest that knowledge and it’s um yeah important work it is it’s

cow parsnip

49:46

it’s so wonderful in that way isn’t it and these are very interesting they’re

49:53

very they’re big yeah so these are like four foot square paint panels

49:59

and uh this one here is called all zipped up medicine and cows parsnip so the plant

50:07

is cow parsnip and it’s a huge plant yeah that’s that’s that’s what i

50:12

was yeah i was thinking so how how tall did these get like well when i was a kid i used to play

50:19

hide and seek in them and um because they’re tall they’re like

50:25

they can grow six to seven feet even like they’re they’re growing on the edge of a forest and they’re just

50:31

starting to sprout up right now um but um they are very tall and um

50:37

in this one here i said all zipped up because there’s zippers in

50:43

the piece so there’s yeah in this in the stem itself

50:48

and um in the center stem and in the side stems there’s actual zippers

50:55

because you kind of unzip the plant to get to the medicine so oh that’s so great

51:04

yeah so oh and i love tiger lilies they’re so beautiful so this one’s

move over tiger lily

51:11

called move over tiger lily and the ascension on

51:18

over and there’s that little cow yeah a little tiny cow and and it’s

51:25

actually being quite playful in that because it’s actually not healthy for the cat and the cattle to eat the plants so

51:32

i thought it was quite funny to put telling me how

51:38

don’t come near me so this is uh don’t shoot my star and

dont shoot my star

51:45

these were again part of the buffalo girl that was shown in uh um grand prairie and

51:53

uh yeah yeah now this is okay so i think we have a p oh there we

51:59

go now can you explain the the measuring tapes and rulers

52:05

and the significance of that like the way that it’s the way that it’s placed in the work

52:11

because they’re there there’s an exit to the left right yes yeah

52:19

so what happened here is um when i finished the piece and i hung it up

52:25

and then i’m like oh my husband says how come you didn’t finish this center panel to the middle in the left

52:33

and it was accidental it was totally accidental but i thought

52:39

it was funny because um it was the spot where they somebody shot it that’s what i thought

52:46

they were just off the target right and i thought it was kind of funny because when when you have like shooting

52:52

games they’re like little tiny stars that you’re supposed to aim at right so i was thinking about that but also the idea is that you know

53:01

um preserve these plants they’re important um and the measuring tapes is like

53:08

and there’s all sorts of measure all around there it’s like do i measure up to my ancestors what am i doing to preserve their their

53:16

memory and you know i’m trying to make that connection with my nikolas and kokoms so these are

53:24

individual panels you said then they’re how big are they so the they’re uh

53:31

24 by 24 inch square individuals and yeah okay so it’s six

53:38

feet square um however now they’ve gone off to their certain

53:44

collections some of the pieces in there have gone off to other collectors and they’ve bought individuals so i’m now

53:50

i’m starting to distribute them individually wow that’s i’ve i mean i would have wanted

53:58

to see that stay together just because the the impact of it is really fantastic together isn’t it but

54:04

standing alone so this one is that’s standing alone uh yes so um i’m not that one

good homes

54:12

but um there’s a a few of my friends and colleagues that have bought some of the pieces out of these

54:18

collections and i thought it was really exciting that they’re going to good homes absolutely yeah and

art gallery

54:26

this one here is earth air wind and water um and some of these pieces are

54:33

um going off to the art gallery in st albert so um

54:39

yeah so i thought it was kind of interesting and part of these works where i used a lot

54:45

of stitchery and beadwork into the into little hides in that and and then it kind of

54:50

evolved from a body of work called seeds from the past and uh a lot of those pieces had ended

54:58

up in going into collections with the roles and company gallery in edmonton here

55:03

where she sells a lot of my work as well okay and these ones are also they’re sold

Claire Kim

55:10

individually yes yes so they’re so this one here

55:15

you know might stay in threes and they might go individually i’m not exactly sure how we’re going to do that yet

55:22

but okay uh claire kim says i love these piece

Grandmother Moon

55:29

these pieces it’s so beautiful oh thank you yeah they are

55:37

so that’s it as well this one’s called grandfather son grandmother moon

55:42

and in this one here i started to learn a bit about the moon and the moon cycle

55:49

and the importance that it is to women so it’s that progression you know from

55:56

you know 2016 to now and kind of working within you know chewing on the theorems and

56:02

chewing on the philosophies and then you know now working with an elder hazel

56:07

and my mother as well she’s teaching me the turtle island [Music]

56:13

um okay so this um [Music]

Buffalo Bean

56:19

i have a question from claire and she’s asking on this piece is there a reason why the top middle one

56:25

is not a diamond because all the others are sitting they’re not square

56:30

they’re they’re sitting the orientation is different and so was

56:37

there a reason for that um you know it’s funny because

56:42

uh at the time when i was working on the piece it was purely accidental

56:48

again it’s one of those happy little accidents but i thought it was kind of cool because it’s the buffalo bean and i

56:55

thought it would be like the star of the show so i think that’s pretty cool that you picked up on that

57:00

oh that’s great great question hey

Yarrow

57:06

[Music] so this is a detail of wow that with the

57:14

bead work yeah so again that part of that seeds from the past where i started

57:20

to evolve the work into sewing and doing hand stitchery and

57:25

then incorporating them into backgrounds and this is more of a graphical version of it but um

57:31

that one’s yarrow the plants yeah that the tall one no different flower

57:38

it’s a really short one it’s really cute and well that can be bigger too um but uh

57:44

it is a very tiny flower and it’s uh the human band-aid so it’s a plant-based

57:51

date my mother taught me that i was thinking that it was the zipper plant

57:56

no it does look like the zipper plant but the leaves are different and the leaves are what you use as the

58:02

band-aid okay oh that’s so interesting just the medicinal quality of all of these plants

58:10

too that must have been um very interesting i’m sorry we have a minute and a half left i look oh my

58:15

goodness um it’s been it’s been too quick like this has been so interesting

58:20

um i have a comment from claire again she says she actually loves it like that heather

58:28

oh cool yeah so uh i’ll get through the next few so this

58:35

is a nice close-up of cocktails of the cattails yeah yeah cat tells you

Outro

58:42

can utilize the entire plant it’s amazing you can use it anywhere from diapers to

58:48

your you know so many uses to it and interesting thing

58:54

is that in uh the map it’s a spiritual plant for them as well so that’s in south

59:01

america that they utilize the plant as a sacred plant mimicking the same usages so i was

59:08

excited about that yeah yeah yeah um so we have 36 seconds left is there

59:15

anything you’d like to say in closing um sarah thanks you so much for sharing your knowledge with us today

59:21

um and they’re so thankful to have you at art rental and sales any last words before we sign off

59:31

which means many thanks and thank you so much for everybody that is tuned in

59:37

thank you so much for all of you guys that for sarah and you for helping me do this

59:43

event oh it’s been an absolute pleasure thank you and and enjoy the rest your day and thank

59:49

you everyone for joining us and have a lovely day bye now

59:58

bye

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